A loud shriek was uttered by all on shore, and a volley of
execrations by those on board, but boat and man were hurried away
by the rushing swiftness of the tide. A pitchy darkness succeeded.
Wolfert Webber, indeed, fancied that he distinguished a cry for
help, and that he beheld the drowning man beckoning for assistance;
but when the lightning again gleamed along the water all was void;
neither man nor boat was to be seen,--nothing but the dashing and
weltering of the waves as they hurried past.
The company returned to the tavern to await the subsiding of the
storm. They resumed their seats and gazed on each other with
dismay. The whole transaction had not occupied five minutes, and
not a dozen words had been spoken. When they looked at the oaken
chair they could scarcely realize the fact that the strange being
who had so lately tenanted it, full of life and Herculean vigor,
should already be a corpse. There was the very glass he had just
drunk from; there lay the ashes from the pipe which he had smoked,
as it were, with his last breath. As the worthy burghers pondered
on these things, they felt a terrible conviction of the uncertainty
of existence, and each felt as if the ground on which he stood was
rendered less stable by his awful example.
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