y torn and mangled
condition was so great a miracle, that, spite of my poor shipmates
having perished and my own state being as hopeless as the sky was
starless, I could not but consider that God's hand was very visible in
this business.

I will not pretend to remember how I passed the hours till the dawn
came. I recollect of frequently stepping below to lift the hatch of the
lazarette, to judge by the sound of the quantity of water in the vessel.
That she was filling I knew well, yet not leaking so rapidly but that,
had our crew been preserved, we might easily have kept her free, and
made shift to rig up jury masts and haul us as best we could out of
these desolate parallels. There was, however, nothing to be done till
the day broke. I had noticed the jolly-boat bottom up near the starboard
gangway, and so far as I could make out by throwing the dull lantern
light upon her she was sound; but I could not have launched her without
seeing what I was doing, and even had I managed this, she stood to be
swamped and I to be drowned. And, in sober truth, so horrible was the
prospect of going adrift in her without preparing for the adventure with
oars, sail, mast, provisions, and water--most of which, by the lamplight
only, were not to be come at amid the hideous muddle of wreckage--that
sooner than face it I was perfectly satisfied to take my chance of the
hulk sinking with me in her before the sun rose.

CHAPTER IV.

I QUIT THE WRECK.

The east grew pale and grey at last. The sea rolled black as the night
from it, with a rounded smooth-backed swell; the wind was spent; only a
small air, still from the north-east, stirred. There were a few stars
dying out in the dark west; the atmosphere was clear, and when the sun
rose I knew he would turn the sable pall overhead into blueness.

The hull lay very deep. I had at one time, during the black hours,
struck into a mournful calculation, and reckoned that the brig would
float some two or three hours after sunrise; but when the glorious beam
flashed out at last, and transformed the ashen hue of dawn into a
cerulean brilliance and a deep of rolling sapphire, I started with
sudden terror to observe how close the covering-board sat upon the
water, and how the head of every swell ran past as high as the bulwark
rail.

Yet for a few moments I stood contemplating the scene of ruin. It was
visible now to its most trifling detail. The foremast was gone smooth
off at the deck;