(The capital of Cyprus.)
(Montano, governor of Cyprus, and two officers.)
Montano.
What can you distinguish from the promontory in the sea?
1st Officer: Nothing but piled-up waves; I can’t see a single sail between the sky and the sea.
Montano. It seems to me the wind was very violent on land—a more violent storm has never shaken our battlements—if it raged just as violently at sea. What kind of ribs are oaks, when mountains melt down upon them, strong enough to hold themselves in their joints? What news will we hear of this?
2nd Officer: The dispersion of the Turkish fleet—Just stand on the foaming shore, the angry waves seem to spray you up into the clouds—One would think the storm-tossed wave was spraying water toward the burning bear and extinguishing the night lights of the sky—I have never seen such a raging storm in my life.
Montano.
If the Turkish fleet hasn’t been able to escape to some cove in time
, it is doomed—it is impossible
to endure this weather.
