hed into the vortex, every thing within its influence yielded to
the suction; and, at the next instant, the launch was seen darting down
the declivity, as if eager to follow the vast machine, of which it had so
long formed a dependant, through the same gaping whirlpool, to the bottom.
Then it rose, rocking, to the surface; and, for a moment, was tossed and
whirled like a bubble circling in the eddies of a pool. After which, the
ocean moaned, and slept again; the moon-beams playing across its
treacherous bosom, sweetly and calm, as the rays are seen to quiver on a
lake that is embedded in sheltering mountains.

Chapter XVIII.

--"Every day, some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe."--_Tempest._

"We are safe!" said Wilder, who had stood, amid the violence of the
struggle, with his person firmly braced against a mast, steadily watching
the manner of their escape. "Thus far, at least, are we safe; for which
may Heaven alone be praised, since no art of mine could avail us a
feather."

The females had buried their faces in the folds of the vestments and
clothes on which they were sitting; nor did even the governess raise her
countenance until twice assured by her companion that the imminency of the
risk was past. Another minute went by, during which Mrs Wyllys and
Gertrude were rendering their thanksgivings, in a manner and in words less
equivocal than the expression which had just broken from the lips of the
young seaman. When this grateful duty was performed, they stood erect, as
if emboldened, by the offering, to look their situation more steadily in
the face.

On every side lay the seemingly illimitable waste of waters. To them,
their small and frail tenement was the world. So long as the ship, sinking
and dangerous as she was, remained beneath them, there had appeared to be
a barrier between their existence and the ocean. But one minute had
deprived them of even this failing support, and they now found themselves
cast upon the sea in a vessel that might be likened to one of the bubbles
of the element. Gertrude felt, at that instant, as though she would have
given half her hopes in life for the mere sight of that vast and nearly
untenanted Continent which stretched for so many thousands of miles along
the west, and kept the world of waters to their limits.

But the rush of emotions that so properly belonged to their forlorn
condition soon