ck,
when the men who were with us asserted that they saw some of the wreck
drifting towards us; and directly afterwards a chest and some planks
were cast within their reach, and hauled on shore.

"This encouraged us to remain; and some other chests and boxes, bales of
silk, and parts of the wreck, quickly followed. My brother and I had
been endeavouring to pierce the darkness with our eyes, to discover if
any of our fellow-creatures were floating among the remnants of their
late home, when we perceived a spar driving along the shore, to which it
gradually drew near; and as a more vivid flash of lightning than usual
darted through the air, we were convinced that we saw the figure of a
man clinging to it. Calling the men to our assistance, we hurried on to
the spot where we judged he would come on shore. The spar, with its
occupant, approached us, again to be carried off. We saw that the man
was unable to help himself. My brother and I, fastening ropes round our
waists, rushed into the water, and striking out against the waves,
almost overpowered with their force, we seized the now nearly insensible
body, just as his grasp had loosened from the spar, and dragged him
ashore. So completely exhausted was he that, at first, we believed our
exertions had been in vain, and that he was dead; but, on feeling his
heart, we found that he still breathed; and, after looking in vain for
the appearance of any of his late shipmates--though we left some men to
watch, should any come on shore--we bore him to the castle. My brother
and I were almost chilled to death with the cold wind, which blew
through our wet clothes--for we had wrapped up the stranger in our
cloaks--yet, on our reaching home, before we would attend to ourselves,
we saw him stripped of his wet garments, and placed him between blankets
in my bed.

"We then hurried off to change our own dripping clothes, leaving him in
charge of our mother, who was engaged in pouring some warm liquid down
his throat. When we returned we found that he had much revived, and was
able to speak a little,--though with pain--for he confessed that he had
received some severe blows from the pieces of the wreck, and was much
bruised, and otherwise injured.

"I ought to have stated that, on entering the castle, we found that he
was habited in the Greek costume; and that his dress was rich and
costly, as were the ornaments on a dagger and brace of pistols which
still were fixed in his sash