d the mysterious and dreaded object of their journey,
had a most appalling effect upon my spirits.

At length we arrived within fifty perches of the house, walking in a
compact body, and with as little noise as possible; but it seemed as
if the very elements had conspired to frustrate our design, for on
advancing within the shade of the farm-hedge, two or three persons found
themselves up to the middle in water, and on stooping to ascertain more
accurately the state of the place, we could see nothing but one immense
sheet of it--spread like a lake over the meadows which surrounded the
spot we wished to reach.

Fatal night! The very recollection of it, when associated with the
fearful tempests of elements, grows, if that were possible, yet more
wild and revolting. Had we been engaged in any innocent or benevolent
enterprise, there was something in our situation just then that had a
touch of interest in it to a mind imbued with a relish for the savage
beauties of nature. There we stood, about a hundred and thirty in
number, our dark forms bent forward, peering into the dusky expanse of
water, with its dim gleams of reflected light, broken by the weltering
of the mimic waves into ten thousand fragments, whilst the few stars
that overhung it in the firmament appeared to shoot through it in broken
lines, and to be multiplied fifty-fold in the gloomy mirror on which we
gazed.

Over us was a stormy sky, and around us; a darkness through which we
could only distinguish, in outline, the nearest objects, whilst the wild
wind swept strongly and dismally upon us. When it was discovered that
the common pathway to the house was inundated, we were about to abandon
our object and return home. The Captain, however, stooped down low for
a moment, and, almost closing his eyes, looked along the surface of the
waters; and then, rising himself very calmly, said, in his usually quiet
tone, "Ye needn't go back, boys, I've found a way; jist follow me."

He immediately took a more circuitous direction, by which we reached a
causeway that had been raised for the purpose of giving a free passage
to and from the house, during such inundations as the present. Along
this we had advanced more than half way, when we discovered a breach
in it, which, as afterwards appeared, had that night been made by the
strength of the flood. This, by means of our sticks and pikes, we found
to be about three feet deep, and eight yards broad. Again we were at
a los