n her existence, but for the support
and the balm she may receive from the ministers of our faith. It was
cruel and selfish of you, Philip, to leave her, a lone woman, to bear
up against your absence, and at the same time oppressed with so fatal
a knowledge."

"You have convinced me, holy Father," replied Philip. "I feel that
I should, before this, have made you acquainted with this strange
history. I will now state the whole of the circumstances which have
occurred, but with little hope your advice can help me, in a case so
difficult, and in a duty so peremptory, yet so perplexing."

Philip then entered into a minute detail of all that had passed from
the few days previous to his mother's death, until the present time,
and when he had concluded, he observed--

"You see, Father, that I have bound myself by a solemn vow--that that
vow has been recorded and accepted; and it appears to me that I have
nothing now to do but to follow my peculiar destiny."

"My son, you have told us strange and startling things--things not of
this world--if you are not deceived. Leave us now. Father Mathias and
I will consult upon this serious matter, and when we are agreed, you
shall know our decision."

Philip went upstairs to see Amine; she was still in a deep sleep: he
dismissed the servant, and watched by the bedside. For nearly two
hours did he remain there, when he was summoned down to meet the two
priests.

"We have had a long conversation, my son," said Father Seysen, "upon
this strange, and perhaps supernatural occurrence. I say _perhaps_,
for I would have rejected the frenzied communications of your mother,
as the imaginings of a heated brain; and for the same reason I
should have been equally inclined to suppose that the high state
of excitement that you were in at the time of her death may have
disordered your intellect; but, as Father Mathias positively asserts,
that a strange, if not supernatural, appearance of a vessel did take
place, on his passage home, and which appearance tallies with and
corroborates the legend, if so I may call it, to which you have
given evidence; I say that it is not impossible but that it is
supernatural."

"Recollect that the same appearance of the Phantom Ship has been
permitted to me and to many others," replied Philip.

"Yes," replied Father Seysen; "but who is there alive of those who saw
it but yourself? But that is of little importance. We will admit
that the whole affair is not the