on came over me. I know that I began to
talk loudly and to wave my hand, and to play all sorts of antics. How
long I was doing this I do not know, when one of my brother-officers put
his hand on my shoulder and said, "You have had hard work, Hurry; bed is
the best place for you." I let him lead me below without a word of
remonstrance. It struck eight bells in the morning watch when I once
more awoke. I hurried on deck; the sky was dark and lowering--the
leaden seas tumbling about with snow-white crests, from which the foam
flew away to leeward, blown by a strong gale, which seemed every moment
increasing. We were still close to the Leviathan. I kept gazing at her
with a sort of stupid stare I dare say it looked like.

"It will not do, Hurry," said Captain Luttrell. "We must give it up. I
cannot risk your life or those of any of our people on board the old
ship again."

I was scarcely inclined to acquiesce in his remark. I wanted to make
another effort to save the ship, and regretted that I had not remained
on board all night. Just then she made two or three rolls heavier than
usual--a sea appeared suddenly to lift up her stern--she made a plunge
forward. I watched, expecting her to rise again--but no. It was her
last plunge. Like the huge monster from which she took her name, she
dived down beneath the waves; the waters washed over her decks;
gradually her masts sank till the pennant alone was to be seen streaming
upwards for an instant, till that also was drawn down to the depths of
the ocean. I could not help uttering a groan of grief, not for the
wealth which I thus saw engulfed beneath the waves, but for the
destruction of all the hopes I had been so fondly cherishing.

The signal was now made for the convoy to continue on their course. The
bad weather which had been brewing now coming on, ship after ship parted
company from us, and at length, after a passage of six weeks, we reached
the Downs on the 21st of March without a single one of the convoy with
us. I had been absent from home just five years and a half. I had left
it a boy--if not in age, in habits and feelings; I had come back an
officer--bearing his Majesty's commission as lieutenant, with ideas
expanded and feelings wonderfully changed. Without any difficulty, the
moment I applied for leave Captain Luttrell granted it, and, taking Tom
Rockets with me, I set off immediately for London on my way to Falmouth.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

AD