'

"'I will,' replied he, solemnly, 'for my time is short.'

"'No, no, you must not go to sea again: you have lost your vessel, but
you are safe. Have I not you again?'

"'Alas! no--be not alarmed, but listen, for my time is short. I have
not lost my vessel, Catherine, BUT I HAVE LOST!!! Make no reply, but
listen; I am not dead, nor yet am I alive. I hover between this world
and the world of Spirits. Mark me.

"'For nine weeks did I try to force my passage against the elements
round the stormy Cape, but without success; and I swore terribly.
For nine weeks more did I carry sail against the adverse winds and
currents, and yet could gain no ground; and then I blasphemed,--ay,
terribly blasphemed. Yet still I persevered. The crew, worn out
with long fatigue, would have had me return to the Table Bay; but I
refused; nay, more, I became a murderer,--unintentionally, it is true,
but still a murderer. The pilot opposed me, and persuaded the men to
bind me, and in the excess of my fury, when he took me by the collar,
I struck at him; he reeled; and, with the sudden lurch of the vessel,
he fell overboard, and sank. Even this fearful death did not restrain
me; and I swore by the fragment of the Holy Cross, preserved in that
relic now hanging round your neck, that I would gain my point in
defiance of storm and seas, of lightning, of heaven, or of hell, even
if I should beat about until the Day of Judgment.

"'My oath was registered in thunder, and in streams of sulphurous
fire. The hurricane burst upon the ship, the canvas flew away in
ribbons; mountains of seas swept over us, and in the centre of a deep
o'erhanging cloud, which shrouded all in utter darkness, were written
in letters of livid flame, these words--UNTIL THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

"'Listen to me, Catherine, my time is short. _One Hope_ alone remains,
and for this am I permitted to come here. Take this letter.' He put a
sealed paper on the table. 'Read it, Catherine, dear, and try if you
can assist me. Read it and now farewell--my time is come.'

"Again the window and window-shutters burst open--again the light was
extinguished, and the form of my husband was, as it were, wafted in
the dark expanse. I started up and followed him with outstretched arms
and frantic screams as he sailed through the window;--my glaring eyes
beheld his form borne away like lightning on the wings of the wild
gale, till it was lost as a speck of light, and then it disappeared.
Again the w