ut even that would not have
subjected me to more than a slight punishment, while your arbitrary
act would have deprived the king, as I flatter myself, of a loyal,
and not a useless subject; and if my body had not been found, no good
could have accrued to the service from the severity of example. On the
contrary, many would have supposed I had escaped, and been encouraged
to make the same attempt."

"I am very sorry now," said Talbot, "that I did not lower down a boat
to send after you; however, it has been a comfort to me since to
reflect that the marines missed you."

This ended the subject: we walked the deck a little, talked of
sweethearts, shaped the course for the night to make Fayal, which we
were not far from, and then returned to our beds.

Falling into a sound sleep, it was natural that the conversation of
the evening should have dwelt on my mind, and a strange mixture of
disjointed thoughts, a compound of reason and insanity, haunted me
till the morning. Trinidad and Emily, the Nine-Pin Rock, and the
mysterious Eugenia, with her supposed son; the sinking wreck, and the
broken schooner, all appeared separately or together.

"When nature rests,
Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes."

I thought I saw Emily standing on the pinnacle of the Nine-Pin Rock,
just as Lord Nelson is represented on the monument in Dublin, or
Bonaparte in that of the Place Vendome; but with a grace as far
superior to either, as the Nine-Pin Rock is in majesty and natural
grandeur to those works of human art.

Emily, I thought, was clad in complete mourning, but looking radiant
in health and loveliness, although with a melancholy countenance. The
dear image of my mistress seemed to say, "I shall never come down from
this pinnacle without your assistance." "Then," thinks I, "you will
never come down at all." Then I thought Eugenia was queen of Trinidad,
and that it was she who had placed Emily out of my reach on the rock;
and I was entreating her to let Emily come down, when Thompson tapped
at my cabin door, and told me that it was daylight, and that they
could see the island of Fayal in the north-east, distant about seven
leagues.

I dressed myself, and went on deck, saw the land, and a strange sail
steering to the westward. The confounded dream still running in my
head--like Adam, I "liked it not," and yet I thought myself a fool
for not dismissing such idle stuff; still it would not go away. The
Americans came on deck soon