aracter, was on board--he had indeed
casually heard; but had seen nothing of him to his own knowledge; and
if he were under hatches and in irons, there was no room to doubt that
he must have been amongst those who were most sure to have perished.
All that he could certainly report of the final sequel to his own
share in the adventure--was that, since his eyes had opened on
shore, they had rested on no countenance which he remembered to
have seen on board the Halcyon. It is needless to say that a mixed
expression of wonder, deep interest in the events, and compassion
for the unfortunate sufferers, accompanied Bertram's narrative. The
narrator himself was the object of a mingled sympathy of condolence and
congratulation--blended however with an air of keen examination
directed to his features (now that they were brought nearer to the
observers and under a steadier light) which had once before distressed
him in the course of the evening, and for which he could find no
satisfactory explanation. The prevailing sentiment, which arose at the
end of the account, was a lively regret that the near prospect of
seeing Edward Nicholas again--so suddenly opened upon them--should have
been so suddenly overcast. Nevertheless, such was the general
confidence in his good fortune and his unrivalled resources in presence
of mind and bodily activity--that considerable odds were offered by
many of the company that Nicholas, who had outlived so many desperate
storms, both by sea and land, in all climates of the world, would yet
be heard of again.

For any of these feelings or considerations Mr. Dulberry had no
leisure: the moral, which he drew from this, as from all other events
great or small--sad or merry, was exclusively civic and full of
patriotic spleen:--"So then," said he, "you see what sort of ships
government choose for transporting their state prisoners?"

"But, good God, Mr. Dulberry, you can hardly suppose that the boiler of
the Halcyon was in the pay of my Lord Londonderry?"

"The boiler!--No: but where was the engineer that _should_ have been
in his pay? Didn't Mr. Bennett propose a year or two ago, that no
steam-packet should be lawfully turned off the stocks before it was
thoroughly examined by a state engineer? Didn't----"

But here supper was announced, a summons welcome in itself, and at this
moment doubly so as putting a stop to the reformer. Even that person
condescended to be pleased on the former consideration, thou