7. The Inchcape Bell

More than a hundred years ago there was a great and dangerous rock called the Inchcape Rock in the North Sea. Its top was hidden just below the surface of the waves so that many vessels struck upon it and sank. A kind-hearted priest called an abbot said: “I will chain a bell to the rock, and the bell will float to and fro in the shallow water and warn the sailors of their danger.” Loud and clear this bell rang out, and the sailors blessed the abbot for his kindness. But one calm, summer day a ship with a black flag sailed that way. It belonged to Ralph the Rover, a sea-robber, and he and his ship were the terror of the sea. Ralph saw the bell and said to his boatmen, “Row me to the Inchcape Rock, and we will play a trick on the old abbot.” Being rowed to the rock he cut the warning bell from the float, and the bell sank with a gurgling sound. “The next who comes to this rock will not bless the abbot,” laughed the robber as he sailed away. Many days he sailed the seas and grew rich with the ships he plundered. At last he sailed back home, and in the storm and fog he longed for the sound of the Inchcape Bell to tell him where he was. Then his vessel struck with a fearful crash on the Inchcape Rock, and as the waves rushed in on every side the abbot’s bell, ringing far down on the bottom of the sea, seemed to say, “The next who comes to this rock will not bless the abbot.”—Adapted from Robert Southey.