s in their hands, that they might not see
the awful approach of death. A young mother, pale as a specter, holding
her child clasped tightly to her bosom, went supplicating from sailor
to sailor, and offering a purse full of gold and jewels to any one that
would take charge of her son.

These cries, and tears, and terror contrasted with the stern and silent
resignation of the sailors. Knowing the imminence of the inevitable
danger, some of them stripped themselves of part of their clothes,
waiting for the moment to make a last effort, to dispute their lives
with the fury of the waves; others renouncing all hope, prepared to meet
death with stoical indifference.

Here and there, touching or awful episodes rose in relief, if one may so
express it, from this dark and gloomy background of despair.

A young man of about eighteen or twenty, with shiny black hair, copper
colored complexion, and perfectly regular and handsome features,
contemplated this scene of dismay and horror with that sad calmness
peculiar to those who have often braved great perils; wrapped in a
cloak, he leaned his back against the bulwarks, with his feet resting
against one of the bulkheads. Suddenly, the unhappy mother, who, with
her child in her arms, and gold in her hand, had in vain addressed
herself to several of the mariners, to beg them to save her boy,
perceiving the young man with the copper-colored complexion, threw
herself on her knees before him, and lifted her child towards him with
a burst of inexpressible agony. The young man took it, mournfully shook
his head, and pointed to the furious waves--but, with a meaning gesture,
he appeared to promise that he would at least try to save it. Then the
young mother, in a mad transport of hope, seized the hand of the youth,
and bathed it with her tears.

Further on, another passenger of the "Black Eagle," seemed animated
by sentiments of the most active pity. One would hardly have given him
five-and-twenty years of age. His long, fair locks fell in curls on
either side of his angelic countenance. He wore a black cassock and
white neck-band. Applying himself to comfort the most desponding, he
went from one to the other, and spoke to them pious words of hope and
resignation; to hear him console some, and encourage others, in language
full of unction, tenderness, and ineffable charity, one would have
supposed him unaware or indifferent to the perils that he shared.

On his fine, mild features, was