top-gallant-sail; and so infectious was the awe and silence that the clew-lines and buntlines were hauled up without any singing out at the ropes.  An English lad and myself went up to furl it; and we had just got the bunt up, when the mate called out to us something, we did not hear what,—­ but, supposing it to be an order to bear-a-hand, we hurried and made all fast, and came down, feeling our way among the rigging.  When we got down we found all hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing, upon the main top-gallant mast-head, was a ball of light, which the sailors call a corposant (corpus sancti), and which the mate had called out to us to look at.  They were all watching it carefully, for sailors have a notion that if the corposant rises in the rigging it is a sign of fair weather, but if it comes lower down there will be a storm.  Unfortunately, as an omen, it came down, and showed itself on the top-gallant yard-arm.  We were off the yard in good season, for it is held a fatal sign to have the pale light of the corposant thrown upon one’s face.  As it was, the English lad did not feel comfortably at having had it so near him, and directly over his head.  In a few minutes it disappeared, and showed itself again on the fore top-gallant yard; and, after playing about for some time, disappeared once more, when the man on the forecastle pointed to it upon the flying-jib-boom-end.  But our attention was drawn from watching this, by the falling of some drops of rain, and by a perceptible increase of the darkness, which seemed suddenly to add a new shade of blackness to the night.  In a few minutes, low, grumbling thunder was heard, and some random flashes of lightning came from the southwest.  Every sail was taken in but the topsails; still, no squall appeared to be coming.  A few puffs lifted the topsails, but they fell again to the mast, and all was as still as ever.  A moment more, and a terrific flash and peal broke simultaneously upon us, and a cloud appeared to open directly over our heads, and let down the water in one body, like a falling ocean.  We stood motionless, and almost stupefied; yet nothing had been struck.  Peal after peal rattled over our heads, with a sound which seemed actually to stop the breath in the body, and the ``speedy gleams’’ kept the whole ocean in a glare of light.  The violent fall of rain lasted but a few minutes, and was followed by occasional drops and showers; but the lightning continued incessant for several hours, breaking the midnight darkness with irregular and blinding flashes.  During all this time there was not a breath stirring, and we lay motionless, like a mark to be shot at, probably the only object on the surface of the ocean for miles and miles.  We stood hour after hour, until our watch was out, and we were relieved, at four o’clock.  During all this time hardly a word was spoken; no bells were struck, and the wheel was silently relieved.  The rain fell at intervals in heavy showers, and we