of men more cheerfully obeyed. Instantaneously that mixed,
nondescript crowd--Irish, English, Scotch, Welsh, Dutch--Catholic,
Protestant, infidel--fell on their knees, and, if they did not pray,
they paid that _outward homage_ to Religion which sometimes the most
indifferent and irreligious cannot resist paying her. Infidelity is a
great coward, as well as a false guide. In her hour of ease and satiety,
she pretends to scorn the threats and judgments of the Most High, and,
like Satan in his pandemonium, to make war on Heaven; but no sooner does
the roaring of the thunderbolt shake the earth, or the vast abyss open
its devouring throat to swallow her unhappy victims, than she hides her
head in the caves of the earth, or, flying to some secure place,
abandons her votaries to the forlorn hope of trusting to the weakness of
their own minds for resources to extricate themselves from the evils
that threaten them. It was so on board the ill-fated Hottinguer. Those
who, under the influence of the security offered by the prosperous
sailing of the few first days, were bold, independent, and defiant of
danger, no sooner did they see their comrades thrown overboard, after a
few hours' sickness, than their hearts failed within them, their tone of
defiance was turned into despair, their mockery of religion ceased, and
that priest of God, whom they ridiculed, insulted, and despised for the
first few days, was now respected, confided in, and regarded by them
with sentiments bordering on religious homage.

Fervently did that priest, who thanked God that he was on hand, pray,
not that God would restore him to his wife and children,--for all hope
of recovery was now gone,--but that, in accordance with the anxious
desire of the dying man, he should have the privilege of burial in a
Christian, consecrated tomb.

"Pray, father," said he, "that, if it be God's holy will, I may be
buried in a consecrated soil. It seems to me a sort of profanation, that
the cruel fishes and those monsters of the deep, which we see leaping
around the vessel, should devour my flesh, united with, and I hope
sanctified now by, the flesh and blood of my Lord."

The priest did pray, and the people joined in that impulsive prayer of
faith, and that prayer was heard; for, though O'Clery breathed his last
on board, and, by the captain's orders, the sailors--poor fellows!--were
standing around his berth, prepared, as soon as the last breath left
him, to throw him over