Only where in Christ's name are her crew ?" "Yes," said a third, "and how could she win through all the secret channels without a pilot ?" "What use would be a pilot," said a fourth, "if there are none to work the rudder and shift the sails?
Do I not know, who am of the trade ?" "At least she is coming straight to the quay," exclaimed a fifth, "though what sends her Satan alone knows, for the tide is slack and this wind would scarce move a sponge boat.

Stand by with the hawser, or she'll swing round and stave herself against the pier." So they talked, and all the while the great galley drifted onward with a slow, majestic motion, her decks hid in shadow, for a sail cut off the light of the low moon from them.

Presently, too, even this was gone, for the veil of cloud crept again over the moon's face, obscuring everything.
Then of a sudden a meteor blazed out in the sky, such a meteor as no living man had ever seen in Venice, for the size of it was that of the sun.

It seemed to rise out of the ocean to the east and to travel very slowly across the whole arc of the firmament till at last it burst with a terrible noise over the city and vanished.

While it shone, the light it gave was that of mid-day, only pale blue in colour, turning all it touched to a livid and unnatural white.
It showed the placid sea and fish leaping on its silver face half-a-mile or more away.