ng all around. An officer,
Adjutant General Renier, attempted to swim on shore, hoping that a
knowledge of their condition might enable the spectators to devise some
means for their deliverance. He plunged into the sea and was lost.

"Already nearly nine hundred had perished," says Lieutenant Pipon, an
officer of the 63rd regiment, who was on board a prisoner, and who
afterwards published the dreadful story.[7] "when the fourth night came
with renewed terrors. Weak, distracted, and wanting everything, we
envied the fate of those whose lifeless corpses no longer needed
sustenance. The sense of hunger was already lost, but a parching thirst
consumed our vitals. Recourse was had to wine and salt water, which only
increased the want. Half a hogshead of vinegar floated up, and each had
half a wine-glassful. This gave a momentary relief, yet soon left us
again in the same state of dreadful thirst. Almost at the last gasp,
every one was dying with misery: the ship, which was now one third
shattered away from the stern, scarcely afforded a grasp to hold by, to
the exhausted and helpless survivors. The fourth day brought with it a
more serene sky, and the sea seemed to subside; but to behold, from fore
and aft, the dying in all directions, was a sight too shocking for the
feeling mind to endure. Almost lost to a sense of humanity, we no longer
looked with pity on those who were the speedy fore-runners of our own
fate, and a consultation took place to sacrifice some one to be food for
the remainder. The die was going to be cast, when the welcome sight of a
man-of-war brig renewed our hopes. A cutter speedily followed, and both
anchored at a short distance from the wreck. They then sent their boats
to us, and by means of large rafts, about a hundred and fifty of near
four hundred who attempted it, were saved by the brig that evening.
Three hundred and eighty were left to endure another night's misery,
when, dreadful to relate, above one-half were found dead next morning."

Commodore Lacrosse, General Humbert, and three British infantry
officers, prisoners, remained in the wreck till the fifth morning; and
all survived: so great is the influence of moral power to sustain
through extreme hardships. The prisoners were treated with the utmost
kindness, and in consideration of their sufferings, and the help they
had afforded in saving many lives, a cartel was fitted out by order of
the French Government to send them home, without ranso