passed for some minutes. As I
recovered my scattered senses, however, I recollect gazing at the
anchorage from the open window of the Admiralty House, near which we
stood. The flag-ship then lay just off Osnaburg Point, with her
ensign, or, as it used to be called in old books, her Ancient, the
"meteor flag of England," dropped, in the calm, so perpendicularly
from the gaff-end, that it looked like a rope more than a flag; while
its reflection, as well as that of the ship herself, with every mast,
yard, and line of the rigging, seemed, as it were, engraved on the
surface of the tranquil pool, as distinctly as if another vessel had
actually been inverted and placed beneath. I have seldom witnessed so
complete a calm. The sea-breeze, with which the shore had been
refreshed for twenty minutes, had not as yet found its way into the
recesses of the inner harbour, which, take it all in all, is one of
the snuggest and most beautiful coves in the world. And such is the
commodious nature of this admirable port, that even the Illustrious,
though a large 74-gun ship, rode at anchor in perfect security, within
a very few yards of the beach, which at that spot is quite steep to,
and is wooded down to, the very edge of the water. I gazed for some
moments, almost unconsciously, at this quiet scene, so different from
that which was boiling and bubbling in my own distracted breast, and
swelling up with indignation against some of my friends at home, who I
had such good reason to believe had either betrayed or neglected me,
maugre all sorts of promises.

In the midst of my reverie, which the kind-hearted Admiral did not
interrupt, I observed the wind just touch the drooping flag; but the
air was so light and transient, that it merely produced on it a gentle
motion from side to side, like that of a pendulum, imitated in the
mirror beneath, which lay as yet totally unbroken by the sea-breeze.
Presently the whole mighty flag, after a faint struggle or two,
gradually unfolded itself, and, buoyed up by the new born gale, spread
far beyond the gallant line-of-battle ship's stern, and waved
gracefully over the harbour. It is well known to nice observers of the
human mind, that the strangest fancies often come into the thoughts at
a moment when we might least expect them; and though, assuredly, I was
not then in a very poetical or imaginative humour, I contrived to
shape out of the inspiring scene I was looking upon a figure to soothe
my disap