338 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



unexpectedly raised from poverty to affluence; my 

 parents were longing once more to behold their erring 

 but beloved son; and I knew that there was one dearer 

 even than any parent, who had remained faithful to 

 me through all my misfortunes, and would soon be- 

 come mine for life. 



About eight o'clock in the evening I went on deck. 

 The ship was sailing upon a wind, at the rate of seven 

 knots an hour, and there was a wild grandeur in the 

 night. A strong snow-storm blew, but steadily and 

 without danger ; and now and then, when the strug- 

 gling moonlight overcame the sleety and misty dark- 

 ness, we saw, for some distance round us, the agitated 

 sea all tumbling with foam. There were no shoals to 

 fear, and the ship kept boldly on her course, close- 

 reefed, and mistress of the storm. I leant over the 

 gunwale, admiring the water rushing past like a foam- 

 ing cataract, when, by some unaccountable accident, 

 I lost my balance, and in an instant fell overboard 

 into the sea. 



I remember a convulsive shuddering all over my 

 body, and a hurried leaping of my heart, as I felt my- 

 self about to lose hold of the vessel, and afterwards a 

 sensation of the most icy chilliness from immersion 

 into the waves, but nothing resembling a fall or pre- 

 cipitation. When below the water I think that a 

 momentary belief rushed across my mind that the 

 ship had suddenly sunk, and that I was but one of a 

 perishing crew. I imagined that I felt a hand with 



