And then for his own safety's sake he had joy
to see the shores, the woods, so nigh and within his grasp as they seemed,
and he laboured with all the might of hands and feet to reach with
swimming that nigh-seeming land.
But when he approached near, a horrid sound of a huge sea beating against
rocks informed him that here was no place for landing, nor any harbour for
man's resort, but through the weeds and the foam which the sea belched up
against the land he could dimly discover the rugged shore all bristled
with flints, and all that part of the coast one impending rock that seemed
impossible to climb, and the water all about so deep that not a sand was
there for any tired foot to rest upon, and every moment he feared lest
some wave more cruel than the rest should crush him against a cliff,
rendering worse than vain all his landing; and should he swim to seek a
more commodious haven farther on, he was fearful lest, weak and spent as
he was, the winds would force him back a long way off into the main, where
the terrible god Neptune, for wrath that he had so nearly escaped his
power, having gotten him again into his domain, would send out some great
whale (of which those seas breed a horrid number) to swallow him up alive;
with such malignity he still pursued him.
While these thoughts distracted him with diversity of dangers, one bigger
wave drove against a sharp rock his naked body, which it gashed and tore,
and wanted little of breaking all his bones, so rude was the shock.
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