Ravenshoe

hem all down but two or three, and mowed right into the morning when it was necessary that he should go home;

n love, and going to separate from the object of his affections for the first time; at which I r

calling out for him, and when he got into the hall, there was all the household to see him off. Everybody had a kind word for him; the old lady cried; Lord Saltire and the general shook hands; Lord Welter said it was a beastly sell; and Lord Ascot hummed and hawed, and t

er was a naughty boy (not really naughty, you know), because she would be less likely to like him. And then he thought how glad the people at home would be to see him; and then he looked out of the window. He had left Lord Ascot's carriage and got into the train some time be

y one when they spoke, and why the people looked scared, and talked in knots. Then he found that it was the wind in

rrible night, and Charles slept. In the cold pitiless morning, as they were going over a loftily exposed moor, the coach, though only going foot's pace, stood for a moment on two wheels, and then fell crashing over on to a heap

e stinging rain, but turned his back to it; and then, for the first time, he became

t two hundred yards, and came to an alehouse, on the sight of which Charles knew that they were two stages short of where he thought th

the terrified family crouched down beneath the tottering walls. In the valleys great trees were down across the road, which were cross-cut and moved by country men, who told of oaks of three hundred years fallen in the

self for Charles's arrival-so much so, that one would have thought she herself had singlehanded dragged the coach from Exeter. "She had been sure all along that Mr. Charles would come"-a speech which, with the cutting glance that accompanied it, goaded the landlord to retort in a voice wheezy with good living, and t

ooked at the comfortable parlour and hesitated; but, happening to close his eyes an instant, he saw as plain as possible the library at home, and the flickering fire-light falling on the crimson a

enty pounds; and that if he kept well under the walls going home he would be out of the wind; that his missis was took poorly in the night with spasms, and had been cured by two wine-gla

est of the pad grooms-a man with grizzled hair, looking like a whit

said Charley, "how

's a awful day down there; there's abov

be able to

as we sha

Terrible se

. Mackworth and Mr. Cuthbe

aft as

ng a Pill boat, 52, stood in to see where she was, and

they were well enough sheltered, and made capital way, till the wood began to grow sparer, and the road to rise abruptly. Here the blast began to be more sens

eiving for the first time the terrible tornado full in their faces, the horses reared up and refused to proceed; but, bein

rd side, Charles looked up, and there was another horsem

. Lewis? Any ship a

ood sailor gone to the bottom before to-morrow morning, I

hall. Charles was caught up by his father; Lloyd's agent was sent to the housekeeper's room; and very soon Charl

I'll be bound they liked you. You ought to

they are not at all clever people, bless you!" And on

're come back. Well, and what did you thi

funny, Cuthbert," sa

sance," said Cuthbert. "I hope he hasn

, and when they went to complines, he went to bed. Up in his room he could hear that the wind was worse than ever, not rushing up in great

h had approached him unheard through the noise. He began, indeed, to meditate upon going

uld feel the wind of its heavy draperies as it moved. Moreover, a thing like a caterpillar, with a cat's head, about two feet long, came creep-creep

and was cheered to find a light burning;

asked he, with

d Charles; "c

can hear people talking in the wind. C

their father came in with a light from his bedroom next door, and sat on the bed t

r and started up. The wind was as bad as ever, but the whol

t?" whisper

as that which woke them. A sound like a single footstep on the floor above, light enough, but which shook the room.

g

in those words. The wind was N.W., setting into

t they hardly knew what. The men were pale, and some of the women were beginning to whimper and wring their hands; when Densil, Lewis the agent, and Mackworth came rapidly down the staircase and passed out. Mackworth came back, and told the wom

same way as themselves. The men were walking singly, either running or going very fast; and the wom

e bound," Charles heard one woman say, "as

to rest sudden, like they're going to be, than dra

the China sea. Darn they lousy typhoons! I wonde

promontory, with their faces seaward, and the water right and left of them. The cape ran out about a third of a mile, rather low, and then abruptly ended in a cone of slate, beyond which, about two hundred yards at sea, was that terri

halted. Charles saw his father, the agent, Mackworth, and Cuthbert together, under a rock; the villagers were standing around, and th

ed partly up it, if, perhaps, they might see further than their fellows; but in vain: they all saw and heard the

he must be carrying canvas and struggling for life, ignorant of the f

bbub of talking from the men, and every one crowded on his neighbour and tried to get nearer. And the women moved hurr

tons; that she was dismasted, and that her decks were crowded. They could see that she was unmanageable, turning her head hither and thither

saw a tear run down his cheek, and heard him say, "Poor fellows!" Cuthbert stood staring intently at the ship, with his lips slightly parted. Mackworth,

e mad. Sad under any circumstances; how terrible it is when she is bearing on with her,

ripped. In front of the cuddy door, between the poop and the mainmast, about forty soldiers were drawn up, with whom were three officers, to be distinguished by their blue coats and swords. On the quarter-deck were seven or eight women, two appar

now a great sea struck her forward, and she swung with her bow towards the rock, from which she was distant not a hundred yards. The end was coming. Charles saw the mate slip off his coat and shirt, and take the little girl again. He saw the lady with the baby rise very q

ulwarks gone, sinking, and drifted out of sight round the headland, and, though they raced across the headland, and waited a few breathless minutes for her to float round into sight again, they never saw her any more. The Warren Hastings had gone down in fifteen fathoms. And now there was a new passion introduced into the tragedy to which it had hi

directly too leeward, the swell was tearing at the black slate rocks, and in ten minutes it wo

take 'em a rope! Fifty gold sove

He stepped from the bank of slippery seaweed into the heaving water, and then his magnificent limbs were in full battle with the tide. A roar announced his success. As h

The sailors lay about upon the sand, and the mate, untying the shawl that bound her to

an, "I should like to go to mamma. She is standing with baby on the quarter-deck. Mr. A

n, "she'll break my heart, a darling; ma

agerly; "she's on the quarter-

-faced man, about six-and-twenty, who had b

, Mr. Archer?"

my lady-bird? Oh

p, and Captain Dixon

he good ship, Warren Hastings, Dixon master, is a-sunk beneath the briny waves, my darling; and a

of all present; then the women carried her away, and the mate, walking

as I do. This little girl is daughter to Captain Corby, in command of the troops. She was always a favourite of mine, and I determined to get her through. How steady those sojers stood, by jingo, as though they wer

n less than a month. Periodically, unto this day, there arrive at Ravenshoe, bows and arrows (supposed to be poisoned), paddles, punkahs, rice-paper screens; a malignant kind of pickle, which causeth the bowels of him that eateth of it to bur

w graves in the churchyard, nothing remained to tell of the Warren

ntaneously loved her with all her great warm heart, and about three weeks after the wreck gave Cha

"and comes and sees his old nurse, and who loves him so well, alanna? It's little I can tell ye about the little girl, me darlin'. She's nine years old, and a heretic, like yer own darlin' self, and who's to gainsay ye from it? She's book-learned enough, a

s's ear and whispered, "If my boy was loo

l about Adelaide, which attachment Norah highly approved of, and rema

lest she should be taken from him, for he had got wonderfully fond of the quiet, pale, bright-eyed little creature. In three months she was considered as a permanent member of the household, and the night before Charles went to school he told her of his grand passion.