August), reassured as to the condition of the vessel, and the
wind favouring us, we were able to go to sea without further
hindrance.

After four days' calm sailing a strong north wind arose, which
drove us at uncommon speed in the right direction. We began to
think ourselves nearly at the end of our journey when, on 6th
August, the wind changed, and the storm began to rage with
unheard-of violence. On the 7th, a Wednesday, at half-past two in
the afternoon, we thought ourselves in imminent danger of death.
It was not the terrible force with which the vessel was hurled up
and down, entirely at the mercy of this sea monster, which
appeared now as a fathomless abyss, now as a steep mountain peak,
that filled me with mortal dread; my premonition of some terrible
crisis was aroused by the despondency of the crew, whose
malignant glances seemed superstitiously to point to us as the
cause of the threatening disaster. Ignorant of the trifling
occasion for the secrecy of our journey, the thought may have
occurred to them that our need of escape had arisen from
suspicious or even criminal circumstances. The captain himself
seemed, in his extreme distress, to regret having taken us on
board; for we had evidently brought him ill-luck on this familiar
passage--usually a rapid and uncomplicated one, especially in
summer. At this particular moment there raged, beside the tempest
on the water, a furious thunderstorm overhead, and Minna
expressed the fervent wish to be struck by lightning with me
rather than to sink, living, into the fearful flood. She even
begged me to bind her to me, so that we might not be parted as we
sank. Yet another night was spent amid these incessant terrors,
which only our extreme exhaustion helped to mitigate.