The sea, the gray sea once more, where Yann was gently gliding alongits broad, trackless road, that leads the fishermen every year to theLand of Ice.

　　The day before, when they all had set off to the music of the oldhymns, there blew a brisk breeze from the south, and all the shipswith their outspread sails had dispersed like so many gulls; but thatbreeze had suddenly subsided, and speed had diminished; great fog-banks covered the watery surface.

　　Yann was perhaps quieter than usual. He said that the weather was toocalm, and appeared to excite himself, as if he would drive away somecare that weighed upon him. But he had nothing to do but be carriedserenely in the midst of serene things; only to breathe and lethimself live. On looking out, only the deep gray masses around couldbe seen; on listening, only silence.

　　Suddenly there was an almost imperceptible rumbling, which came frombelow, accompanied by a grinding sensation, as when a brake comes harddown on carriage wheels. The /Marie/ ceased all movement. They hadstruck. Where, and on what? Some bank off the English coast probably.

　　For since overnight they had been able to see nothing, with thosecurtains of mist.

　　The men ran and rushed about, their bustle contrasting strongly withthe sudden rigidity of their ship. How had the /Marie/ come to a stopin that spot? In the midst of that immensity of fluid in this dullweather, seeming to be almost without consistence, she had been seizedby some resistless immovable power hidden beneath the waves; she wastight in its grasp, and might perish there.

　　Who has not seen poor birds caught by their feet in the lime? At firstthey can scarcely believe they are caught; it changes nothing in theiraspect; but they soon are sure that they are held fast, and in dangerof never getting free again. And when they struggle to get free, andthe sticky stuff soils their wings and heads, they gradually assumethat pitiful look of a dumb creature in distress, about to die. Suchwas the case with the /Marie/. At first it did not seem much to beconcerned about; she certainly was careened a little on one side, butit was broad morning, and the weather was fair and calm; one had toknow such things by experience to become ............