t work again, had,
in some measure, recovered their spirits, and were buoyed up with fresh
hopes at the slight change in their favour from the decrease of the
wind. The two boats were quite large enough to contain the whole of the
crew and passengers; but, as the sailors said among themselves (proving
the kindness of their hearts), "What was to become of those two poor
babbies, in an open boat for days and nights, perhaps?" Captain Ingram
had gone down to Mrs Templemore, to impart to her their melancholy
prospects; and the mother's heart, as well as the mother's voice, echoed
the words of the seamen, "What will become of my poor babes?"

It was not till nearly six o'clock in the evening that all was ready:
the ship was slowly brought to the wind again, and the boats launched
over the side. By this time the gale was much abated; but the vessel
was full of water, and was expected soon to go down.

There is no time in which coolness and determination are more required
than in a situation like the one which we have attempted to describe.
It is impossible to know the precise moment at which a water-logged
vessel, in a heavy sea, may go down: and its occupants are in a state of
mental fever, with the idea of their remaining in her so late that she
will suddenly submerge, and leave them to struggle in the waves. This
feeling actuated many of the crew of the _Circassian_, and they had
already retreated to the boats. All was arranged; Oswald had charge of
one boat, and it was agreed that the larger should receive Mrs
Templemore and her children, under the protection of Captain Ingram.
The number appointed to Oswald's boat being completed, he shoved off, to
make room for the other, and laid-to to leeward, waiting to keep
company. Mrs Templemore came up with Captain Ingram, and was assisted
by him into the boat. The nurse, with one child, was at last placed by
her side; Coco was leading Judy, the other nurse, with the remaining
infant in her arms, and Captain Ingram, who had been obliged to go into
the boat with the first child, was about to return to assist Judy with
the other, when the ship gave a heavy pitch, and her forecastle was
buried in the wave: at the same time the gunwale of the boat was stove
by coming in contact with the side of the vessel. "She's down, by God!"
exclaimed the alarmed seamen in the boat; shoving off to escape from the
vortex.

Captain Ingram, who was standing on the boat's thwarts to assist J