We set sail with a fair wind, and I thought never to set face on Leah
again. But fate had ordered otherwise.

We had gone twenty miles with a good wind in our quarter, by which we
were borne gently from wave to wave, when all of a sudden there fell a
dead calm.

These rapid changes are common enough in the Adriatic, especially in the
part we were in.

The calm lasted but a short time, and a stiff wind from the
west-north-west began to blow, with the result that the sea became very
rough, and I was very ill.

At midnight the storm had become dangerous. The captain told me that if
we persisted in going in the wind's eye we should be wrecked, and that
the only thing to be done was to return to Ancona.

In less than three hours we made the harbour, and the officer of the
guard having recognized me kindly allowed me to land.

While I was talking to the officer the sailors took my trunks, and
carried them to my old lodgings without waiting to ask my leave.

I was vexed. I wanted to avoid Leah, and I had intended to sleep at the
nearest inn. However, there was no help for it. When I arrived the Jew
got up, and said he was delighted to see me again.

It was past three o'clock in the morning, and I felt very ill, so I said