ances; and receiving
the dying man's blessing, she knelt at his bed-side, prayed fervently
for a few minutes, and withdrew. After this, nothing out of the ordinary
track occurred until past midnight, and Magrath, more than once,
whispered his joyful anticipations that the rear-admiral would survive
until morning. An hour before day, however, the wounded man revived, in
a way that the surgeon distrusted. He knew that no physical change of
this sort could well happen that did not arise from the momentary
ascendency of mind over matter, as the spirit is on the point of finally
abandoning its earthly tenement; a circumstance of no unusual occurrence
in patients of strong and active intellectual properties, whose
faculties often brighten for an instant, in their last moments, as the
lamp flashes and glares as it is about to become extinct. Going to the
bed, he examined his patient attentively, and was satisfied that the
final moment was near.

"You're a man and a soldier, Sir Jairvis," he said, in a low voice, "and
it'll no be doing good to attempt misleading your judgment in a case of
this sort. Our respectable friend, the rear-admiral, is _articulo
mortis_, as one might almost say; he cannot possibly survive half an
hour."

Sir Gervaise started. He looked around him a little wistfully; for, at
that moment, he would have given much to be alone with his dying friend.
But he hesitated to make a request, which, it struck him, might seem
improper. From this embarrassment, however, he was relieved by
Bluewater, himself, who had the same desire, without the same scruples
about confessing it. _He_ drew the surgeon to his side, and whispered a
wish to be left alone with the commander-in-chief.

"Well, there will be no trespass on the rules of practice in indulging
the poor man in his desire," muttered Magrath, as he looked about him to
gather the last of his professional instruments, like the workman who is
about to quit one place of toil to repair to another; "and I'll just be
indulging him."

So saying, he pushed Galleygo and Geoffrey from the room before him,
left it himself, and closed the door.

Finding himself alone, Sir Gervaise knelt at the side of the bed and
prayed, holding the hand of his friend in both his own. The example of
Mrs. Dutton, and the yearnings of his own heart, exacted this sacrifice;
when it was over he felt a great relief from sensations that nearly
choked him.

"Do you forgive me, Gervaise?" whis