CHAPTER I.

As when a dolphin and a sele are met
In the wide champian of the ocean plaine,
With cruell chaufe their courages they whet,
The maysterdome of each by force to gaine,
And dreadfull battaile twixt them do darraine;
They snuf, they snort, they bounce, they rage, they rore,
That all: the sea, disturbed with their traine,
Doth frie with fome above the surges hore:
Such was betwixt these two the troublesome uprore.
_Faerie Queene_.--B. v. C. ii.

Perhaps the reader may still remember the following article in the
Times newspaper, which about a year or two ago raised a powerful
interest on the Welch coast.

"Carnarvon.-Yesterday the inhabitants of this city were witnesses to a
grand but afflicting spectacle from the highlands of the coast. The
steam-vessel, Halcyon, from the Isle of Wight, and bound to the north
coast of Wales, was suddenly in mid-channel--when not a breath of wind
ruffled the surface of the sea--driven into our bay. Scarcely had she
rounded the point of Harlech when we beheld a column of smoke rising;
and in a moment after a dreadful report, echoing from the mountains,
made known that the powder magazine was blown up, and the ship
shattered into fragments. The barks, which crowded to the spot from all
quarters, found nothing but floating spars; and were soon compelled to
return by the coming-on of a dreadful hurricane. Of the whole crew, and
of sixty passengers (chiefly English people returning from France), not
one is saved. It is said that a very atrocious criminal was on board
the Halcyon. We look with the utmost anxiety for the details of this
melancholy event."

To the grief of several noble families in England, this account was
confirmed in its most dreadful circumstances. Some days after the
bodies of Lord W----, and of Sir O---- ---- (that distinguished
ornament for so long a period of the House of Commons), were found upon
the rocks. So much were they disfigured, that it was with difficulty
they were recognized.

On that day there stood upon the deck of the Halcyon a young man, who
gazed on the distant coasts of Wales apparently with deep emotion. From
this reverie he was suddenly roused as the ship whirled round with a
hideous heaving. He turned, as did all the other passengers who had
been attracted on deck by the beauty of the evening, to the man at the
he