228 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



from one of the saddest of romances, in which the old 

 servant warns Paul and Virginia of the approach of 

 midnight, as indicated by the position of the cross.* 

 That glorious constellation, watched by the hapless 

 lovers in the far-off Mauritius, I saw gleaming above 

 the Caribbean Sea, north of and nearer the equator, 

 as I lay upon the beach. By a rare coincidence, it 

 hung in the sky above a cathedral-shaped rock known 

 to the natives as Church Island. 



* u III est tard, il est minuit ; la Croix die Sicd est droite sur 

 Phorizon" — Paul et Virginie. 



