all the morning, and
certainly no vessel, they said, answering the description of the smack
had come in. At any other time my eye would have dwelt with pleasure on
the scenery which is presented by the beautiful estuary of the Tay, but
now I could only think of the object of my search. I was leaning back
on the grass, hoping to recover strength to proceed, when my companion
jumped up and ran down toward the water's edge.

"What news, Sandy! what news do ye bring?"

"The vessel is safe," was the answer. "Thank Heaven for its mercy!" I
ejaculated; and springing up and running towards the young fisherman,
"Tell me, lad, tell me, how is my wife!"

"The puir young leddy was taken very bad--very bad indeed, when she
found that you had gone overboard, and all on board thought that she
could not live. No one could give her any comfort, for no one thought
you could have escaped. The rest on board, indeed, had soon to think of
themselves. The vessel drove past the Inchcape Rock, and all heard the
tolling of the bell, and believed that they were going to strike on it.

"While others were bemoaning their fate, and crying out for mercy, and
expecting to be drowned, she sat up and seemed to have forgotten the
cause of her own grief.

"`Ah,' she said with a smile, `what makes you miserable, gives me joy.
You fear death. I look forward to it as a happiness, because I shall
soon be joined to him who has been torn from me.'

"Ay, sir, the bell tolled louder and louder, and each toll that it gave
made her heart beat quicker with joy, while it drove the life-blood away
from the hearts of those who feared death as the greatest of evils. On
drifted the vessel--darkness was around them--still that solemn bell
kept tolling and tolling, but yet the expected shock was not felt. The
bell tolled on, but the sounds grew fainter and fainter, and the master
told them that they had no longer cause to fear, and might thank Heaven
for their preservation, for that he knew where they were, and could take
them into a port in safety. Well, but of your wife, I know that you
will want to hear."

"Yes! yes!" I exclaimed, "tell me how is she--where is she!" We wore
all the time the young fisherman was speaking hurrying down towards the
ferry-boat.

"That is just what I was about to tell ye," he answered, with the
deliberate way in which the inhabitants of that part of Scotland of his
rank generally speak. "The young leddy, they told me, n