o the cross-trees of God's good favour. At last
his voice sunk so low as not to be distinguished; and, having lain about
an hour, almost without any perceptible signs of life, he gave up the
ghost with a groan which announced his decease.

Julia was no sooner certified of this melancholy event, than she ran to
her aunt's chamber, weeping aloud; and immediately a very decent concert
was performed by the good widow and her attendants. Peregrine and
Hatchway retired till the corpse should be laid out; and Pipes having
surveyed the body, with a face of rueful attention,--"Well fare thy
soul! old Hawser Trunnion," said he: "man and boy I have known thee
these five-and-thirty years, and sure a truer heart never broke biscuit.
Many a hard gale hast thou weathered; but now thy spells are all over,
and thy hull fairly laid up. A better commander I'd never desire to
serve; and who knows but I may help to set up thy standing rigging in
another world?"

All the servants of the house were affected with the loss of their old
master; and the poor people in the neighbourhood assembled at the gate,
and, by repeated howlings, expressed their sorrow for the death of their
charitable benefactor. Peregrine, though he felt everything which
love and gratitude could inspire on this occasion, was not so much
overwhelmed with affliction as to be incapable of taking the management
of the family into his own hands. He gave directions about the funeral
with great discretion, after having paid the compliments of condolence
to his aunt, whom he consoled with the assurance of his inviolable
esteem and affection. He ordered a suit of mourning to be made for every
person in the garrison, and invited all the neighbouring gentlemen to
the burial, not even excepting his father and brother Gam, who did not,
however, honour the ceremony with their presence; nor was his mother
humane enough to visit her sister-in-law in her distress.

In the method of interment, the commodore's injunctions were obeyed to a
title; and at the same time our hero made a donation of fifty pounds to
the poor of the parish, as a benefaction which his uncle had forgot
to bequeath. Having performed these obsequies with the most pious
punctuality, he examined the will, to which there was no addition since
it had first been executed, adjusted the payment of all the legacies,
and, being sole executor, took an account of the estate to which he
had succeeded, which, after all deductions,