as, accordingly, assisted on shore; and, having been put to
bed, slept for several hours so soundly that I do not think a single
image of what I had seen and heard during that dismal scene occurred to
my fancy; but, when in the act of wakening, a confused influx of ideas,
all derived from the source of my sufferings, rushed into my mind, and
for a few minutes I conceived that I was still in the bell, that I heard
the sound of the air tubes, saw Jenkins fall, the corpse lying beside
me, Vanderhoek hanging by my grasp of his hair, and all the minutiae of
horrors that then encompassed me; a commotion which comes over me often
yet, like a species of monomania, when I will start up, and cling to the
bedposts, and scream for terror. It being known that I was awake, Mr.
W---- and the stranger came to me. It was their object to get an account
of all that had occurred during my descent. I gave it as nearly as I
could recollect, and, when I came to describe the appearance and figure
of the corpse of the female, I saw the stranger change colour, his frame
trembled, his lips turned pale, and he rose and walked through the room
as if afraid to listen to my narrative.

"What means this?" said I to Mr. W----, in a low tone.

"The female whose body you saw in the bell," he replied, "was the wife
of Mr. G----. He stands before you. He was saved from the wreck, and she
perished."

"Good God! and I have already given a part of the shocking detail," I
responded.

The stranger heard me, as he paced the room, returned, and sat down by
my bedside.

"I am not satisfied that it was my Agnes," he exclaimed, in broken
accents, while the tears flowed over his cheeks. "There was a
waiting-maid along with us--describe her more particularly. _I can
listen._"

As he uttered these words, I could perceive that he contracted his
nerves, his hands were clenched, and over his frame there passed a
shiver that seemed to mock the resolution to confirm the mind by a mere
physical action. I proceeded to give a fuller account of her dress and
ear-ring, the character of her face and figure, so far as I could
discover them. Every word seemed to enter his very soul. He turned round
again. There was something he wished to say, but he hesitated, trembled,
and stammered.

"Was that fair form mutilated?" he asked, at length, "O God! I picture
my Agnes torn by monsters of the deep, and hideous urchins resting on
her bosom. Yet, why do I ask knowledge that must