float for some time longer; still it is difficult to say
when a water-logged vessel may go down. Had we hung on during the dark,
we might have been taken by surprise, and not have been able to get
clear in time. I heard the captain propose to Mr Cole to set her on
fire, in the hopes that the blaze might bring some vessel down to our
relief; but I suspect that he had not the heart to do it. At last, as
night was coming on, he gave the order, "Cast off." I suspect he never
gave a more unwilling one. Not another word did he say, but he gave a
last lingering look at the craft he had so long commanded, and then
turned away his head.

Our lugs were hoisted, for the wind had come round to the southward, and
away we stood for Cephalonia. It was a beautiful night, the sea was
smooth and the wind was light,--indeed, we would rather have had more of
it,--the stars came brightly out of the clear sky, and there was every
appearance of fine weather. There seemed no reason to doubt that all
would go well, if the wind did not again get up; and, as we had just had
a strong blow, there was a prospect of its continuing calm till we got
to our destination. The night passed away pretty well--all hands slept
by turns, and, for my own part, I could have slept right through it, had
it not been that the groans of one of my companions, who lay close to
me, sounded in my ears and awoke me. I sat up and recognised the voice
of poor Edward Seton. La Motte and I, who were closest to him, did all
we could to assuage his pain. We bathed his wounds and supplied him
with drink, but his tortures increased till towards the morning, when on
a sudden he said that he felt more easy. At first, I fancied that all
was going right with him; but soon the little strength he had began to
fail, and as the sun rose, and fell on his pale cheeks, I saw that the
mark of death was already there. I spoke to him and asked him what I
could do for him. He was perfectly conscious of his approaching death.

"You have done all you could for me, Will," he answered, in a low faint
voice, not audible to the rest. "It is all over with me in this world.
I am glad that you are near me, for you think more as I do, and you know
better what is right than the rest of our shipmates; but, Weatherhelm,
let a dying man warn you, as you know better than others what is right,
so are your responsibilities greater, and thus more will be demanded of
you by the Great Judge before w