Six days they feasted in spite of the signs of heaven, and on the seventh,
the wind changing, they set their sails and left the island; and their
hearts were cheerful with the banquets they had held; all but the heart of
Ulysses, which sank within him, as with wet eyes he beheld his friends,
and gave them for lost, as men devoted to divine vengeance. Which soon
overtook them; for they had not gone many leagues before a dreadful
tempest arose, which burst their cables; down came their mast, crushing
the skull of the pilot in its fall; off he fell from the stern into the
water, and the bark wanting his management drove along at the wind's
mercy; thunders roared, and terrible lightnings of Jove came down; first a
bolt struck Eurylochus, then another, and then another, till all the crew
were killed, and their bodies swam about like sea-mews; and the ship was
split in pieces. Only Ulysses survived; and he had no hope of safety but
in tying himself to the mast, where he sat riding upon the waves, like one
that in no extremity would yield to fortune. Nine days was he floating
about with all the motions of the sea, with no other support than the
slender mast under him, till the tenth night cast him, all spent and weary
with toil, upon the friendly shores of the island Ogygia.
[Illustration: _Nine days was he floating about with all the motions of
the sea_.]
CHAPTER FOUR
The Island of Calypso.--Immortality Refused.
Henceforth the adventures of the single Ulysses must be pursued.
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