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CHAPTER  VII.
I   GO  TO   SEA  IN   THE   BRIG   COVENANT  OF   DYSART.
I CAME to myself in darkness, in great pain, bound hand
and foot, and deafened by many unfamiliar noises.
There sounded in my ears a roaring of water as of a
huge mill-dam; the thrashing of heavy sprays, the
thundering of the sails, and the shrill cries of seamen.
The whole world now heaved giddily up, and now rushed
giddily downward; and so sick and hurt was I in body,
and my mind so much confounded, that it took me a
long while, chasing my thoughts up and down, and ever
stunned again by a fresh stab of pain, to realise that I
must be lying somewhere bound in the belly of that
unlucky ship, and that the wind must have strengthened
to a gale. With the clear perception of my plight,
there fell upon me a blackness of despair, a horror of
remorse at my own folly, and a passion of anger at my
uncle, that once more bereft me of my senses.
When I returned again to life, the same uproar,
the same confused and violent movements, shook and
deafened me; and presently, to my other pains and dis-
tresses, there was added the sickness of an unused lands-
man on the sea. In that time of my adventurous youth,
I suffered many hardships; but none that was so crush-