"  The  wind  has  been  high  since  sunrise,"  he  said,
"  and  had  kept  the  boats  in  the  bay  ;  but  now  it  was
favourable,  and  they  would  sail  immediately."


THE  PIRATE.  17

This  sTiddeii  alteration  of  the  weather  occasioned
sundry  nods  and  winks  amongst  the  guests,  who
were  not  indisposed  to  connect  it  with  Noma's  sud-
den disappearance ;  but  without  giving  vent  to  ob-
servations which  could  not  but  be  disagreeable  to
their  host,  they  followed  his  stately  step  to  the  shore,
as  the  herd  of  deer  follows  the  leading  stag,  with
all  manner  of  respectful  observance.^  (a)  2

1  Note  I.  • —  Fortune-telling  Rhymes.
^  See  Editor's  Notes  at  the  end  of  the  Volume.  Wherever  a
similar  reference  occurs,  the  reader  will  understand  that  the  same
direction  applies.
TOL.  II.  —  2


CHAPTEE  II.
There  was  a  laughing  devil  in  his  sneer,
That  raised  emotions  both  of  rage  and  fear ;
And  where  his  frown  of  hatred  darlcly  fell,
Hope  withering  fled  —  and  Mercy  sigh'd  farewell.
The  Corsair,  Canto  I.
The  ling  or  white  fishery  is  the  principal  employ-
ment of  the  natives  of  Zetland,  and  was  formerly
that  upon  which  the  gentry  chiefly  depended  for
their  income,  and  the  poor  for  their  subsistence.  The
fishing  season  is  therefore,  like  the  harvest  of  an
agricultural  country,  the  busiest  and  most  important,
as  well  as  the  most  animating,  period  of  the  year.
