Plot of Part III

The sailors were trapped in their ship on the windless ocean for some time, and
eventually became delirious with thirst. One day, the Ancient Mariner noticed
something approaching from the West. As it moved closer, the sailors realized it
was a ship, but no one could cry out because their throats were dry and their lips
badly sunburned. The Ancient Mariner bit his own arm and sipped the blood so
that he could wet his mouth enough to cry out: “A sail! A sail!” Mysteriously, the
approaching ship managed to turn its course to them, even though there was still
no wind. Suddenly, it crossed the path of the setting sun, and its masts made the
sun look as though it was imprisoned, “As if through a dungeon-grate he peered.”
The Ancient Mariner’s initial joy turned to dread as he noticed that the ship was
approaching menacingly quickly, and had sails that looked like cobwebs. The ship
came near enough for the Ancient Mariner to see who manned it: Death, embodied
in a naked man, and The Night-mare Life-in-Death, embodied in a naked woman.
The latter was beautiful, with red lips, golden hair, and skin “as white as leprosy.”
Death and Life-in-Death were gambling with dice for the Ancient Mariner’s soul,
and Life-in-Death won. She whistled three times just as the last of the sun sank
into the ocean; night fell in an instant, and the ghost ship sped away, though its
crew’s whispers could be heard long after it was out of sight. The crescent moon
rose above the ship with “one bright star” just inside its bottom rim, and all at
once, the sailors turned towards the Ancient Mariner and cursed him with their
eyes. Then all two hundred of them dropped dead without a sound. The Ancient
Mariner watched each sailor’s soul zoom out of his body like the arrow he shot at
the Albatross: “And every soul, it passed me by, / Like the whiz of my cross-bow!”