The next instant the
spell began to break: the albatross fell from his neck into the sea and
he could move his lips in prayer. He slept, and the Holy Mother sent
rain; and when he awoke the wind was blowing. A troop of angelic
spirits now entered the bodies of the dead sailors and worked the
ropes, and, obedient to the angels, the Spirit of the South Pole helped
the ship onward. As she sped on, the Mariner, who lay in a swoon,
learned from the talk of two spirits that his penance was not yet
accomplished. Soon after waking he beheld the shores of his native
country. As the vessel neared the land the angels left the bodies of
the sailors, and at the same time a small boat approached bringing a
pilot and his boy, and a pious hermit--all known to the Mariner.
Suddenly there was a dreadful sound, and the ship sank. On coming to
his senses the Mariner found himself in the pilot's boat. When the
hermit asked him, "What manner of man art thou?" his agony was fearful
until he had found relief in telling his experience. As a punishment
for his crime in shooting the albatross the agony was to return at
intervals and compel him to travel from land to land relating his
strange tale.
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