288 The Steam- Boat ; a Paper of my Uncle's. [Sept. 



shore ; a deafening surge broke wildly on our bows and deck, and fell 

 as if an ocean had submerged us with its force. The attorney's clerk 

 was heard below vociferating " murder !" The proles Gohhleiomana 

 were incontinently occupied in works of retribution. All the Biddle- 

 combe society in gay attire were drenched and ch-ooping, like so many 

 summer-flowers smitten by the fury of a passing storm ; in short, the 

 perturbation of the changeful element had levelled all capacities and 

 qualities to helpless languor and abandonment. The steamer, with its 

 vaporous eructation, seemed like a leviathan exhausted, though its 

 tremor gave it all the semblance of the fury of that monster, contending 

 in convulsed exasperation, with the bounding waves. Any thing was 

 better to the Biddlccomhc elite than the oppressive heat below. Num- 

 bers had slunk away, no soul knew whither. The feeble cry of 

 " steward !" fell from numerous lips, apparently oppressed by so much 

 utterance ; and the sound of mops and basins, was a minor adjunct to 

 the greater discord of the storm. 



I observed a girl, of extraordinary personal charms, decline into the 

 very form of death ; her lips and cheeks grew pale, and cold as marble 

 — mortality appeared in her to have concluded all its functions — colour, 

 speech, pulsation — all were gone ; and there she lay, a picture of appalj- 

 ling, desolated beauty. 



Throughout the storm, a handsome Spaniard lay reclining on the poop, 

 apparently enjoying the tumultuary magnificence of the impressive scene. 

 A smile of sadness dwelt upon his noble countenance — I learned he was 

 a gallant refugee. 



In about three hours the anger of the elements subsided — the wind 

 was tranquillized — a straggling gleam of sunshine fell along the foamy 

 hillocks of the sea ; the darkness, in masses, fleeted off and left the west 

 a blazing lieap of castellated golden clouds, that augured the serenity of 

 the approaching sunset. Every thing began to manifest reanimation. 

 The fair beauty, 1 have mentioned, answered the inquiries made to her, 

 with a gentle motion of her hand and lips, and looked, at that especial 

 instant, like the famous statue of Pygmahon, warming into life and 

 action. 



Her beauty soon became the topic of discourse ; as usual, her charms 

 were too provoking to the ladies to receive their due : for women will 

 distribute vast encomiums upon secondare/ beauties only, as men are 

 lavish of their praises on inferior wits alone. Both hope to dim the fame 

 of first-rate merit, which they either envy or devest ; and, yet while they 

 are bounteous in encomiums somewhere, they trust to escape from the 

 suspicion of a sordid jealousy, which, however, to a just observer, is as 

 forcibly convej'ed by sach a misappropriation, as if they had fallen peie- 

 mele ujjon the excellence they secretly abhor. 



Our landing at the town of Dunkirk seemed to give invariable satis- 

 faction. Miss Biddlecombe and her fastidious coterie, were most par- 

 ticular in being " by themselves." The ambition of the good man Lark, 

 who landed in a doze, was levelled at a comfortable dormitory, and the 

 certainty of being called betimes, because he was an early riser ! — 

 O'Gorman had come over on a small affair of honour, which was settled 

 by the interchange of six or seven shots. The Gobbletons, of course, to 

 taste the cookery of France. Mr. Botherby, '' secundum morem," crowned 

 the pleasures of the day by getting " drunk as Chloe," as he never marred 

 the jji^ssings of the cup by aiiy thing like decent tipsincss. When peiv 



