Chapter 17

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my Life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!

The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

WORDSWORTH.

Five minutes longer on the ice of the main channel, and we should have been
swept away. Even as we still sat looking at the frightful force of the
swift current, as well as the dim light of that clouded night would permit,
I saw Guert Ten Eyck's sleigh whirl past us; and, only a minute later,
Herman Mordaunt's followed; the poor, exhausted beasts struggling in the
harness for freedom, that they might swim for their lives. Anneke heard the
snorting of those wretched horses; but her unpractised eyes did not detect
them, immersed, as they were, in the current; nor had she recognised the
sleigh that whirled past us, as her father's. A little later, a fearful
shriek came from one of the fettered beasts; such a heart-piercing cry as
it is known the horse often gives. I said nothing on the subject, knowing
that love for her father was one of the great incentives which had aroused
my companion to exertion; and being unwilling to excite fears that were now
latent.

Two or three minutes of rest were all that circumstances permitted. I could
see that everything visible on the river, was in motion downwards; the
piles of ice on which we were placed, as well as the cakes that glanced by
us, in their quicker descent. Our own motion was slow, on account of the
mass which doubtless pressed on the shoals of the west side of the river;
as well as on account of the friction against the lateral fields of ice,
and occasionally against the shore. Still, we were in motion; and I felt
the necessity, on every account, of getting as soon as possible on the
western verge of our floating island, in order to profit by any favourable
occurrence that might offer.

Dear Anneke!--How admirably did she behave that fearful night! From the
moment she regained her entire consciousness, after I found her praying in
the bottom of the sleigh, down to that instant, she had been as little
of an encumbrance to my own efforts, as was at all possible. Reasonable,
resolute, compliant, and totally without any ill-timed exhibition
of womanly apprehension, she had done all she was desired to do
unhesitatingly, and with intelligence. In ascending that pile of ice, by
no means an easy task under any circumstances, we had acted in perfect
concert, every effort of mine being aided by one of her own, directed by my
advice and greater experience.

"God has not deserted us, dearest Anneke," I said, now that my companion's
strength