whose lives were not dearer to them, in that hour of supernatural honor and supernatural horror, than the gentle sentiments of love toward the boy they had known so long.
A few days afterward, a vessel picked out of the trough of the sea a boat with three men, lying, half-drowned, upon its bottom. I was one of the three who had survived the bloody feats by which several were killed, and only we had survived.
"I had taken the miniature from the neck of the boy, and the cane, his father's parting-gifts, and his straw-hat I also preserved, for I felt they would be dear to the unhappy man at home. When I took them to him, he ordered them to be carried to his son's room; and not even then, or before, when I first arrived, did he say one word to me of censure or approval. I do not feel that I have done wrong, for God knows it was a hard and unheard-of condition we were all in."
After the captain had finished his story, he rose from his chair and left the room. We may be sure there was no more whisky-punch drank by the other captain, who was left, half-bewildered, standing alone in the apartment.
PART IV.
Several years had passed away. My relative had died, and I had been living some time in Paris, when business-letters reached me from the lawyer in Edinburgh who had charge of her estate, that compelled me to relinquish my studies, and hasten over to Scotland.
When I reached Edinburgh I went directly to Mr. ———'s office, and after going through some necessary forms of law, placed the affairs of the property, so far as I was concerned, in a way of settlement. As I was rising to return to my hotel, Mr. ——— begged me, instead of taking my dinner at the solitary little table in the coffee-room of the inn, to come and dine with him at six o'clock. I readily accepted his invitation.
I was sitting in the public-room of the Royal Hotel, gazing with untiring admiration at the various points of view from the window; the old Castle of Edinburgh, upon its rocky eyrie, overlooking a glorious panorama of mountain, ocean, frith, and far-extended fields,
