In this way they
became accomplices in his crime. By killing the albatross the Mariner
had offended the Spirit of the South Pole, who now followed the ship
"nine fathom deep" to make sure that vengeance was meted out to the
guilty man. As a sign of the Mariner's guilt the sailors fastened
about his neck the dead bird. The vessel was now in the Pacific Ocean.
On nearing the equator she was becalmed, and before long all the
sailors were dying of thirst. Suddenly a skeleton ship appeared in
sight, having on board Death and Life-in-Death. The two spectres were
throwing dice to see which should possess the doomed Mariner.
Life-in-Death won, and the Mariner was hers. If Death had won, his
life would soon have ended; as it was, existence for him was to
mean--for a time at least--life in the midst of the dead. No sooner
had the spectre bark shot by than his comrades, four times fifty living
men, dropped lifeless one by one. For seven days and seven nights he
suffered agonies from the curse in their stony eyes; but he could not
die, and he could not pray.
One day, while watching some water snakes at play, he was charmed with
their beauty and blessed them unawares--a sure sign that love for God's
lower creatures was springing up in his heart.
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