A SALT-WATER TRAGEDY. i8i 



On arriving at Madras the lady went ashore with the 

 captain, and for nearly six weeks the captain rarely 

 visited the ship ; but she again took up her quarters 

 when the ship set sail to the Mauritius. The night 

 before the vessel set off again for England, the captain 

 sent for my brother, who found him in his cabin, with 

 his head buried in his hands, sobbing deeply. He told 

 my brother that he was an utterly ruined man ; that he 

 was so fascinated by this woman he had given up every- 

 thing for her ; that he dare not face his wife on his 

 return to England, nor the lady's husband ; that he 

 knew he was a villain, but was powerless to throw off 

 his infatuation : he therefore had determined to resign 

 his position as captain of the vessel, and to give the 

 command over to my brother, to whom he handed a 

 document recounting all the circumstances, and a 

 statement of accounts, to be delivered to Messrs. Green 

 on arrival in London. In the morning he and the lady 

 who was the cause of his ruin left the ship with all 

 their luggage, and the ship passed into the hands of my 

 brother. 



But the tragedy had only begun. The commander's 

 wife was so horrified at the transaction that she lost her 

 senses, and ended her days in an asylum ; his father, a 

 well-beloved and earnest parfsh priest, soon died, 

 broken-hearted at the conduct of his only son. The 

 injured captain sought the relief, and obtained it, of the 

 Divorce Court. What a plot for a novel ! but what a 

 pitiful reality ! The guilty lovers departed from the 

 Mauritius after some weeks to California, and there he 



