118 



WRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 



all this time I was extremely voracious, and yet the victuals were 

 not the most delicate on board the Echo. My urine was so abun- 

 dant that I was forced to get up fifteen or twenty times a-night ; 

 I was really alarmed at it, and apprehended being attacked with 

 the diabetes. It was limpid, inodorous, and without any taste to 

 indicate the presence of saline substances. Was this a conse- 

 quence of my sufferings, or the apprehensions of a sea voyage, 

 that so strangely affected the urinary passages ? In a few days 

 after my arrival in Brest, all fell into the usual train. 



From the moment I was convinced of our being abandoned, I 

 was strongly impressed with the crowd of dark and horrible ima- 

 ges that presented themselves to my imagination, which, in a 

 moment, so frightfully analyzed every horror attached to our po- 

 sition : the torments of hunger and thirst, the almost certainty of 

 never more seeing my country or friends, composed the painful 

 picture before my eyes ; I felt a troublesome pain in the epigas- 

 trium, my knees sunk under me, and my hands mechanically 

 sought for something to lay hold on. I could scarcely articulate 

 a word ; a cold sensation, hke that of metallic plates applied to 

 every part of the surface of my body, but particularly along the 

 vertebral column, came on from time to time ; my upper eye-lids, 

 falling involuntarily on the lower, produced a very cold sensation, 

 that extended beyond the eye-lids. This state soon had an end, 

 and then all my mental faculties revived. Having first silenced 

 the imperious dread of death, I endeavoured to pour some conso- 

 lation into my unhappy companions' hearts, who were almost all 

 in a state of stupor liround me. I am certainly far from attribu- 

 ting these first impressions to the effects of abstinence, but I point 

 them out as the beginning of that state of alienation which after- 

 wards proceeded principally from the effects of hunger. The ter- 

 ror I was struck with, as well as my companions, on the departure 

 of the boats, was inspired by the idea of a dreadful danger ; but, 

 may I not add, this sentiment was still heightened by the contin- 

 ual fatigues that had enervated us during four days of excessive 

 labour, an immersion of three hours in the water, and eighteen 

 hours fasting ; all which rendered us incapable of surmounting 

 mental affections raised to despair. 



After their first consternation, the soldiers and sailors abandon- 

 ed themselves to excessive despair, and furiously crying out for 

 vengeance ; each saw his ruin inevitable, and clamorously an- 



