The oars were soon torn out of the hands of my men, and were dashed by the force of the waves further and further beyond our reach.

We ourselves, yielding to the resistless powers of nature, helplessly drifted over the surging billows of the lake toward your distant shore, which we already saw looming through the mist and foam.
Presently our boat turned round and round as in a giddy whirlpool; I know not whether it was upset, or whether I fell overboard.

In a vague terror of inevitable death I drifted on, till a wave cast me here, under the trees on your island." "Yes, island!" cried the fisherman; "a short time ago it was only a point of land; but now, since the forest-stream and the lake have become well-nigh bewitched, things are quite different with us." "I remarked something of the sort," said the priest, "as I crept along the shore in the dark, and hearing nothing but the uproar around me.

I at last perceived that a beaten foot-path disappeared just in the direction from which the sound proceeded.

I now saw the light in your cottage, and ventured hither, and I cannot sufficiently thank my heavenly Father that after preserving me from the waters, He has led me to such good and pious people as you are; and I feel this all the more, as I do not know whether I shall ever behold any other beings is this world, except those I now address." "What do you mean ?" asked the fisherman.
"Do you know then how long this commotion of the elements is to last ?" replied the holy man.