between the bows of the
vessel and our heavy boat. His head was for a second visible on the
surface, but before an arm could be stretched out to save him the two
vessels came crash together, with his head between them. A gush of blood
was all we saw of him, for the next moment we were all in the sea,
struggling for our own lives. Our boat had stove its bows in against the
ship, which we had approached too closely, in our endeavour to save the
poor man.

"I was fortunate enough to secure an oar, and working gradually to
leeward of the wreck, with great exertion at length got aboard, where,
to my joy, I found my father. The boat still floated bottom upwards,
with five men upon the keel, who were constantly lashed by the cold
waves, till presently a larger wave than the others broke the hold of
two of the men, and washed them into eternity. Gradually in the swirl
and foam of the mighty waters the boat beat round to the leeward of the
ship, and I then saw that the men on the keel were my two cousins and
brother. They could all swim, and seeing that my father and I were ready
with ropes, quitted their precarious seat on the keel, and struck out
towards the ship. My brother and cousin Phillipe, after a terrible
struggle, were drawn aboard, but Gabriel, who could not swim so
strongly, presently became exhausted and cried out for a rope. The
distance appeared too far to fling it, but with a powerful swing my
father threw the coil, the end of which fell a yard short of the
swimmer. If I live a thousand years I shall never forget the look of
despair upon my cousin's face as he sank back in the water completely
exhausted. As his head disappeared his hand, like an eagle's claw, came
above the surface of the water and gave one wild clutch at the rope
which should have proved his salvation, then it disappeared also, and he
was no more.

"Thus, out of eleven men, only four were saved. Incredible as it may
seem, these were all of them relatives--my brother, father, cousin, and
self--it was quite a family party. We were taken off the wreck in the
afternoon by another boat and safely landed. Ducas was a lucky name that
day, and so it proved three years after, for my brother was the _only_
survivor when his fishing boat was run down, and a crew of eight men
perished."

Seeing that we had just had one melancholy recital I thought it best to
start something more pleasant, so I handed Alec a large mug of coffee,
and said:

"Take a dri