But clouds soon began to chase
each other through the heavens, and the sea became rough.
It was then that Clotelle felt that there was hoped of escaping.
She had hitherto kept in the cabin, but now she expressed a wish
to come on deck. The hanging clouds were narrowing the horizon
to a span, and gloomily mingling with the rising surges.
The old and grave-looking seamen shook their weather-wise
heads as if foretelling a storm.
As Clotelle came on deck, she strained her eyes in vain to catch
a farewell view of her native land. With a smile on her countenance,
but with her eyes filled with tears, she said,--
"Farewell, farewell to the land of my birth, and welcome, welcome, ye dark
blue waves. I care not where I go, so it is
'Where a tyrant never trod,
Where a slave was never known,
But where nature worships God,
If in the wilderness alone.'"
Devenant stood by her side, seeming proud of his future wife,
with his face in a glow at his success, while over his noble brow
clustering locks of glossy black hair were hanging in careless ringlets.
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