ght of, the preceding day, with
all the tenderness of her impassioned and devoted soul,--even he did
not, in the first hours of her terrible consciousness, so much as
command a single passing regard. All the affections were for a period
blighted in her bosom. She seemed as one devoted, without the power of
resistance, to a grief which calcined and preyed upon all other
feelings of the mind. One stunning and annihilating reflection seemed
to engross every principle of her being; nor was it for hours after she
had been restored to life and recollection that a deluge of burning
tears, giving relief to her heart and a new direction to her feelings,
enabled her at length to separate the past from, and in some degree
devote herself to, the present. Then, indeed, for the first time did
she perceive and take pleasure in the presence of her lover; and
clasping her beloved and weeping Clara to her heart, thank her God, in
all the fervour of true piety, that she at least had been spared to
shed a ray of comfort on her distracted spirit. But we will not pain
the reader by dwelling on a scene that drew tears even from the rugged
and flint-nerved boatswain himself; for, although we should linger on
it with minute anatomical detail, no powers of language we possess
could convey the transcript as it should be. Pass we on, therefore, to
the more immediate incidents of our narrative.

The day now rapidly developing, full opportunity was afforded the
mariners to survey the strict nature of their position. To all
appearance they were yet in the middle of the lake, for around them lay
the belting sweep of forest that bounded the perspective of the
equidistant circle, of which their bark was the focus or immediate
centre. The wind was dying gradually away, and when at length the sun
rose, in all his splendour, there was scarce air enough in the heavens
to keep the sails from flapping against the masts, or to enable the
vessel to obey her helm. In vain was the low and peculiar whistle of
the seamen heard, ever and anon, in invocation of the departing breeze.
Another day, calm and breathless as the preceding, had been chartered
from the world of light; and their hearts failed them, as they foresaw
the difficulty of their position, and the almost certainty of their
retreat being cut off. It was while labouring under the disheartening
consciousness of danger, peculiar to all, that the anxious boatswain
summoned Captain de Haldimar and Sir Everar