Gradually the scenes with which she was familiar faded from her view. The towers of Castle Cor and the far-distant battlements of Castle More sunk beneath the horizon, and she found herself, on turning, after taking a long, last, lingering look at these dear objects, to the scenes about her, that the vessel was moving before a steady breeze past the outermost rocky headland of the bay, and boldly entering the open sea. The sun was shining redly in the west, his broad, flaming disk on a level with the ocean, the top of every leaping wave of which he touched with fire: a dark cloud hung just above it, with lurid edges; and the whole aspect of the heavens was to her eye angry and menacing, and betokened a tempest. The yacht cut her way swiftly through the water, as if, so it seemed to her imagination, flying from the approaching storm, with every sail flung broad to the breeze, which, after the course was changed to the east on doubling the headland, blew directly aft. She cast her eyes along the decks, and saw that the most perfect quiet and order reigned throughout, and that every seaman was employed in some occupation of his craft, or stationed at his post ready to obey the orders of his officer. Now and then an old sailor would cast his eyes to windward, look a moment at the sun, then lift them to the sails, and, with an approving glance, again pursue his momentarily interrupted task. This trained coolness of men accustomed to meet the dangers of the deep, but whose very feelings were subdued and regulated by the stern discipline of their profession, reassured her; and when she saw the captain of the yacht carelessly lounging over the quarter-rail, chatting with his first lieutenant, and her uncle lying at his length on one of the luxurious couches calmly reading a book, all her fears vanished, and she watched the descent of the sun, which resembled a vast round shield of dead gold, into the sea, with a pleasure unalloyed by apprehension. Slowly and majestically it descended till half its orb was beneath the sea, which now no longer reflected fire, but grew black as ink up to its blood-red face. All at once it appeared as if dark lines had been drawn across its disk, as though traced by a pencil.