Just then a huge sea broke on the deck. Panurge was too frightened even to look up. All the answer he could give to Friar John was, "Boo! boo! boo! boboo! The ship is capsized! I drown!"
A SEA BREAKS OVER PANURGE.
At that moment, Pantagruel's voice was heard even above the storm, so mighty was it in prayer: "Save us, good Lord, if it be Thy will." The Giant's prayer must have been heard. The thunder still crashed; the lightning still blazed; the rain still poured; but it was not half so bad as before. The sea still rose; but it rose in hills, not mountains, now. Pantagruel still stood, as he had from the first, with his arms clinging to the mainmast while he braced it up, and his eyes trying to pierce through the blackness. At last, just as the day broke, he shouted:—
"Land! land! My children, I see land! We are not far from port. I can see the sky clearing up southwards. Cheer up, all!"
James Brayer was at his side as quick as lightning.
LAND IN SIGHT.
"Up, lads!" he shouted. "Our prince sees land, and the sea is smoother. We can put out a trifle of sail. Hands aloft to the maintop! Mind your steerage; clear your sheets; port, port! Helm-a-lee! Steady, steady!" And steady it was, too. Before all eyes on the ship land was now to be seen in full sight, some twenty miles off. The sun was just beginning to shine a little. The sea was no longer mad. It was only sobbing, sobbing, sobbing, as though half-ashamed it had so troubled the good Giant who knew how to pray.
