When I reached the galley of which Charmion had spoken, I found herabout to sail, and gave the writing to the captain, who conned it,looking on me curiously, but said nothing.
So I went aboard, and immediately we dropped swiftly down the river withthe current. And having come to the mouth of the river unchallenged,though we passed many vessels, we put out to sea with a strong favouringwind that before night freshened to a great gale. Then the sailor men,being much afraid, would have put about and run for the mouth of Cydnusagain, but could not because of the wildness of the sea. All that nightit blew furiously, and by dawn our mast was carried away, and we rolledhelplessly in the trough of the great waves. But I sat wrapped in acloak, little heeding; and because I showed no fear the sailors criedout that I was a wizard, and sought to cast me into the sea, but thecaptain would not. At dawn the wind slackened, but ere noon it once moreblew in terrible fury, and at the fourth hour from noon we came in sightof the rocky coast of that cape in the island of Cyprus which is calledDinaretum, where is a mountain named Olympus, and thither-wards wedrifted swiftly. Then, when the sailors saw the terrible rocks, and howthe great waves that smote on them spouted up in foam, once more theygrew much afraid, and cried out in their fear. For, seeing that I stillsat unmoved, they swore that I certainly was a wizard, and came tocast me forth as a sacrifice to the Gods of the sea. And this time thecaptain was over-ruled, and said nothing. Therefore, when they came tome I rose and defied them, saying, "Cast me forth, if ye will; but if yecast me forth ye shall perish."
For in my heart I cared little, having no more any love of life,but rather a desire to die, though I greatly feared to pass into thepresence of my Holy Mother Isis. But my weariness and sorrow at thebitterness of my lot overcame even this heavy fear; so that when, beingmad as brute beasts, they seized me and, lifting me, hurled me into theraging waters, I did but utter one prayer to Isis and made ready fordeath. But it was fated that I should not die; for, when I rose to thesurface of the water, I saw a spar of wood floating near me, to which Iswam and clung. And a great wave came and swept me, riding, as it were,upon the spar, as when a boy I had learned to do in the waters of theNile, past the bulwarks of the galley where the fierce-faced sailorsclustered to see me drown. And when they saw me come mounted on thewave, cursing them as I came, and saw, too, that the colour of myface had changed--for the salt water had washed way the pigment, theyshrieked with fear and threw themselves down upon the deck. And within avery little while, as I rode toward the rocky coast, a great wave pouredinto the vessel, that rolled broadside on, and pressed her down into thedeep, whence she rose no more.
So she sank with all her crew. And in that same storm also sank thegalley which Cleopatra had sent to search for the Syrian merchant. Thusall traces of me were lost, and of a surety she believed that I wasdead.
But I rode on toward the shore. The wind shrieked and the salt waveslashed my face as, alone with the tempest, I rushed upon my way, whilethe sea-birds screamed about my head. I felt no fear, but rather a wilduplifting of the heart; and in the stress of my imminent peril the loveof life seemed to waken again. And so I plunged and drifted, now tossedhigh toward the lowering clouds, now cast into the deep valleys of thesea, till at length the rocky headland loomed before me, and I saw thebreakers smite upon the stubborn rocks, and through the screaming ofthe wind heard the sullen thunder of their fall and the groan of stonessucked seaward from the beach. On! high-throned upon the mane of amighty billow--fifty cubits beneath me the level of the hissing waters;above me the inky sky! It was done! The spar was torn from me, and,dragged downwards by the weight of the bag of gold and the clinging ofmy garments, I sank struggling furiously.
Now I was under--the green light for a moment streamed through thewaters, and then came darkness, and on the darkness pictures of thepast. Picture after picture--all the long scene of life was writtenhere. Then in my ears I only heard the song of the nightingale, themurmur of the summer sea, and the music of Cleopatra's laugh of victory,following me softly and yet more soft as I sank away to sleep.
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