request that it might be
delivered to his wife. He wished to charge him with a message for her
also, but his utterance was choked. "Tell her----." Unable to proceed,
he bent down his head and buried his face in his hands for a moment as
if in prayer, for he was a devout man and a Christian.

In that moment, brief as it was, he endured the great agony; but it
was over now. . . . He had resolved to go down with his ship. Calm and
collected, he rose up from that mighty struggle with renewed vigour,
and went with encouraging looks about the duties of the ship as
before. . . .

After the boat which bore Mr. Payne--to whom Herndon had entrusted his
watch--had shoved off, the Captain went to his state-room and put on
his uniform; . . . . . then walking out, he took his stand on the
wheel-house, holding on to the iron railing with his left hand. A
rocket was sent off, the ship fetched her last lurch, and as she went
down he uncovered. . . .

Just before the steamer went down, a row-boat was heard approaching.
Herndon hailed her; it was the boatswain's boat, rowed by "hard hands
and gentle hearts," returning from on board the brig to report her
disabled condition. If she came alongside she would be engulfed with
the sinking ship. Herndon ordered her to keep off. She did so, and was
saved. This, as far as I have been able to learn, was his last order.
Forgetful of self, mindful of others, his life was beautiful to the
last, and in his death he has added a new glory to the annals of the
sea.

[A handsome monument to his memory stands in the Parade-ground of the
Naval School at Annapolis.]

FOOTNOTES:

[14] By permission of Mrs. Corbin.

[15] By permission of Mrs. Corbin.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.

~1806=1870.~

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS was born and reared in Charleston, South
Carolina. His early education was limited; he was for a while clerk in
a drug-store and then he studied law. But his decided taste for
letters soon induced him to devote his entire time and attention to
their cultivation. He wrote rapidly and voluminously, and produced
poems, novels, dramas, histories, biographies, book-reviews,
editorials,--in short, all kinds of writing. He was editor of various
journals at different times, and did all he could to inspire and
foster a literary taste in his generation. His style shows the effect
of haste and overwork.

[Illustration: ~Woodlands, S. C., Home of W. Gilmore Simms.~]

His novels dealing wi