1831 .J [ 137 ] 



THE LONELY MAN OF THE OCEAN.* 

 BY THE AUTHOR OF " THE DEMON-SHIP." 



IT was on the evening of her departure for a transatlantic voyage, 

 that the quarter-deck of an English man-of-war, lying in the Tagus, 

 was splendidly illuminated, in honour of a farewell entertainment given 

 by the British officers to a favoured selection of the residents of Lisbon. 



No scene of gaiety presents a more picturesque appearance than that 

 exhibited by the festive decorations of a full-sized man-of-war ; and, on 

 the present occasion, the Invincible was not behind her sisters of the 

 ocean in the arrangements of her marine festivities. Her quarter-deck 

 was covered by an awning of gay and party-coloured flags, whose British 

 admixture of red glowed richly and gaily in the light of the variegated 

 lamps, which, suspended on strings, hung in long rows from the masts 

 and rigging of the vessel. To a spectator, standing at the verge of her 

 stern, the quarter-deck, with its awning, gay lights, and distinct groups 

 of figures, might almost have resembled the rural and diversified scene 

 of a village pleasure-fair ; while behind, the faces of hundreds of sailors, 

 peeping from comparative obscurity on the gaieties of their officers, 

 formed a whimsical and not unpicturesque back-grouud. Below, the 

 tables of the ward-room were spread with the most delicate and even 

 costly refreshments. All was mirth and apparently reckless gaiety ; and 

 it seemed as if the sons of Neptune, in exercising their proverbial fond- 

 ness for the dance, and acknowledged gallantry to their partners, had 

 forgotten that the revolution of twenty-four hours would place a world 

 of waters between them and the fair objects of their devotion, and would 

 give far other employment for their limbs than the fascinating measures 

 to which they now lent them. 



There were, however, two beings in that assembly whose feelings of 

 grief, extending from the heart to the countenance, communicated to the 

 latter an expression which consorted ill with the gaiety of the surround- 

 ing scene. One of these countenances wore the aspect of an intense 

 grief, which yet the mind of the possessor had strength sufficient to keep 

 in a state of manly subjection; the other presented that appearance of 

 unmixed, yet unutterable woe, which woman alone is capable either of 

 feeling or meekly sustaining in silence. Christian Loeffler and Ernestine 

 Fredeberg had been married but seven days, yet they were now passing 

 their last evening together ere Loeffler sailed, a passenger in the Invin- 

 cible, to the Brazils. Why circumstances thus severed those so recently 

 united by the holiest ties, and why the devoted Ernestine was unable to 

 accompany her husband, are queries that might be satisfactorily answered 

 if our limits permitted. But the fact alone can here be stated. 



The husband and wife joined the dance but once that evening, and 

 then publish it not at Almack's they danced together ! Yet their 

 hearts sickened ere the measure was ended ; and retiring to the raised 

 end of the stern, they sate apart from the mirthful crowd, their coun- 

 tenances averted from those faces of gladness, and their eyes directed 

 towards the distant main, which shewed dismal, dark, and waste, wben 

 contrasted with the bright scene within that gay floating-house of plea- 

 sure. Christian Loeffler united a somewhat exaggerated tone of senti- 



* Should the circumstances of this story be criticized as overdrawn, the writer can affirm 

 that the main event is founded on fact ; an assertion often advanced, and seldom believed, 

 yet not the less true in the present instance. 



M.M. New Scries. VOL. XI. No. 62. T 



