; but you never turned round.'

'I was deeply occupied,' she said in an undertone.

'Yes--I too came to see him pass. I heard this morning that Lord Nelson
had embarked, and I knew at once that they would sail immediately. The
Victory and Euryalus are to join the rest of the fleet at Plymouth. There
was a great crowd of people assembled to see the admiral off; they
cheered him and the ship as she dropped down. He took his coffin on
board with him, they say.'

'His coffin!' said Anne, turning deadly pale. 'Something terrible, then,
is meant by that! O, why _would_ Bob go in that ship? doomed to
destruction from the very beginning like this!'

'It was his determination to sail under Captain Hardy, and under no one
else,' said John. 'There may be hot work; but we must hope for the
best.' And observing how wretched she looked, he added, 'But won't you
let me help you back? If you can walk as far as Hope Cove it will be
enough. A lerret is going from there across the bay homeward to the
harbour in the course of an hour; it belongs to a man I know, and they
can take one passenger, I am sure.'

She turned her back upon the Channel, and by his help soon reached the
place indicated. The boat was lying there as he had said. She found it
to belong to the old man who had been with her at the Bill, and was in
charge of his two younger sons. The trumpet-major helped her into it
over the slippery blocks of stone, one of the young men spread his jacket
for her to sit on, and as soon as they pulled from shore John climbed up
the blue-grey cliff, and disappeared over the top, to return to the
mainland by road.

Anne was in the town by three o'clock. The trip in the stern of the
lerret had quite refreshed her, with the help of the biscuits, which she
had at last been able to eat. The van from the port to Overcombe did not
start till four o'clock, and feeling no further interest in the gaieties
of the place, she strolled on past the King's house to the outskirts, her
mind settling down again upon the possibly sad fate of the Victory when
she found herself alone. She did not hurry on; and finding that even now
there wanted another half-hour to the carrier's time, she turned into a
little lane to escape the inspection of the numerous passers-by. Here
all was quite lonely and still, and she sat down under a willow-tree,
absently regarding the landscape, which had begun to put on the rich
tones of declining summer, but w