The sea jumped up like magic, and hurried before the lash of the
wind. Then, with a darkening swoop, came the snowstorm, hurled along on
wide wings; the last remnants of light fled; the vessel was shut in, and
the devoted company on board could only grope in the murk on deck. No
one would stay below, for the sudden, unexampled assault of the
hurricane had touched the nerve of the coolest.
I am told by one who was on a wide heath at the beginning of that
hurricane, that he was coated with solid ice from head to foot on the
windward side; his hair and beard were icicles; his spaniel cowered and
refused to move; and a splendid, strong horse, which was being driven
right in the teeth of the wind, suddenly put its nose to the ground, set
its forelegs wide apart, and refused to go on. Not far from the horse
was a great poplar, and this tree suddenly snapped like a stick of
macaroni; the horse started, whirled round, and galloped off with the
wind behind.
What must it have been at sea? Men durst not look to windward, for a
hard mass seemed to be thrust into nostrils and eyes, so that one was
forced to gasp and choke. As for the turmoil!--all Gravelotte, with half
a million men engaged, could not have made such a soul-quelling,
overmastering sound. Every capacity of sound, every possible discordant
vibration of the atmosphere was at work; and so, with bellow on bellow,
crash on crash, vast multitudinous shriek on shriek, that fateful
tempest went on.
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