With good reason, he was at length very nearly giving way to despair.
“Alas! unhappy spirit that I am,” he cried, “why did I look at that mortal maiden? Why do I long for what is beyond my reach? Why am I not content with the enjoyment proper to my own fierce nature? Alas! this new feeling overpowers me, and a delicate maiden has enslaved the mighty Borasco.” While he was speaking a sound reached his ears. He knew it well, for it was the summons to Neptune’s conclave. “Ah!” he exclaimed, “I will consult King Neptune, and ask his aid. If any one can help me, he can, to win the heart of that lovely damsel.
“And now my bold steed, with the white-flowing crest,
Come hither, come hither, arouse thee from rest.
Oh! what courser like thee can so rapidly bound,
When I mount thee to ride o’er the waters profound?
Then haste, my brave steed, again hie to me,
And together once more we will range o’er the sea.”
While he was uttering these words, a mighty wave rolled in towards the shore. Leaping on it, away he went over the ocean at a rapid rate, leaving in his track a line of glittering foam, till he reached the centre of the Atlantic, over the palace of Neptune—then down, down he descended, till he entered the gateway of its rocky halls.
Story 6--Chapter III.
King Neptune, in great state, sat on his throne; the Tritons stood before him, but the chief seats were empty. Waving his trident round his head, he spoke. The words were those which reached the ears of Borasco, then thousands of miles away:—
“Haste hither, wild Spirits,
Who wandering roam
The wide-rolling ocean,
When covered with foam.
Abandon your fierce work
Of death and dismay;
Haste, fly o’er the billows,
My mandate obey.
From where the north gales
So ragingly blow,
On whiten’d wing flying
From frost and from snow;
Ye, in the storm striving,
To swell the loud blast,
The helpless bark driving,
While shivers the mast,
When a shriek is heard sounding
Mid ocean’s wild roar,
And the doom’d bark is grounding
Upon the dark shore,
Haste hither, Sea Spirits,
I bid ye appear;
Haste, haste, at my call;
I summon ye here!”
Even while Neptune was speaking, troops of sea-monsters of every wonderful form, and of every colour, came rushing into the hall, and having made their obeisance to him, took their seats on their respective thrones. In they came, till the edifice, vast as it was, was almost full of them. There were the King of the Whales, the King of the Sharks, the King of the Porpoises, and the King of the Dolphins, the King of the Cat-fish, and the King of the Big Sea Serpents; the Kings of Ice and Snow, of Tempests and Whirlpools, and there were the guardian spirits of every headland and bay, and of every island and river in the universe; so that it is not surprising that their number should have been so considerable. Neptune then inquired in a loud voice how each had been occupied since the last convocation.