1830.] The Demon Ship. 655 



lost the free use of my limbs by my lengthened and cramped confine-' 

 ment. To one human being, however, I did not forget my gratitude. 

 As we hurriedly prepared to spring into the boat, I saw that Girod's 

 pinioned members refused him the prompt aid necessary for effecting an 

 escape in such a moment. I returned, seized a bloody cutlass that lay 

 on deck, and, without leave of the officer, cut at once through the bonds 

 which confined our first deliverer. " This man," I said, as we seated 

 ourselves, " has been the instrument of Heaven for our preservation. I 

 will make myself answerable for his liberty and kind treatment." Girod 

 seized my hand, which received a passionate Gallic salute. Our sailors 

 now rowed hard to avoid being drawn into the vortex of the sinking 

 ship. Merciful God ! we were then out of the Demon ! I supported 

 Margaret in my arms ; and as I saw her bosom again heave, a renewed 

 glow of hope rushed to my heart. 



We had not been on board the sloop many minutes ere, slowly and 

 awfully, the Demon sank to the same eternal grave to which she had so 

 often doomed her victims. We saw the top of the main-mast, which 

 had borne her fatal flag above the waters, tremble like a point on their 

 very surface, and then vanish beneath them. A frightful chasm yawned 

 for a moment it was then closed by the meeting waves, which soon 

 rolled peacefully over the vessel they had engulphed ; and the Demon, 

 so long the terror of the seas and the scourge of mariners, disappeared 

 for ever. 



Here abruptly terminated my relative's narration ; and if any reader 

 should have felt just sufficient interest in it to wonder whether Margaret 

 died, and whether Colonel Francillon attended her funeral as chief- 

 mourner ; or whether, after all, she recovered, and was married to the 

 Colonel, I can only briefly say, that the sloop put into Naples, where 

 the Countess was soon placed under a skilful physician. He pronounced 

 her case hopeless, and my relative had only the melancholy satisfaction 

 of reflecting that her dying hour would be peaceful, and her lovely 

 remains honoured by Christian burial. She passed from the hands of 

 her physician into those of the British ambassador's chaplain ; but I do 

 not think it could have been for the purpose of religious interment as I 

 enjoyed, for nearly forty years after this period, the inestimable privi- 

 lege of calling the Colonel and the Countess my revered father and 

 mother ! 



