men forsook
their wives in the endeavour to save their own lives; their wives and
children were entreating the help from strangers denied them by
husbands and fathers, and an officer who had heretofore been
considered not only as a most courageous soldier, but had showed
himself a kind and affectionate husband, now turned a deaf ear to the
prayers of his wife, and intent only on his own deliverance, climbed
up into the rigging of the mainmast, left her to her fate below,
whatever it might be. In the meantime, the captain had ordered the
ship to be examined, he found that she had struck upon a hidden rock,
and the waves beating over the quarter deck had already filled all the
rooms with water. Several men had been washed overboard as they rushed
from their hammocks to the deck at the moment of the ship striking,
but the greater number had reached the foredeck where they crowded
closely together, awaiting in painful anxiety for what the morning
would bring.

At length the dappling clouds in the east proclaimed the hour of
dawning--the day struggled into existence, and showed to the great joy
of the shipwrecked, a rock about fifty yards distant, which raising
its dark head above the foaming sea, promised present safety if it
could be reached, although the white waves broke furiously against it.
But how were they to reach it? The only hope--and it was a weak
one--was if they could succeed in passing a rope from the ship to the
rock, and fastening it there so firmly that by its aid all might be
able to leave the wreck. But who was the adventurous one to carry it
thither? The most experienced officers on board, declared it
impossible for any one to brave those angry breakers successfully, and
the best and most resolute of the sailors, who, perhaps, would have
ventured encountering such a risk, had broken into the spirit room and
were now lying drunk, seeking to drown the bitterness of death which
they were so certain of meeting, by steeping their senses in
oblivion.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Stewart with folded arms and thoughtful
mien, stood on the foredeck, measuring with his eyes the distance
between the wreck and the rock. After some minutes spent in deep
consideration, he threw off his coat, fastened a rope round his body,
and plunged into the boiling surf. The soldiers looked on in anxious
silence--for the bold swimmer had almost immediately disappeared from
their view--a wave had buried him deep in its bosom--but