d it and read:

"MY DEAR DAUGHTER MAISIE,

"It is with great pain that I take up my pen to acquaint you of the
fatal calamity which has befallen your sister Phoebe and her
husband, as well as I grieve to say of your own child Ruth, my
granddaughter, all three of whom there is every reason to fear have
lost their lives at sea on the sailing-packet _Scheldt_, from
Antwerp to London, which is believed to have gone down with every
soul on board in the great gale of September 30, now nearly two
months since.

"You will be surprised that your sister and little girl should be
on the seas, but that this should be so was doubtless the Will of
God, and in compliance with His ordinances, though directly
contrary to my own advice. Had due attention been paid to my wishes
this might have been avoided. Here is the account of how it
happened, from which you may judge for yourself:

"Your brother-in-law Cropredy's imprudence is no doubt to answer
for it, he having run the risk of travelling abroad to put himself
in personal communication with a house of business at Malines, a
most unwholesome place for an Englishman, though no doubt healthy
for foreigners. As I had forewarned him, he contracted fever in the
heat of August, when ill-fed on a foreign diet, which, however
suitable to them, is fatal to an English stomach, and little better
than in France. The news of this illness coming to your sister, she
would not be resigned to the Will of Providence, to which we should
all bow rather than rashly endanger our lives, but took upon
herself to decide, contrary to my remonstrance, to cross the
Channel with the little girl, of whom I could have taken charge
here at my own home. Merciful to say, the fever left him, having a
good constitution from English living, and all was promise of a
safe return, seeing the weather was favourable when the ship left
the quay, and a fair wind. But of that ship no further is known,
only she has not been heard of since, and doubtless is gone to the
bottom in the great gale which sprung up in mid-channel, for so
many have done the like. Even as the ships of Jehosaphat were
broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish (Chron. II. xx.
37).

"There is, I fear, no room for hope that, short of a miracle, for
the sea wil