Silently obeying the order, the three harpooneers now stood with the detached iron part of their harpoons, some three feet long, held, barbs up, before him.

“Stab me not with that keen steel!  Cant them; cant them over! know ye not the goblet end?  Turn up the socket!  So, so; now, ye cup-bearers, advance.  The irons! take them; hold them while I fill!” Forthwith, slowly going from one officer to the other, he brimmed the harpoon sockets with the fiery waters from the pewter.

“Now, three to three, ye stand.  Commend the murderous chalices!  Bestow them, ye who are now made parties to this indissoluble league.  Ha!  Starbuck! but the deed is done!  Yon ratifying sun now waits to sit upon it.  Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat’s bow—­ Death to Moby Dick!  God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!” The long, barbed steel goblets were lifted; and to cries and maledictions against the white whale, the spirits were simultaneously quaffed down with a hiss.  Starbuck paled, and turned, and shivered.  Once more, and finally, the replenished pewter went the rounds among the frantic crew; when, waving his free hand to them, they all dispersed; and Ahab retired within his cabin.

CHAPTER 37

Sunset

The cabin; by the stern windows; Ahab sitting alone, and gazing out.

I leave a white and turbid wake; pale waters, paler cheeks, where’er I sail.  The envious billows sidelong swell to whelm my track; let them; but first I pass.

Yonder, by the ever-brimming goblet’s rim, the warm waves blush like wine.  The gold brow plumbs the blue.  The diver sun—­ slow dived from noon—­goes down; my soul mounts up! she wearies with her endless hill.  Is, then, the crown too heavy that I wear? this Iron Crown of Lombardy.  Yet is it bright with many a gem; I the wearer, see not its far flashings; but darkly feel that I wear that, that dazzlingly confounds.  ’Tis iron—­that I know—­not gold.  ’Tis split, too—­that I feel; the jagged edge galls me so, my brain seems to beat against the solid metal; aye, steel skull, mine; the sort that needs no helmet in the most brain-battering fight!

Dry heat upon my brow?  Oh! time was, when as the sunrise nobly spurred me, so the sunset soothed.  No more.  This lovely light, it lights not me; all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne’er enjoy.  Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly! damned in the midst of Paradise!  Good night—­good night! (waving his hand, he moves from the window.)