The pilot: a tale of the sea. By J. Fenimore Cooper.

ltl fe ll orff tbefle the wind, when tile folds of her
sqat::'ail, though lim ite(l by a prludent reel'; x wee
opt.ened to the blasts, ald she shot: away friom her
c(omsortt like a meteor daneintr,; across the wtaves.
11lhe blac.k mss of the friiate's thuill soont sunk in
distancote, and 16o.t, before the stilun had fatlen below
tIec hills of En:land, hei' tall mai:sts were barely
distintruisltble Iby tihe small cloutl of sail that held
til vessel to her station. As t-he tillp tdisappeared, tthe tlanud seemed to issue out of thle bosom of
the (le)p, tand so raltid wras their p1)tro'rss, that the
dwellitg:s of' the gentry, the humbler cottages, and
evenl the ldim iles of tte Ite(gtes, becaite gradutally miore- (listinet to the eyes of the btold mallailte's,
until t;hey \ were beset with thte t;loomn of evenilnilg
slhenl the xwhole scene fta(led friom their view in
the (dark: etss of the htour leav i- only the faint
touttine of thle land vistible in t he tract: befire them,
and thi sclltn billow: s of the occan ragintg with alppltllin. viotl:ence in tlheir rear.
Still the little Ariel hel( on her Nl ay, slkimrl int g
the oceatt like a water-ttfowl seeking its pla:e of
nfightly rest, and shootitgt in towards lthe land as
Rfearlessly as ift the la'ngIers of thet precedin;g night
\ were already forgotten. No shoafs or rocks} appea'redl to arrest ]her coutse, ait we mst leavet
her gliding into tlte ldark streak that was thrown
fitomt the hi'th and rocky clif:n, that linted ta basin of
hold entrance, where the Inariners often sought
nlrtl ftlound a r'fue, fro thle angl s of the Ct'tIanl ()eean.