r bare poles. The waves were huge
mountains. The storm raged with fury. The night was pitchy dark.
Thunder and lightning did not serve to make things more agreeable. Not
a seaman on board had ever seen such a night. It was necessary to lash
oneself to the vessel to avoid being washed overboard.

Of a sudden there was a terrific crash!

The women below shrieked and prayed.

The _chef_ wanted to jump overboard.

M. Andre cried, "We have struck on a rock! We are lost!"

"Have courage!" I cried. "Fetch the women on deck. There is not an
instant to be lost. The yacht is filling!"

We had come into collision with a large vessel. I could see her lights.
She had just cleared us. A flash of blue lightning showed me the name
painted in white letters on her stern.

She was the _Lepante_, of Marseilles.

There was a lull in the storm.

There remained one chance for life--to get on board the vessel. The
yacht was filling fast, and in a few minutes would settle down.

Except one or two tried sailors--old comrades of mine--everybody on
board was paralysed.

It was for me to act--to choose for all.

The choice was--Death or the _Lepante_.

I chose the _Lepante_.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Frenchman stays at the post of duty.

As captain, I was responsible for the lives of all on board. I was,
therefore, the last to leave the sinking _Zephire_. Cecile was hoisted
up the side of the _Lepante_ first. I heard a shriek. In the
just-beginning twilight I could see two figures.

A man's and a woman's. I knew them.

Marc had raised Cecile on to the deck of the _Lepante_, and had
recognised her, and she him.

The horrors of the storm, of the shipwreck, the prospect of death, were
to me as nothing to this meeting.

Marc and Cecile!

In a few seconds I was safe on the deck of the _Lepante_.

M. Andre, the crew, the spectators, were horror-struck.

A man goes mad in an instant. Marc was again raving, as he had raved in
the madhouse at Benevent. But the sight of Cecile had given purpose to
his language.

"Vengeance--vengeance! Fiend! The time has come! Fate--fate has
brought us together! I could not escape you! I must kill you--kill
you! We must be damned together! Hark at the roar of the waters! Hark
at the wailing of the winds! Our shroud!--our dirge!--our requiem! that
tells us of hell! for I am a murderer, and you--"

He had the stre