moment, obedient to their orders, commenced firing on them.
By the flashes of their muskets, as well as from three or four guns,
which the gunner and his crew had time to discharge, the whole dreadful
scene was disclosed for an instant, never to be erased from my memory:
The ship, with her bow run high upon the berg; her tall masts, with
their yards and sails going by the board; the dark ocean and the
white-crested seas dashing over her stern, amid which stood a mass of
human beings, in all the attitudes of agonised despair and dismay,
except those few drilled to obedience, who knew not the danger. Then,
again, above our heads, rising to the clouds, the white shining iceberg,
which at every flash seemed to glow with flames of fire--the bright
light reflected from pinnacle to pinnacle, and far into the caverned
recesses of its stupendous sides.

Can I ever forget the dreadful despairing shriek which rent the skies,
as the bow lifting high in the air, it seemed, the stern sank down, even
at the instant the marines fired their last volley: it was a volley over
their own graves! Slowly the proud ship glided from the icy rock, on
which she had been wrecked, down into the far depths of the ocean. Soon
all were engulfed beneath the greedy waves. No helping hand could we
offer to any of our shipmates. The taller masts and spars followed,
dragged down by the sinking hull; and in another instant, as we gazed
where our ship had just been, a black obscurity was alone before us. I
say we, for I saw that others were near me; but who they were I could
not at the time tell. I called out, and Andrew's voice answered, "Is
that you, Peter? I am glad you've escaped, lad. Who is there besides?"

"I'm here, Andrew, thanks to Providence and your advice," cried Terence.

"And so am I; but I don't think I can hold on much longer," exclaimed
poor Tom Stokes, who had fallen on his side and hurt himself. Terence
and I, who were near him, on this grasped hold of him, and dragged him
up to the broad ledge on which we were seated, from the rough points of
ice--to which he had been clinging. We then all huddled together as
close as we could, to keep ourselves warm.

"Perhaps there may be some one else saved," observed Andrew; so we
shouted at the top of our voices, "Shipmates, ahoy! are any of you
there?" We listened. The only answering sound was the lashing of the
waves against the base of the iceberg; and we were convinced that, out