rom the boat. As soon as
the plank was secured, the lady leaped into the water and was buoyed up
by her clothes, until the gentleman was enabled to float the plank to
her. For a short time the young man thought that his fair charge was
safe; but soon his hopes were blasted--one of the fallen timbers struck
the lady on the head, her form sank upon the water, a momentary
quivering was perceptible, and she disappeared from human view. Her
father was lost, but the young gentleman was among the number picked up
by the Clinton.

There was a fine race-horse on board, who, soon after the alarm, broke
from his halter at the bow of the boat, and dashed through the crowd of
passengers, prostrating all in his way; and then, rendered frantic by
terror and pain, he reared and plunged into the devouring fire, and
there ended his agony.

One of the persons saved, in describing the scene, says:--"The air was
filled with shrieks of agony and despair. The boldest turned pale. I
shall never forget the wail of terror that went up from the poor German
emigrants, who were huddled together on the forward deck. Wives clung to
their husbands, mothers frantically pressed their babes to their bosoms,
and lovers clung madly to each other. One venerable old man, his gray
hairs streaming on the wind, stood on the bows, and, stretching out his
bony hands, prayed to God in the language of his father-land.

"But if the scene forward was terrible, that aft was appalling, for
there the flames were raging in their greatest fury. Some madly rushed
into the fire; others, with a yell like a demon, maddened with the
flames, which were all around them, sprang headlong into the waves. The
officers of the boat, and the crew, were generally cool, and sprang to
lower the boats, but these were every one successively swamped by those
who threw themselves into them, regardless of the execrations of the
sailors, and of every thing but their own safety.

"I tried to act coolly--I kept near the captain, who seemed to take
courage from despair, and whose bearing was above all praise. The boat
was veering toward the shore, but the maddened flames now enveloped the
wheel-house, and in a moment the machinery stopped. The last hope had
left us--a wilder shriek rose upon the air. At this moment the second
engineer, the one at the time on duty, who had stood by his machinery as
long as it would work, was seen climbing the gallows-head, a black mass,
with the flames curling