onger a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent,
the youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died
at La Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent
our childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple
tomb for him near the door of the church, and for several months
Jala-Jala was a place of grief and mourning.

We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.

On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite,
I formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo,
and mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he
spent at Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed
that we did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much
attached. Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from
the other. One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to
take me on board Malvilain's ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating
one of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with
a frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I
could not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his
ship, where I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although
considerably stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet
as I was from my sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him
to my heart; and then hastened to afford relief to some of the crew,
who had not been so fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.

Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point
of Cavite, and a frightful--that is, a tropical--storm burst. The
claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and
before each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire,
darted from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where
it tore up the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity,
and near which the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was
going to see Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot o