. I
own I was disobeying your orders, but 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 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 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 retired 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 g