Again there is lively applause. Tannhauser springs to his feet, the old contemptuousness toward these companions,--compends of density, conventionality, and hypocrisy!--curving his lip. "Oh, Walther, singing as you have done, how direly have you misrepresented love! Through such languors and timidities as you describe, the world would unmistakably go dry! To the glory of G.o.d in his exalted distance, gaze at the heavens, gaze at its stars. Pay tribute of worship to such marvels, because they pa.s.s your comprehension. But that which lends itself to human touches, which lies near to your heart and senses, that which, formed of the same clay as yourselves, in a softer shape nestles against your side, the tribute called for by that is hearty pleasure of love. Enjoyment, I say, is the essence of love!"
At this, which falls upon all ears present with the effect of rank blasphemy, Biterolf rises in wrath. "Out, out, to fight against us all. Who could be silent hearing you? If your arrogance will vouchsafe to listen, hear, slanderer, me too! When high love inspires me, it steels my weapons with courage; to save it from indignity proudly would I pour forth my last blood. For the honour of women and of lofty virtue I unsheathe my knightly sword,--but that which your youth is pleased to call pleasure is cheap enough and worth no single blow!" The audience cheer him enthusiastically: "Hail, Biterolf, our good blade!" Tannhauser can no longer contain himself.
It is now again quite as it used to be, when never could he live at peace with these purblind tortoises, dull of wit to the point of amazement, and yet pretending to p.r.o.nounce upon things, pa.s.s judgment upon others. What can there be but warfare forever between him and them? But that Biterolf, this war-worn, middle-aged, rugged minstrel should take it upon himself to instruct Heinrich Tannhauser, pupil of Venus, in matters of love! His retort comes quick, from the shoulder, so to speak, though the form is not dropped of fitting his words to chords of the peaceful harp: "Ha, fond braggart, Biterolf! Is it you, singing about love, grim wolf? But you can hardly have meant that which I hold worthy to be enjoyed. What, you poverty-stricken wight--what pleasure of love may have fallen to your share? Not rich in love your life has been! And such joys as may have sprouted along your path, indeed, were hardly worthy of a blow!"--"Let him not be allowed to finish! Forbid his insolence!" cry the incensed n.o.bles, who had suffered Biterolf"s personal attack, but find insufferable this of the over-splendid, over-bearing, over-confident youth. Biterolf"s sword has leaped from its scabbard. The Landgrave orders it back. "Preserve peace, you singers!"
A hush falls as Wolfram takes the floor again. He had sacrificed every selfish hope to serve both Elizabeth and Tannhauser, had employed himself to further their union. What now is happening is plainly terrible to him. His opinion of the friend has undergone in the last moments a grievous subversion. He has been wounded to the soul by the bold and profane tone of Tannhauser"s argument.
His sensibility detects an atmosphere of sin about this novel love"s advocate, and as a good and pious knight he is forced to array himself against the friend, to uphold Ideal Love in antagonism to the Carnal Love he has just heard exalted. "Oh, Heaven, hear my prayer and consecrate my song!" he sings, a pale flame informing his song, as, imaginably, his cheek and eye; "Let me see evil banished from this pure and n.o.ble circle! To you, Highest Love, let my song resound, inspired, to you that in angelic beauty have penetrated deep into my soul. As a messenger from Heaven do you appear to us; I follow from afar. You guide us toward the regions where immortally shines your star!"
Tannhauser, exasperated, reckless, frenzied with that temperamental need of his to dominate, that impatience of being lessoned, losing sight of all but one thing, that it shall be proved to them they can teach nothing about love to him, the lover of the very G.o.ddess of Love, seizes his harp, his sword in this duel, and breaks forth in his impa.s.sioned Praise of Venus,--the song we heard in the heart of her Hill, when he celebrated her at her own bidding, in conclusion begging so lamely for his dismissal. "To you, G.o.ddess of Love, shall my song resound! Loud shall your praises now be sung by me!
Your sweet beauty is the source of all that is beautiful, and every lovely miracle has its origin in you! He who aglow has enfolded you in his arms, he knows, and he alone, what love is! Oh, you poor-spirited, who have never tasted love, go,--to the Hill of Venus repair!"
The last words have the effect of a thunder-clap, in the consternation they produce. Tannhauser in the drunkenness of his pride had forgotten what this revelation would mean in the ears he trumpeted it to; in his long sojourn in the pagan underworld, where his moral judgment had become dulled and perverted, had forgotten, apparently, how the Christian world regarded such commerce with it as his words betrayed. That mysterious Horselberg looming in the distance was in popular thinking the very ante-chamber of h.e.l.l; its pleasures, paid in the world to come with eternal d.a.m.nation, were rewarded in this world with excommunication and death. One who had frequented it was sin-polluted, sin-drenched, he poisoned the air with sin.
All shrink back at his announcement as from a leper. The women flee precipitately from the contamination of his neighbourhood.
It is like a flight of gorgeous birds. The men"s instant and only thought is to immolate him, cleanse the earth of the inexpressible blot upon it that he is. "He has luxuriated in the pleasures of h.e.l.l! He has dwelled in the Hill of Venus! Abominable! Accursed!
Bathe your swords in his blood! Hurl him back into the fiery lake!"
Tannhauser stands with drawn sword facing their mult.i.tude. They are advancing toward him, his doom seems sealed,--when Elizabeth"s body is found interposed shield-wise between him and their swords.
Their hands are necessarily stayed. "What do we see?" their wondering question runs, "What? Elizabeth? The chaste virgin protecting the sinner?"--"Back!" the meek maiden commands with vigour enough at this pa.s.s, "or I shall not regard death! What are wounds from your swords beside the death-stroke I have received from him?" Tannhauser starts like one awakening. He had not thought of this aspect of his action; the pride relaxes suddenly that had stiffened him.
"Elizabeth!" her uncle argues with her, and the others add their voices to his, "What must I hear? How has your heart allowed itself to be stultified, that you should attempt to save from punishment the man who, added to all else, has so dreadfully betrayed you?"--"What does it matter about me?" she cries; "But he--his soul"s salvation!
Would you rob him of his soul"s eternal salvation?" He has cast away all chance of that, they affirm; never can he gain salvation.
The curse of Heaven is upon him, let him die in his sins! At their threatening approach, she spreads her arms resolutely before him.
She towers tall and white, she speaks with strange authority. "Back from him! Not you are his judges! Cruel ones, cast from you the barbarous sword, and give heed to the word of the stainless virgin!
Learn through me what is the will of G.o.d. The unhappy man whom a potent dreadful enchantment holds bound, what, shall he never come to Heaven through repentance and expiation in this world? You who are so strong in the pure faith, do you apprehend so ill the mind of the Most High? Would you take away the hope of the sinner?
State then what wrong he has done to you. Behold me, the maiden, whose blossom he shattered with a swift blow, me, who loved him to the depths of being, and whose heart he pierced with a jubilant laugh... I plead for him, I plead for his life! Let his feet be turned into the path of penitence. Let the courage be restored to him of the faith that for him too the Saviour died!" In a spasm of realisation and self-horror the unhappy Tannhauser hides his face and sinks to the earth. The angry lords have calmed under the Princess"s exhortation. They see in her an angel descended from Heaven to announce the holy will of G.o.d. Who could persist in violence after hearing the supplications of an angel?
Tannhauser has come at last completely to himself, to a clear vision, by light of that heavenly goodness, of what he has been, what he has done. Sapped of its pride, his spirit grovels helplessly in the lowest depths of abas.e.m.e.nt. "To lead the sinner to salvation, the G.o.d-sent came to me, but I, alas, to touch her impiously, I lifted upon her eyes of vice. Oh, Thou, far above the vale of earth, who didst send to me this angel of salvation, have mercy upon me who, ah! so deeply steeped in sin, did such ign.o.ble wrong to the mediatrix of Heaven!"
The Landgrave decides upon the course to be taken. An abominable crime has been committed; in hypocritical disguise the accursed son of sin has slipped into their midst. Among them he may not remain, the displeasure of Heaven already lowers upon this roof which too long has covered him. One road is open to the sinner, which, while rejecting him, the Landgrave points out--let him take advantage of it to his welfare! Numerous bands of penitents are starting from this region on pilgrimage to Rome for the great Pardon.
The older have left already; the younger are still gathering in the valley. Let Tannhauser join them, go with them to the Holy City, fall upon his knees and do penance for his sin. Let him cast himself before him who speaks the decrees of G.o.d upon earth, entreat his blessing, and never return if he fail to obtain it. For if their vengeance stay its hand at the prayer of an angel, their swords will not fail to reach him if he continue in his sin. The chant comes wafted from the distance of those younger pilgrims gathering for departure: "At the great feast of peace and pardon, humbly confess your sins. Blessed is the firm in faith, he may be absolved through contrition and penance."
A ray of hope illumines Tannhauser"s face. He starts up from his knees, and with a wild cry, "To Rome!" rushes forth from the Hall.
III
The story is taken up again when the valley all green and blossoming at our first sight of it has a.s.sumed melancholy autumn colours.
Wolfram walking at sunset comes upon Elizabeth prostrate in prayer at the foot of the road-side shrine. He watches her with eyes of profoundest compa.s.sion. "Full well did I know that I should find her here, as so often I find her, when in lonely wandering I descend from the wooded heights to the valley. With death in her heart from the blow dealt to her by him, outstretched in burning anguish, night and day she prays--Oh, eternal strength of a holy love!--for his redemption. She awaits the return of the pilgrims from Rome.
Already the leaves are falling, their home-coming is at hand. Is he among the pardoned? That is her question, that her continual prayer. Oh, if her wound is such as cannot be healed, yet let alleviation be vouchsafed to it!"
The chant dawns upon the distance of the returning pilgrims. Elizabeth rises to her feet, wan and worn and frail. "It is their song,--they are coming home!" To steady her poor, agitated, failing heart, she calls upon the saints and prays them to instruct her in her part, that she may fulfil it worthily.
The band of pilgrims comes in sight; they pa.s.s, as earlier, in front of the image of Mary, lifting their voices in an anthem of solemn joy. Elizabeth looks into the face of every one of them as they pa.s.s. They have defiled before her to the last. He is not among them.
They wind their way out of sight, their last Halleluyah dies.
Elizabeth falls at the Virgin"s feet, and, with the fervour of one who is praying for very life, prays for death. "All-powerful Virgin, hear my prayer! To thee, favoured among women, I appeal! I bow in the dust before thee, oh, take me from this earth! Make me pure and like to an angel, fit to enter thy blessed kingdom. If ever, possessed by a fond insanity, my heart was turned from thee; if ever a sinful desire, a worldly longing, took root in me,--with a thousand pains I have striven to kill it in my heart. But if I cannot wholly atone for that fault, do thou mercifully condescend to me, that I may with humble salutation approach thee, made worthy to become thy servant,--only to implore thine intercession rich in grace for his sin, only to implore thine intercession for his sin!" She is very woman to her last breath, the saint. She has failed on earth to gain the coveted sign of pardon for him,--his not returning with the others can only mean that he is not among the pardoned; it means perhaps even that he did not accomplish the pilgrimage at all.... She renounces him before Heaven, as if by that sacrifice to propitiate the powers above, and desires to be given entrance through death to that higher court where she still may intercede for him,--perhaps, when she is an angel, with better effect. She rises from prayer with the appearance of one upon whom already the hand of death is laid. Wolfram, who notes her feeble step and bloodless cheek, whose faithful heart understands all, solicitous for her, asks if be may not escort her home. Without speaking, by gentle gesture and shake of the head she declines, and he watches her solitary figure slowly ascending the path toward the castle, until it has disappeared from sight.
A mortal sadness is upon him, but a sadness mild as his nature. This poet can at the darkest pa.s.s still turn his sorrows into song. With song he now tries to administer to his oppressed heart consolation.
He feels softly along the strings of his harp. His thoughts are full of Elizabeth, his soul apprehends what journey her soul is preparing for. The terror of it, as well as the hope illumining the dark way, he sees symbolised in the surrounding darkening scene, over which now breaks the light of the evening star. "Like the premonition of death twilight envelops the land, enfolds the valley in a dusky garment. The soul, yearning for yonder heights, shrinks from the journey through night and terrors. Then do you appear, O loveliest among the stars! You shed your light afar. Your beloved beams cleave the nocturnal twilight, and benignly you show us the way out of the valley.... Oh, you, my sweetly-beaming evening star, whom I have ever greeted so gladly,--do you greet, when she rises past you, on her way from the vale of earth to become a blessed angel beyond the stars, do you greet her from the heart that has never failed in its truth to her!" A long time he continues sitting in the twilight valley, gazing at the setting star, making his harp express the emotions he has not the heart any more to formulate with his lips. It grows night, the evening star goes out.
A shape in ragged pilgrim"s-garb, supporting itself upon a pilgrim"s-staff, as if walking were scarcely possible without, from terrible weariness, approaches the minstrel. "I heard harp-chords,"
the tottering wayfarer speaks to himself; "How mournful they sounded!
Hardly might such music come from _her!_"--"Who are you, pilgrim, wandering thus alone?" Wolfram addresses the shadowy figure. "Who I am?" comes the reply, "And yet I know you well enough. You are Wolfram, that highly-accomplished minstrel!"--"Heinrich!" cries Wolfram, not to be mistaken in that mocking voice,--with the scorn of which is mingled so much wild bitterness that the hearer is made certain this pilgrim is returned under different conditions from all the rest. "Heinrich, you?... What brings you in this neighbourhood? Speak! Are you so bold as, unabsolved, to have let your feet take the road to this region?"--"Be without fear, my good minstrel, I am not come looking for you nor any of your tribe.
But I am looking for one who shall show me the road... the road which of old I found so easily!"--"What road do you mean?"--"The road to the Hill of Venus!" Wolfram recoils. "Do you know that road?" persists Heinrich. "Madman! Horror seizes me to hear you!"
the pious knight shudders; "Where have you been? Tell me, did you not go to Rome?"--"Speak not to me of Rome!"--"Were you not present at the holy festival?"--"Speak not of it to me!"--"Then you have not been?... Tell me, I conjure you!" The answer comes, after a dark pause, with an effect of boundless bitterness: "Aye, I too was in Rome!"--"Then speak! Tell me of it, unhappy man! I feel a vast compa.s.sion for you surging within my breast!" Tannhauser in the nigh darkness regards him for a moment with astonishment; he speaks more gently, moved in spite of himself by such gentleness.
"What is that you say, Wolfram? Are you not my enemy?"--"Never was I such--while I believed you pure of purpose! But speak, you went on the pilgrimage to Rome?"--"Well, then,--listen! You, Wolfram, shall hear all." Exhausted he drops on a projection of rock, but when Wolfram would seat himself beside him he waives him violently off. "Do not come near me! The place where I rest is accursed!...
Hear, then, Wolfram, hear!" He had started, he relates, on his pilgrimage to Rome with such pa.s.sion of repentance in his heart as never penitent felt before. An angel had shattered in him the pride of sin. For that angel"s sake he would do penance with the last humility, seek the salvation he had forfeited,--that the tears might be sweetened which angelic eyes had shed for him, sinner. The devotions, austerities, self-castigations of the other pilgrims had seemed to him all too light. When they trod the greensward, he chose flints and thorns; when they refreshed themselves at roadside springs, he absorbed instead the thirst-breeding heat of the sun; when they but prayed, he shed his blood to the praise of the Most High; when they turned into the shelter of Alpine sanctuaries, he made ice and snow his bed; with closed eyes--climax of self-denial!--with closed eyes, that he might not behold the wonder of them, he pa.s.sed unseeing through the lovely plains of Italy! All this because he wished to atone to the point of self-annihilation, that the tears might be sweetened of his angel. He had reached Rome, he had bowed praying upon the threshold of the holy place. Day had dawned, bells were pealing, heavenly anthems resounding. Then he through whom G.o.d manifests Himself to man had pa.s.sed through the kneeling crowd. He had given absolution, had promised grace, to thousands; thousands he had sent away rejoicing. Tannhauser had approached him, had knelt in the dust, had confessed the evil joys he had known, the terrible craving which no self-mortification had availed yet to quiet; he had cried to him, in agony, for deliverance from these burning fetters. And the one thus appealed to had p.r.o.nounced: "If you have shared in such evil pleasure, inflamed yourself at the fire of h.e.l.l, if you have sojourned in the Hill of Venus, to all eternity you are d.a.m.ned! Even as the staff in my hand can never more clothe itself with fresh green, even so can never out of the conflagration of h.e.l.l redemption blossom for you!" The pilgrim thus addressed had sunk to the earth, annihilated. Consciousness had forsaken him. When he awoke, it was night in the deserted square.
Sounds came from the distance of happy hymns of thanksgiving. A pa.s.sion of disgust had seized him for the pious songs; an icy horror of their lying promises of redemption. With wild steps he had fled,--drawn back to the place where such great joys, such ineffable delight, he had found of old upon _her_ warm breast. "To you, Venus, Lady,"--he cries out in a frenzy of loathing for what lies behind, and of longing to escape, "to you I am come back!--come back to your lovely night of enchantment! Descend will I to your court, where your beauty shall shine upon me forevermore!" Wolfram tries vainly to stop him. He will not be stopped,--all the more ardently he calls: "Oh, let me not seek in vain! How easily once did I find my way to you! You have heard that men curse me; now, sweetest G.o.ddess, guide me to yourself!... Ha!" he cries, in a moment, to Wolfram wrestling all unheeded to turn him from his deadly purpose, "Ha, do you not feel soft gusts of air?... Do you not smell exquisite odours?... Do you not hear jubilant music?" Rosy vapours are rolling near; dancing forms define themselves in the soft increasing glow.
Tannhauser madly calls them to him, while struggling to release himself from Wolfram"s obstinate hold. "It is the dancing rout of the nymphs! Come hither! Come hither, to pleasure and delight!
Oh, enchantment pervades all my senses, at beholding once more that rosy light of dawn! It is the magic realm of love, we are entering into the Hill of Venus!"--"Woe!" shudders Wolfram; "It is evil sorcery unfolding its insidious snares! It is h.e.l.l approaching at mad career!"
The radiant form of Venus appears in the midst of the rosy atmosphere, Venus holding out to the recreant knight her perfect arms. "Welcome, faithless man! Has the world condemned and rejected you? And do you, finding no mercy anywhere, come seeking love now in my arms?" Wolfram speaks exorcisms rapid and vigorous as he can, while Tannhauser stretches his hands toward the soft vision: "Oh, Venus, Lady, rich in forbearance! To you, to you I come!" With tenderest smiles she holds forth forgiveness. "Since you are returned to my threshold, your revolt shall be condoned. The well of joy shall gush for you forever, never shall you go from me again!" With the desperate cry: "All hope of Heaven is lost to me, I choose therefore the pleasures of h.e.l.l!" Tannhauser tears himself free from Wolfram.
Wolfram seizes him again, calling upon the help of the Almighty, not to be thrown off. The battle over Tannhauser is hot between Wolfram and Venus, this one calling him to her, that one physically holding him back, while the insensate man orders him off, tries to loose himself and rush to her. "Heinrich, one word--" Wolfram makes the last appeal; "One word and you are free! Oh, sinner though you be, you shall yet be saved. An angel prayed for you on earth; ere long, shedding benedictions, she will hover above you... Elizabeth!"
Tannhauser had violently wrested himself from Wolfram, but the name roots him to the spot. "Elizabeth!" It is as if to reach Venus now he must first thrust her aside. The spell of that name changes in an instant the current of his being; fills his eyes with a memory that blots out the riot of rose-faces and golden hair toward which all his desire had pitched him.
Moving torches spot the darkness of the road winding down from the Wartburg; voices are heard approaching, chanting a dirge. "Peace to the soul" the words come floating, "just escaped from the clay of the saintly sufferer!" Wolfram understands but to well. "Your angel pleads for you now before the throne of G.o.d. Her prayer is heard. Heinrich, you are saved!" With a cry of "Woe! Lost to me!"
the apparition vanishes of Venus and her train; the hill-side mysteriously engulfs them.
The torches flicker nearer, the singing becomes louder. "Do you hear it?" Wolfram asks of Tannhauser, who stands transfixed, corpse-like still and pale and staring. "I hear it!" he murmurs in a dying voice.
The funeral train, pilgrims, n.o.bles, minstrels, Landgrave, descend into the valley chanting their requiem. At a motion of Wolfram"s they set down the uncovered bier at the foot of the Virgin"s shrine.
In the torch-light they recognise the unhappy Tannhauser. Seized with pity at sight of his ravaged countenance, "Holy," they sing, "the pure one who now united to the host of Heaven stands before the Eternal. Blessed the sinner over whom she wept, for whom she now implores the salvation of Heaven!"
She lies outstretched, still and serene, all white beneath her white pall. She has saved him, after all,--by dying. Her dead body has barred his way back to Venus. The infinitely-tired and worn pilgrim, destroyed by the violence of his pa.s.sions good and bad, with faltering steps,--helped, in the faintness of death upon him, by Wolfram,--approaches the white bier. He sinks down beside it, giving up his proud soul in the so humble prayer: "Sainted Elizabeth, pray for me!"
And behold, a second band of pilgrims arriving from the Holy City announce a miracle: The dry staff in the Pope"s hand, which he had declared should sooner return to bloom than so black a sinner be forgiven, had in the night burst into leaf and blossom; and order had gone forth to proclaim the sign through all lands, that the forgiven sinner should learn of it. The company lift their voices in awe and exaltation: "Salvation and grace have been granted to the sinner! He has entered into the peace of the blessed!"
The warfare between soul and sense is presented by Wagner with singular fairness. The pilgrims" song is very beautiful, and beautiful is all the music of good in the opera of Tannhauser. The Venus-music is certainly equally beautiful; perhaps, to the superficial ear, is a little more beautiful still: the G.o.ddess"s own Call, penetrating, wonderful; the well-nigh irresistible song of the Sirens. The Bacchic dance, which stands we suppose for the animal element in love, the Satyr part in man, is hardly beautiful; yet the love-music as a whole, we can concede without difficulty, carries it over the sacred music in beauty of a sort, even as the G.o.ddess would have carried off the palm of beauty over the saint. The power of the music of good, as Wagner lets us see, lies just in the fact that it is good; the final victory of the saint in the fact that she is a saint, and that from a mysterious eternal bias of human nature man finally must prefer good. He has a soul, he cannot help himself; that, as we have seen, is the secret reason why Venus cannot forever completely content him, why the pale hand of the saint, beckoning him at the end of a penitential pilgrimage diversified with every sort of suffering, draws him still on and upward.
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
I
A Dutch sea-captain, so long before the date of the play that his story at the time of it is an old legend, finding himself baffled during a storm in his effort to double certain cape, swore a great oath that he would persist to the end of time. The Devil heard him and took him at his word. He was doomed eternally to sail the seas. But an angel of the Lord interposed, and obtained for him a condition of release: Every seven years he might land and woo a woman; if he could find one to love him faithfully until death, the curse upon him would be defeated, he would be saved.
The Ouverture paints a great storm at sea, and contrasts the two ships that are drawing toward the same bay of refuge in the coast, the phantom ship with its crew of ghosts and their sinister sea-cry, the common substantial other craft with its comfortable flesh-and-blood sailors.
As the curtain rises upon the turbulent sea and black weather, the Norwegian vessel has got safely within the haven. While the sailors furl sails, cast cables, the captain, Daland, comes ash.o.r.e and climbs upon a rock to study the landscape. He recognises the spot, seven miles from the harbour of home where his daughter Senta awaits his return, whom he had thought by this hour to be clasping in his arms. "But he who counts upon the wind," he philosophises, "is counting upon the mercy of Satan!" There is nothing to do but wait until the storm subsides. He returns on board, sends the tired crew below to rest after their long struggle with the storm, leaves the watch to the mate, and himself retires to the cabin. The mate, alone on deck, after going the round, seats himself at the helm.
The violence of the storm has somewhat diminished, the sky has lightened. To keep awake, he sings,--a love-song, ingenuous as sailors are; which does not however fulfil its purpose, for the singer, more and more oppressed with drowsiness, drops off before the last bar.
The storm once more gathers force, the sky darkens. A ship appears in the distance, with blood-red sails and black masts. It rapidly nears sh.o.r.e and noiselessly turns into the bay beside Daland"s. The anchor drops with a crash. The Norwegian mate starts, but, half-blind with sleep, discerning nothing to take alarm at, drops off again.
Without a sound the crew of the strange ship furl their sails and coil their ropes. The captain, singularly pale, black-bearded, in a black Spanish costume of long-past fashion, lands alone. It is he whom ballads call the Flying Dutchman. Seven years have pa.s.sed since he last touched land. His opportunity has returned, to reach out for salvation. He comes ash.o.r.e wearily, perfunctorily, without hope, or doubt but that the ocean will soon be receiving him back for continued desperate wanderings. "Your cruelty, proud ocean,"
he apostrophises it, "is variable, but my torment eternal! The salvation which I seek on land, never shall I find it. To you, floods of the boundless main, I shall be found faithful until your last wave break and your last moisture dry!
"How often--" he cries, as in fixed despair he gazes back over the past, "How often, filled with longing to die have I cast myself into the deepest abysses of the sea, but death, alas! I could not find! Against the reefs where ships find dreadful burial I have driven my ship, but it found no grave! Inciting him to rage, I have defied the pirate--I hoped to meet with death in fierce battle.
"Here," I have cried, "show your prowess! Full of treasure are ship and boat! But the wild son of the sea trembling hoisted the sign of the cross and fled. Nowhere a grave! Never to die! Such is the dreadful sentence of d.a.m.nation. Oh, tell me, gentle angel of G.o.d"s, who won for me the possibility of salvation, was I, wretch, the toy of your mockery when you showed me the means of redemption?