off. I thought that I knew perfectly well
the place my family have got to, but I am fairly puzzled with the Welsh
names. I ought to have kept my brother's letters in which he had
clearly written it down. Whether it is Twrog-y-Bwlch, or
Llwyd-y-Cynfael, or Dwyryd-y-Ffetiog, I am sure I don't know. I hit the
right post-town, of that I am nearly certain. There's a village in the
bottom. I might go down and inquire, but then I probably should not
find my way back again over the mountain to the inn where I left my
traps. I hope that I may hit it off to-morrow. It's very tantalising,
and provoking too, to be so near home, and yet not able to find it. It
was very stupid to lose the letter. They do say midshipmen are very
careless chaps, and that I am no exception to the rule. Well, I have no
reason to grumble. I haven't enjoyed such a sight as this for many a
day, though it's something like being mast-headed, except with the
difference that I may go down when I like. I should enjoy it more if I
had a messmate to talk to about it. The air is wonderfully fine up
here. It makes me feel inclined to shout out at the top of my voice,
`Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, And Britons never, never,
never will be slaves,' Hurra! That's it. Hurra, boys! `We'll fight
and we'll conquer again and again.'"

Thus the happy young midshipman gave full scope to the exuberance of his
spirits, feeling very sure that no one was listening to him. As he
ceased, a curiously wild, mournful strain struck his ear, ascending from
below him on the west, and forming a strange contrast to the merry notes
he had been singing. It was like the noonday song of the joyous lark,
as he soars into the blue sky, answered by the midnight croak of the
raven as he sits on the old abbey's ivy-covered wall. He listened. It
seemed rather like a continued shriek than a song, or the fearful cry of
the fabled Banshee as she flits by the family mansion in Ireland, to
warn the inmates, as is ignorantly supposed, that one of their number
must prepare to quit the world, its pleasures and its sorrows. The
young midshipman's mind was, however, too well trained to indulge even
for a moment in any such fancies, for he owed his education to a wise,
religious, and loving father. Yet he was sorely puzzled at first to
account for the wild strains which floated through the air, till he
caught sight of the ruined hut he had observed on his way up, and
discer