To him, methought, they cried out, as to a guardian being, and I
gathered from their broken accents, that it was he who had the empire
over the ocean and its powers, by which he had long protected the island
from shipwreck and invasion. They now give a loose to their moan, and
think themselves exposed without hopes of human or divine assistance.
While the people ran wild, and expressed all the different forms of
lamentation, methought a sable cloud overshadowed the whole land, and
covered its inhabitants with darkness: no glimpse of light appeared,
except one ray from heaven upon the place in which the heroine now
secluded herself from the world, with her eyes fixed on those abodes to
which her consort was ascended.[149] Methought, a long period of time
had passed away in mourning and in darkness, when a twilight began by
degrees to enlighten the hemisphere; and looking round me, I saw a boat
rowed towards the shore, in which sat a personage adorned with warlike
trophies, bearing on his left arm a shield, on which was engraven the
image of Victory, and in his right hand a branch of olive.
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