bled for their safety. As soon as
daylight returned the greater number were on foot. Not a vestige of her
could be seen. The tide and wind rising together must have carried down
the masses of ice with terrific force, and completely swept her decks.

When Captain Order heard of this, his feelings gave way. "To have lost
my ship was bad enough," he exclaimed; "but to lose so many fine young
fellows on a useless expedition is more than I can bear. It will be the
cause of my death."

The few officers who remained with the captain could offer no
consolation. The pilots and other people belonging to the place were
consulted. They declared that from the condition of the ship when last
visited, it was impossible that she could withstand the numerous masses
of ice which during the past night must have, with terrific violence,
been driven against her, that she had probably been cut down by degrees
to the water's edge, and that thus the ice must have swept over her.
They said that if even those on board had been able to launch a boat, no
boat could have lived amid the floating ice; and that even, had she
escaped from the ice, she must have foundered in the chopping sea
running at the mouth of the river. Probably, when the weather moderated
in the spring, portions of the wreck would be found thrown up on the
shore, and that was all that would ever be known of her fate. The
captain, after waiting some days, and nothing being heard of the frigate
or the lost officers and men, being sufficiently recovered, proceeded
with the remainder of the crew to Cuxhaven.

Devereux, Paul and O'Grady were general favourites, and their loss
caused great sorrow among their surviving shipmates; but sailors,
especially in those busy, stirring days, had little time for mourning
for those who had gone where they knew that they themselves might soon
be called on to follow. Some honest tears were shed to their memory,
and the captain with a heavy heart wrote his despatches, giving an
account of the loss of his ship, and of the subsequent misfortune by
which the service had been deprived of so many gallant and promising
young officers. The ambassador and his suite had for some time before
taken their departure, as the French were known to be advancing
eastward, and might have, had they delayed, intercepted them. For the
same reason Captain Order and his officers and crew anxiously looked
forward to the arrival of a ship of war to take them awa