Connecticut western news., 1890-09-10
CANAAN CONN, WEDNESDAY,
fled forever from her home.


 wood with his attendants. Lightly she sprang on her horse, and then the cry was, '"To spur and awayw
 Bristol was the nearest port. The record does not say whether Machim chartered ship expressly for this voy- age, or engaged passage on one that was about to sail At any rate, the ship was there waiting, and set sail as soon as the lovers arrived She was very different from the ships we now use, and was what they called a galley. She had a very high bow and stern, towering far above the water and tapering toward the top. This made the galley look top heavy; but she was very broad at the water line and was deep qualities which made her sea- worthy.
 The cabin was a small, stuffy apart ment, without staterooms or berths. The beds were spread on the deck. The entire ship reeked with the smell of tar and pitch and of moldy biscuit and salt fish and spirits. But perhaps peo- pie who went to sea in those days had stronger stomachs than they have now; :; at any rate this was the only way they had of taking @ voyage; the ships slow and the comforts none. It was little consolation to those who were tossed in such a tub. as that to know that the stern was profusely decorated with gilded carvings or that rank tai low taper was ever burning before the picture of the Virgin Mary at one end of the cabin.
 The galley had three short masts and three sails on yards hoisted from the deck. and she had an abundance of long streamers. The captain and crew were coarse but picturesque figures, heavily bearded and brown with fight ing the rough sea. They knew the way to France or Holland or Spain, although rarely sailing as far as Spain; but of aught south of it they knew lit tie if anything, and absolutely nothing of what was westward. America had not yet been discovered and the At lantic was to them a vast, vague mys- tery.
 To the poor lady, flying from home and now for the first time on the sea, everything was so sad and strange and wild. Although they told her that in three or four days at farthest they hoped to land in sunny France, yet her heart was full of fears, and many time she longed to be once more safe in the home she had left behind. But the die was cast. Even if they had been willing to return for her sake the winds were now contrary, and there was nothing to do but to keep on.
 But it soon became a question wheth- CT they should be able even to reach storms, the wild month of October verging on winter, and the clumsy little galley was but ill fitted to battle with head winds and storms. It needed no barometer to tell the crew and passen- gers of the galley that heavy weather darted swiftly round the ship over the foaming crests, the stormy petrels fol lowed in the wake, and hour by hour the surges and angry green swelled higher and higher and tossed the little ship like an egg shell, now toward the leaden sky and now with swift rush into the watery abyss.
 Yes, it began to be a question at last not whether they should reach France, but whether they would ever again see land or make @ port.
 Day after day the galley scudded un- der rag of canvass before the furious, bowling northeaster, rolling her gun wales under and shipping tons of water that threatened to send her to the bot tom. Every timber creaked and groan- ed, and every man on board vowed candles to the virgin or promised to do penance at the first shrine to which he should come if only heaven would bring him safe to land. They had no charts of the regions toward which they were heading.
 One day through the mist the high coast of Spain was seen off Cape Finis- terre. Then they knew they were across the Bay of Biscay, and began to hope the fury of the storm might slacken. Never in all their experience had the bold captain and his pilots en- countered such weather But the storm continued, and still the galley sped southward, the winds grew warm CT and the skies more blue, but the wind held and the surges seemed high CT than ever. One of these surges swept off the captain and several of the crew.
 At last the wind moderated, and the sea began to grow more peaceful Every one was exhausted to the last degree; they knew not where they were, and their best navigator had been lost. While they were debating what course to take a sharp sighted old salt at the mast head shouted ''Land hop
 Every one sprang on deck. It was surprise to every one on board, for no one had ever seen nor ever heard of land in that quarter. Poor Anne d'Arfet crept out from her couch and, leaning on the arm of Roger, gazed wistfully at the gray form which rose like mist above the sea. A mass of clouds brooded over the summit of the lofty mountains, whteh. gradually took shape as the galley drifted toward this unknown land. Passing around @ long, lofty, rocky cape, the ship came under the tremendous precipices of this newly discovered coast, and her crew gazed amazed on the dense forests which grew to the waters edge and the cataracts which, as if from the clouds, dropped to the sea.
 But lovely and grand as was this sublime solitude, and pleasant as 1t