Oh, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!
--I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;
My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
Brak. I will, my lord: God give your grace good rest!

CLARENCE reposes himself on a chair.

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.

Shakespeare.--Richard III, Act i, Scene iv.

NOTES.--The houses of York and Lancaster were at war for the possession of
the English throne. The Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Gloster were
brothers of King Edward IV., who was head of the house of York. Clarence
married the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, and joined the latter in
several insurrections against the king. They finally plotted with Queen
Margaret of the Lancaster party for the restoration of the latter house to
the English throne, but Clarence betrayed Warwick and the Queen, and
killed the latter's son at the battle of Tewksbury. Through the plots of
Gloster, Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there
murdered.

Brakenbury was lieutenant of the Tower.

The ferryman referred to is Charon, of Greek mythology, who was supposed
to ferry the souls of the dead over the river Acheron to the infernal
regions.

CVI. HOMEWARD BOUND. (371)

Richard H. Dana, Jr., 1815-1882, was the son of Richard H. Dana, the poet.
He was born in Cambridge, Mass. In his boyhood be had a strong desire to
be a sailor, but by his father's advice chose a student's life, and
entered Harvard University. At the age of nineteen an affection of the
eyes compelled him to suspend his studies. He now made a voyage to
California as a common sailor, and was gone two years. On his return, he
resumed his studies and graduated in 1837. He afterwards studied law, and
entered upon an active and successful practice. Most of his life was spent
in law and politics, although he won distinction in literature.

The following extract is from his "Two Years before the Mast," a book
published in 1840, giving an account of his voyage to California. This
book details, in a most clear and entertaining manner, the everyday life
of a common sailor on shipboard, and is the best known of all Mr. Dana's
works.
###

It is usual, in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific, to keep to the
eastward of the Falkland Islands; but, as there had now set in a strong,
steady, and clear southwester, with every prosp