his face
seemed like the face of an angel, as he spoke sweetly and solemnly, of
the goodness and the love of God, and bade us put our whole trust and
hope in Christ our Saviour. His earnest words and serene look, soothed
and strengthened us; we also became calm and almost resigned. There was
no abject fear, no useless cries, or supplications to our foes for
mercy; but the solemn sense of the awfulness of death, was mingled with
a sweet and sustaining faith in God, and Christ, and Immortality. Hand
in hand, like brothers, we were preparing to take the fearful plunge--
when I started and awoke.

Even the recollection of our real situation was insufficient to impair
the deep sense of relief which I experienced. My first impulse was to
thank God that these were but dreams; and if I had obeyed the next, I
should have embraced heartily each of my slumbering companions; for in
the first confusion of thought and feeling, my emotions were very much
what they would naturally have been, had the scenes of visionary terror,
in which we seemed to have just participated together, been real.

Morton was at his post, and I spoke to him, scarcely knowing or caring
what I said. All I wanted, was to hear his voice, to revive the sense
of companionship, and so escape the painful impressions which even yet
clung to me.

He said that he had just commenced his watch, Arthur having called him
but a few moments before. The night was still lowering and overcast,
but there was less wind and sea than when I first laid down. I proposed
to relieve him at once, but he felt no greater inclination to sleep than
myself and we watched together until morning. The two or three hours
immediately before dawn seemed terribly long. Just as the first grey
light appeared in the east, Arthur joined us. A dense volume of vapour
which rested upon the water, and contributed to the obscurity in which
we were enveloped, now gathered slowly into masses, and floated upward
as the day advanced, gradually clearing the prospect; and we kept
looking out for the island, in the momentary expectation of seeing it
loom up before us through the mist. But when, as the light increased,
and the fog rolled away, the boundaries of our vision rapidly enlarged,
and still no land could be seen, we began to feel seriously alarmed. A
short period of intense and painful anxiety followed, during which we
continued alternately gazing, and waiting for more light, and again
strai