398 A VOYAGE IN THE NORTH SEAS. 



with all the tortures which the inevitable certainty of his fate, com- 

 bined with fearful remorse for his past crimes, could inflict. As the 

 unhappy man was dragged along the deck, his abject and haggard 

 visage worked in hideous convulsions, and he struggled to stretch out 

 his pinioned arms to clutch any thing which might for a moment 

 arrest his approaching fate. Frank, without knowing it, was standing 

 beneath the very spot where the noose dangled to receive the mi- 

 serable victim. At first the terror-stricken wretch seemed to think 

 that the spectre of the man to whom he had bequeathed a grave in 

 the waters had arisen to revenge his death by executing the sentence 

 of his murderer. His cries while under the influence of this delusion 

 were terrific. But becoming at length satisfied that it was a living 

 man who stood before him, he grasped his knees, and, while the men 

 were pulling down the cord and fitting it round his neck, continued 

 to retain his hold, and to plead in the wildest and most dastardly 

 manner for his life. Sickened by the loathsome and yet awful spec- 

 tacle, Arundel had not energy to fling away from the miserable man, 

 but answered his maniac entreaties for mercy by recommending 

 him to pray to God, whose mercy could only avail him any 

 thing. 



The ship was now abandoned to the flames, which began to spread 

 rapidly. The night however fell pitchy dark before the fire seized on 

 the immense quantity of inflammable matter which she contained. 

 At length the flames burst out in vast volumes, showing for a time 

 the spars, shrouds, and ropes of the Labrador, and with fearful Dis- 

 tinctness displaying the corpse of the wretched Bellamy waving 

 above the fiery gulf. Presently the flames enveloped the rigging, 

 the rope by which the body was suspended gave way, and it dis- 

 appeared among the burning ruins. It was an awful and sublime 

 spectacle to see the rolling waves dyed with that red light, as if an 

 ocean of blood were heaving around the flaming ship, and to see the 

 huge icebergs lit up throughout all their fantastic forms with the lurid 

 illumination. The hissing and crackling of the fire, and the seething 

 of the boiling oil as it mingled with the water, could be distinctly 

 heard, interrupted now and then by the crash of the various spars as 

 they yielded to the influence of the flames. Before the morning she 

 had burnt down to the water's edge, and lay a blackened and muti- 

 lated hulk upon the sea. 



The captain of the Blanche now determined on leaving the country, 

 and seeking the rendezvous appointed for the French ships on this 

 service. His weak and sickly crew gladly obeyed the command to 

 " bear up the helm for la belle France ;" and Flora and Arundel, 

 satisfied of meeting with kind treatment, even in an enemy's country, 

 also joyfully heard the order given. Our tale is near a conclusion ; 

 but we have one more instance of the vicissitude of fortune to give, 

 before we can lay down our pen, and leave our hero and heroine to 

 the happiness which they merited. 



The French squadron had been, as we have before said, despatched 

 direct from the West Indies to Davis' Straits, no one but the prin- 

 cipal officers being aware of their destination till they were in the lati- 

 tude of 60 north. Notwithstanding, however, the profound secrecy 



