y future destiny; and a
sorrowful accident at once determined in what line I should make my
ineffectual attempts upon fame.

I have mentioned a noble piece of water that lay adjacent to the school.
It was during the holidays, when the rest of the young gentlemen were
at their respective homes, that I, accompanied by some young
acquaintances who resided in the village, repaired to the water to swim.
It was a fine summer afternoon, and both Mr and Mrs Cherfeuil were in
town. There was a little boy named Fountain, also staying with me at
school during the vacation, and he too stole after us unperceived, and
when I and my companions had swam to middle of the lake, the imprudent
little fellow also stripped and went into the water. There were some
idle stragglers looking on, and when I was far, very far from the sport,
the fearful shout came along the level surface, of "Help, help, he is
drowning!" and with dreadful distinctness, as if the voice had been
shrieked into my very ears, I heard the poor lad's bubbling and
smothered cry of "Ralph Rattlin!" Poor fellow, he thought there was
safety wherever I was, for I had often borne him over the lake out of
his depth, as I taught him to swim, at which art he was still too
imperfect. I immediately turned to the place, and strove, and buffeted,
and panted; but the distance was great, and, though a rapid and most
expert swimmer, when I arrived at the spot that the lookers-on
indicated, not a circle, not a ruffle appeared, to show where a human
soul was struggling beneath, to free itself from its mortal clay. Four
or five times I dived, and stayed below the water with desperate
pertinacity, and ploughed up the muddy bottom, but they had pointed out
to me the wrong spot.

Finding my efforts useless, naked as I was, with the fleetness of a
greyhound, I started into the village and gave the alarm, and
immediately that I saw the people running to the lake, I was there
before them, and again diving. Mrs ---, the lady of the M.P. whom I
have before mentioned, who was always the foremost in every work of
humanity, was soon on the banks, accompanied by many of the most
respectable inhabitants in the vicinity. Mrs ---, who never lost her
presence of mind, immediately suggested that a boat that lay on the
neighbouring river, and which belonged to the landlord of the principal
inn, should be conveyed, on men's shoulders, across the space of land
that divided one water from the other. T