or four days more. Still, as he
was proceeding towards convalescence, he began to be more active, or,
rather, ordered more active measures to be taken to clear up the mystery
of my disappearance. Parties were consequently sent to scour the
country for miles round; but I was too well concealed to permit them to
be of any utility. The only two seamen that had seen me near Manuel's
premises belonged to the frigate which had sailed before my captain had
recovered his faculties.

But I was not to be so easily given up; perhaps he remembered that what
remained of life to him was preserved by me, and, notwithstanding his
cruel usage, I well knew that he entertained for me a sincere affection.
As the _Eos_ got under weigh, after remaining so long at anchor in the
port, that the men observed she would shortly ground upon the beef-bones
that their active masticators had denuded, and which were thrown
overboard, the wind was light, and the boats were all out towing, with
the exception of the pinnace, which was ordered to sweep round the bay
and look into all the inlets, in order to seek for some vestige of my
important self. For good or for evil, the heart-rending results ensued.

How short is the real romance of life! A shout of joy--a pulsation of
ecstasy--and it is over! In the course of my eventful life, I have seen
very fair faces and very many beautiful forms. The fascinations of
exterior loveliness I have met combined with high intellect, unswerving
principles, and virtuous emotions, awful from their very holiness. The
fair possessors of many of these lofty attributes I have sometimes wooed
and strove to love; but, though I often sighed and prayed for a return
of that heart-whole and absorbing passion, there was no magic, no charm,
to call the dead embers into life. That young and beautiful savage
swept from my bosom all the tenderer stuff: she collected the fresh
flowers of passion, and left--It is of no consequence--Josephine,
farewell!

Let us talk idly. It is a droll world: let us mock each other, and call
it mirth. There is my poor half-deranged captain cutting such antics,
that even authority with the two-edged sword in his hand cannot repress
the outbursting of ignoble derision. First of all, he takes a mania for
apes and monkeys; disrates all his midshipmen, taking care, however,
that they still do their duty; and makes the ship's tailor rig out their
successors in uniform. The officers are aghast, f