she replied, going on as if in a dream.

Desborough had his wish: his rival was gone; he had the field to
himself; but he was too manly to feel any exultation now that it was
over, and too sorry for the vacant despair he saw on her face. He
tenderly whispered to her as he led her on,--

"Believe me, dear Katharine, it is not thus I would have triumphed over
Mr. Seymour. He was in truth a knightly gentleman."

Overwhelming pity for her filled his heart, and he went on
magnanimously,--

"I am sorry--"

She made no answer; she did not hear. In the cabin the body of little
Montagu was lying on a table. He would never get his frigate now. How
small and frail and boyish looked the Honorable Giles to-day! Why did
they send children like that to war? Had he no mother?--poor lad!
Moved by a sudden impulse, she stooped and kissed him, as she had done
an hour before. No throb of the proud little heart answered responsive
to her caress now. Alas! she might kiss him when and as she pleased;
he would not feel it, and he would not heed. Entering her own berth at
last, she closed the door and sank down upon her knees,--alone with God!

"A sail coming down fast,--the little brig, sir," reported the officer
of the deck to Captain Vincent. "Shall we come about and give him a
broadside?"

"No, no; we dare not handle the braces yet,--not until the gear and
spars have been well overhauled."

"Shall we use the stern-chaser then, sir?"

The Yarmouth had left the scene of the explosion some distance away by
this time, but she was still within easy gun-shot. Captain Vincent
earnestly examined the brig; as he looked, she came up to the wind,
hove to, and dropped a boat in the water. There was a bit of spar
still floating there. The captain saw that three or four men were
clinging to it.

"No; she's on an errand of mercy. There are men in the water on that
topmast there. Let her go free," he said generously. "We 've done
enough to-day to satisfy any reasonable man."

The colonel grasped his hand warmly and thanked him. The little brig
picked up her boat, swung her mainyard, and filled away again on the
port tack, in the wake of the rest of the little squadron now far
ahead; then, understanding the forbearance of the big ship, she fired a
gun to leeward and dipped her ensign in salute.

The force of the explosion had thrown Seymour, from his advantageous
position aft, far out into the water and away from the sink