who have husbands, children, aught to love--let them
tremble, I have nothing. Elements! be ye fire, or water, or earth, or
air, Amine defies you! And yet--no, no, deceive not thyself, Amine,
there is no hope; thus will I mount my funeral bier, and wait the will
of destiny." And Amine regained the secure place which Philip had
fitted up for her in the centre of the raft, threw herself down upon
her bed, and shut her eyes.

The thunder and lightning was followed up by torrents of heavy rain,
which fell till daylight; the wind still continued fresh, but the sky
cleared, and the sun shone out. Amine remained shivering in her wet
garments; the heat of the sun proved too powerful for her exhausted
state, and her brain wandered. She rose up in a sitting posture,
looked around her, saw verdant fields in every direction, the
cocoa-nuts waving to the wind--imagined even that she saw her own
Philip in the distance hastening to her; she held out her arms; strove
to get up, and run to meet him, but her limbs refused their office;
she called to him, she screamed, and sank back exhausted on her
resting-place.

Chapter XXVI

We must for a time return to Philip, and follow his strange destiny. A
few hours after he had thrown the pilot into the sea they gained the
shore, so long looked at with anxiety and suspense. The spars of the
raft, jerked by the running swell, undulated and rubbed against each
other, as they rose and fell to the waves breaking on the beach. The
breeze was fresh, but the surf was trifling, and the landing was
without difficulty. The beach was shelving, of firm white sand,
interspersed and strewed with various brilliant-coloured shells; and
here and there, the bleached fragments and bones of some animal which
had been forced out of its element to die. The island was, like all
the others, covered with a thick wood of cocoa-nut trees, whose tops
waved to the breeze, or bowed to the blast, producing a shade and a
freshness which would have been duly appreciated by any other party
than the present, with the exception only of Krantz; for Philip
thought of nothing but his lost wife, and the seamen thought of
nothing but of their sudden wealth. Krantz supported Philip to the
beach and led him to the shade; but after a minute he rose, and
running down to the nearest point, looked anxiously for the portion
of the raft which held Amine, which was now far, far away. Krantz had
followed, aware that, now the first pa