Poor chance! but hope is so firmly rooted in the heart of man! Moreover, there were two of us.

Indeed I declare (though it may seem improbable) if I sought to destroy all hope--if I wished to despair, I could not.
The collision of the frigate with the cetacean had occurred about eleven o'clock in the evening before.

I reckoned then we should have eight hours to swim before sunrise, an operation quite practicable if we relieved each other.

The sea, very calm, was in our favour.
Sometimes I tried to pierce the intense darkness that was only dispelled by the phosphorescence caused by our movements.

I watched the luminous waves that broke over my hand, whose mirror-like surface was spotted with silvery rings.