rescue of a brave and esteemed shipmate, who, if he had the good fortune to pass unscathed through all these horrors, was still reserved for the surer and more protracted pang of starvation.

But however anxious they might be, however strongly they strove, obstacles were increasing in their path, and not of a nature that readily, if ever, gives way.

The wind was evidently increasing to a regular gale. Sail had been carried till the distended canvass seemed bellying out from its very boltropes. The frigate, stiff as she was at all times under sail, and calculated to bear its pressure to an extent beyond most vessels, was now, and had been for the last two hours, heeling over to a degree that kept her foremast lee-guns constantly under water; for at that distant period the comparative imperfection of naval moving forces, as a science, had not, as now, ascertained the point beyond which a press of sail impedes the sailor.

Reef after reef had been taken in; the topsails, the topgallant-sails taken in next; the jib and spanker exchanged for the storm-jib and trysail, and topgallant masts sent on deck. "Still this proved as much as the frigate could stagger under; and though she drove ploughing through the waves, it was evident that she made nearly as much lee-way as advance to windward; for the point they were anxious to attain was now conjectured by the seamen to be right in the wind's eye.

The men had long been at their dinner, when, with a" sudden heel, the ship appeared to be thrown_completely on her beam ends. Men, chests, bags, plates, dinner utensils of every sort and description, were hurled in one indiscriminate mass over to leeward. A universal exclamation of surprise, if not of horror, arose throughout the lower deck, for many thought that she was about to be capsized; but almost at the same instant it was drowned in the sudden burst of some tremendous sound, more like a peal of thunder than aught else. The three topsails had parted from their boltropes, and, like so many children's paper kites, went flying away before the awful hurricane which now swept over her.

"All hands on deck!" was then piped, but faintly distinguished through the roars of the whirlwind; but even that summons was unnecessary. By the time that the voice had uttered the words, not a soul but the sick and bed-ridden had remained below. When they gained the deck, the ship had partly recovered herself from her beam

ends, but the water was rushing like a torrent through the bow and gang-way ports, and so out at those near the stern; and now, though nothing but the storm-jib and driver stood the blast, these were expected to part every moment, and the ship thus continued to heel to the blast sweeping over her.

As for the spray blown from the overtopping seas, it was one vast sheet of foam, and drenched to the skin every man exposed to its action. Had no other accompaniment of the storm been frightful, the roaring of the wind alone would have rendered it so. Not a sound besides could be distinguished, and though you beheld those around you opening their lips, you heard nothing more than a dull confused whispering consequent upon the action.

For a

Danger, that so frequently dissolves justly constituted authority, here played a part the very reverse. space it seemed as if no mutiny had broken out abroad; for mutineer and officers, alike and at the same time, commanded, forgetful of what had occurred to separate their interest in other matters, though nothing could divide it in this. Some idea may be formed of the fury of the squall, from the fact of its taking eight men to guide the wheel with any sort of command, and, even then, it was a task as great as they could possibly effect.

After eight or ten minutes spent in the awful suspense of whether their ship was still destined to float, or be swalJowed up in the terrific yeast of waters around, the wind began to abate somewhat of its violence. The men beheld with unfeigned joy that all their spars had stood unhurt; so that, beyond a little wreck of gear, the bending of new sails was the heaviest task imposed on them.

CHAPTER XVII.

The waters wild

Went o'er his child,

And he was left lamenting.

CAMPBELL

ALTHOUGH the first sudden burst and fury of the tornado had passed, neither the danger nor the power of the gale were much diminished; but while it continued thus violent, it was idle to think of bending new topsails, which never would have borne the strain of sheeting home.

It was enough that a rag still stood, sufficient to keep the ship from broaching-to. The attempt to set topsails would have produced no benefit to the primary object the mutineers then had in view, and only endangered the lives of the men. Keeping the yards as they had been left when the sails were blown out of them, nothing was for the time attempted, but the getting the stormstaysail ready for setting, as soon as the gale should allow the frigate to recover somewhat more of an even keel than she at present possessed.

This, after an hour, was done, and the ship slowly made her way through the water, but far more rapidly to leeward than towards the point they wished to attain. All that could be done had been effected. The watch was called, the ship once more resigned into the hands of the mutineers, the officers retired to their cabins; the mids, delighted with a holiday, were not too greatly troubled in mind to inquire how they had obtained it; while the rugged seamen, gathering aft upon the quarterdeck, beheld the day go down, and themselves utterly powerless to extend a helping hand to one who so much required it.

The whole of that night and the next day the ship continued baffled with the same strong gale. The topsails, it is true, had all been replaced, but no sooner did they attempt to sheet one home, than crack went the distended canvass and every care and speed was necesVOL. 1.-I

sary to save the sail from being so shivered as to be irreparable.

At last, as the hour of four o'clock approached on the second day, Herbert and his brothers of the council, thinking that the wind had moderated sufficiently, agreed to make another effort at resuming that course which had been so vexatiously interrupted.

"Boatswain's mate, call all hands-make sail!" cried Herbert. In a few seconds the order resounded through the ship, and the men were thronging at their posts, with as ready an obedience as when Captain Livingstone was overlooking them with the most jealous vigilance.

"Fore and maintop men, stand by to cast loose the fore and maintop sails-away aloft !"

At that word, the rigging to windward was crowded by the dark swarm of seamen, whose greatest activity and strength only enabled them to ascend with comparative slowness in defiance of the gale.

As soon as they had gained the still dangerous footing of the maintop, hanging over the wild and tormented boi of waters that swept past the frigate's gangway from hei bow, the order was given,

Trice up, lay out, cast off your points, my men, quickly, and stand by to lay in when we sheet home. Forecastle-men, afterguard, and mizen-top men, man the fore and main topsail sheets; stand by to ease off the lee clue-lines. Let fall aloft there to leeward-haul aft the lee fore and main topsail sheets. That's right, my men, down with it! so-the sheet's home belay. Now then to windward, ease off the weather fore and main topsail cluelines. Let fall-haul out; so-belay! Lay in, men-lay into your tops quickly. How does the foretopsail stand it forward, Cresswell?"

“All right yet a while,” returned the seaman from the forecastle, regarding the close reefed sail, as, acted upon by the tremendous pressure of the wind, it remained stretched like a board to the utmost point of tension. Quickly indeed was the influence of the additional canvass felt on the frigate, which, heeling over to the gust, surged right through the heavy seas she had before mounted over, trembling, as she did so, from stem to stern with a deep vibratory motion, that almost threatened to part one timber from another. Still the seamen, with hearts as stern as the oak beneath them, and impenetrable to all fear, regarded only the sails above.

Made of the strongest canvass, and fresh from the store

́room, or rather sail-bin, if anything could defy the tempest, they might be expected to do so. With every fibre drawn to the greatest endurance, they long held the contest doubtful. Meanwhile the increased speed of the frigate was undeniable, notwithstanding the dark green masses of water which every few seconds poured over the weather-bow, sweeping everything before them on the forecastle, and falling like a cataract on the battened maindeck through the waist gratings.

Once more the hopes of the seamen began to rise; and though fearful what might have been the result of the night which Ramsay must have already passed on his miserable island, and the ensuing one which must also inevitably elapse before they could rescue him, they yet hoped to brave all dangers, and get him back once more amongst them, to assume the command.

"Let those sails stand but ten minutes longer, and I think we may trust them," said Cresswell to Old Mustapha, who had charge of the helm. The words had barely passed his lips when one of the maintop-men was heard again hailing, "Quarter-deck there, main topsail's going!"

Crack! Crack! were the sounds that quickly followed, as the sail, now flapping in fragments with a noise like thunder, at each motion tore itself into a greater number of ribbons, and fluttered away to leeward, like so many wild streamers floating in the gale.

"Man the fore and main topsail clue-lines," cried Herbert, quickly jumping from his gun; "stand by, to cast off the weather topsail-sheets-ease off, clue up. Now to leeward-ease off the fore topsail sheet, forward--walk away with the clue-lines, my boys; up with them-so belaylay out on the fore and main topsail yards! Forward there, Cresswell, take the topsail off her. Maintop ahoystand by to cast that topsail off, and send it down upon deck. Sailmakers and afterguard, down on the lower deck, and bring up another spare main topsail, and take care that "

"Man overboard!-man overboard!" was the startling cry that resounded simultaneously from fifty voices, interrupting the execution as well as the hearing of Herbert's orders, and drawing, with a sudden rush to the weather gangway, every hand on deck, not imperatively occupied with some share of the duty then going on.

The unhappy man for whom this solicitude was expres. sed, had fallen from the weather foreyard arm, and striking on the shrouds from the great inclination the ship had to