purpose if I place the
letter itself, for future reference, on this page of my journal.

"'Fiume, Illyria, November 21, 1851.

"MR. BASHWOOD--The address I date from will surprise you; and you will
be more surprised still when you hear how it is that I come to write to
you from a port on the Adriatic Sea.

"I have been the victim of a rascally attempt at robbery and murder. The
robbery has succeeded; and it is only through the mercy of God that the
murder did not succeed too.

"I hired a yacht rather more than a month ago at Naples; and sailed
(I am glad to think now) without any friend with me, for Messina. From
Messina I went for a cruise in the Adriatic. Two days out we were caught
in a storm. Storms get up in a hurry, and go down in a hurry, in those
parts. The vessel behaved nobly: I declare I feel the tears in my eyes
now, when I think of her at the bottom of the sea! Toward sunset it
began to moderate; and by midnight, except for a long, smooth swell, the
sea was as quiet as need be. I went below, a little tired (having helped
in working the yacht while the gale lasted), and fell asleep in five
minutes. About two hours after, I was woke by something falling into my
cabin through a chink of the ventilator in the upper part of the door.
I jumped up, and found a bit of paper with a key wrapped in it, and with
writing on the inner side, in a hand which it was not very easy to read.

"Up to this time I had not had the ghost of a suspicion that I was alone
at sea with a gang of murderous vagabonds (excepting one only) who would
stick at nothing. I had got on very well with my sailing-master (the
worst scoundrel of the lot), and better still with his English mate.
The sailors, being all foreigners, I had very little to say to. They did
their work, and no quarrels and nothing unpleasant happened. If anybody
had told me, before I went to bed on the night after the storm, that the
sailing-master and the crew and the mate (who had been no better than
the rest of them at starting) were all in a conspiracy to rob me of the
money I had on board, and then to drown me in my own vessel afterward, I
should have laughed in his face. Just remember that; and then fancy for
yourself (for I'm sure I can't tell you) what I must have thought when
I opened the paper round the key, and read what I now copy (from the
mate's writing), as follows:

"'SIR--Stay in your bed till you hear a boat shove off from the
starboard side, or you ar