He said that a
brother of his convent had written it and set it to music.
Thou that art above us,
Around us, beneath us,
Thou who art within us,
Save us on this sea!
Out of danger,
Teach us how we may
Serve thee acceptably!
Teach us how we may
Crown ourselves, crowning Thee!
Beltran the cook's voice was the best, and after him
Sancho, and then a sailor with a great bass, William the
Irishman. Fray Ignatio sang like a good monk, and Pedro
Gutierrez like a troubadour of no great weight. The Admiral
sang with a powerful and what had once been a sweet
voice. Currents and eddies of sweetness marked it still.
All sang and it made together a great and pleasurable
sound, rolling over the sea to the _Pinta_ and the Nina, and
so their singing, somewhat less in volume, came to us. All
grew dusk, the ships were bat wings sailing low; out sprang
the star to which the needle no longer pointed. The great
star Venus hung in the west like the lantern of some ghostly
air ship, very vast.
Thou that art above us,
Around us, beneath us,
Thou that art within us,
Save us on this sea!
CHAPTER XIV
WE were a long, long way from Spain. A flight of
birds went over us. They were flying too high for
distinguishing, but we did not hold them to be sea
birds. We sounded, but the lead touched no bottom.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126