CHAPTER VI. There is a Air behaviour in tbee, captain; Taelflh MlfH Then roie, from sea to iky, the wild farewell! Then shriek.d the timid, and stood still the brave— Den Ju*' After giving some rapid order to his mate, the master of the vessel (for such was Berther,) conducted me to th» cabin; but, my temporary excitement being now over, he was obliged, to his evident surprise, to assist me down the companion-way. When at the bottom he gazed at me a. moment, and sprang back with an exclamation oi horrour;—for the suffering I had lately undergone in mind and body, and the manner in which I had passed the last two nights, must have given a ghastly and haggard expression to my sunken features, and a filthy wildness to my person. "Yes; I am altered," I said, replying to his look and exclamation; "I have not eaten a mouthful for two days, —and, unable to stand any longer, I sank upon a chatf. Without a word in return, the captain called to the steward to bring bread and wine instantly; then, seatmg himself near me, he looked sadly in my face, for some minutes, without speaking. I understood this expressive silence. "Yes," I said; "You see a mournful change, Mr. Berther. A little while ago I was wealthy,—too much so, indeed, for my own good; now, I am a ruined man —without a. shilling—without a friend, in the world." A deeper shade immediately darkened the captain's brow. "Now,— I thought,— I shall never more be happy. All men, I find, are alike; there are no friends but halcyon friends, that are never found but when the sea is calm." Happily I was deceived; for the master, with an exiiression glowing in his eyes that made his plain features appear almost handsome, said, the moment his emotions ceased to fetter his utterance, "I little thought, Mr. Levis, when I lay, in poverty, upon a bed of sickness, and you came like a ministering angel to raise me,—I little thought then, when you said that the day perhaps might come, when you should need alike kindness to that you was rendering me,—O, sir! I little thought your words would'ever prove true! But now, that the day has indeed come, I thank God it is in my power to show myself grateful. All I have is yours: take it—use it as you will!" I am a very woman in any thing that moves me. My eyes moistened as I took the captain's hand, and inter. ropted him, "Not so, dear sir. I am here for the very purpose of obtaining assistance; but you must suffer me to fix the terms on which that assistance may be accepted. You are master of this vessel: you may, perhaps, have occasion for a clerk; I will" "Mr. Levis—!" exclaimed the captain. But here the steward entered, and, with a natural sense of propriety, "hkh, as it is the joint production of a good head and agood heart, his rough profession had not been able to destroy, be immediately checked himself to give me an opportu. uily of allaying my hunger. 1 almost cried with joy when I saw the articles of food Wore me ;—I sprang to the table; I seized the bread; I broke off a piece; but such was my debility and the irritable state of my stomach, that, the instant I put it to my mouth, I was seized with dizziness, and fell senseless into the arms of the captain. When I revived, Mr. Berther made mcvflwallow some wine a little diluted; and then a small portion of the bread, then some wine again (but pure), and then another portion of the bread, and so on, by little and little, till, the strength of my whole system thus renovated through its " centre," I breathed another man. He then said, resuming the discourse which had been interrupted, "You will accept my assistance, Mr. Levis, only upon certain conditions. You forget, sir, that thus you are reproaching me for being indebted to yours." He was right. "True. You are about to sail soon, I presume, for the West-Indies?" "Yes; we are already clearing from the wharf, and shall set sail with the first fair wind." "Well then; you shall take me with you; I have no tie to bind me to this land; there are many little things that I can do on shipboard; and when you arrive at the end of your voyage, perhaps I may find some employment that will enable me to refit my shattered fortune ;— there are many Englishmen who, from a worse condition than mine, have risen to be rich in the West Indies. (I added, with a melancholy smile,)." And so the matter was settled, and I went to sea. Few men have I known that better pleased me than Mr, Berther. Sensible, and, though almost wholly selftaught, well informed; with all a sailor's frankness (or rather—all the frankness that is attributed to the sailor,) and very little, if any of a sailor's roughness; he was, moreover, sincerely pious—a rare merit in one of his profession. Yet he never made his feelings clash unnecessarily with those of others, nor when the storm raged put a prayer-book into his men's hands instead of a'rope; but kept his piety, where alone it cquld be cherished, in tin' warm cover of his own bosom: and, though seldom indulging in the folly of an oath himself, he knew he might as well draw the blood from his sailors' veins, and then bid them work, as expect them to do their duty without blaspheming. Hence he was beloved and respected by all \aa crew, and, consequently, never was there crew more wderly. Once, the first time I discovered the peculiar colour of his sentiments, when I had said to him "It is very rarely we find a man in your profession think and act as you do, Mr. Berther," he answered :— "I hope not, sir; for in what profession is the little piety you give me credit for more needed than in ours 1 0, Mr. Levis, if we, between whom and God's vengeance there are but a few thin planks,—if we, who know not, when we lie down at night, that our eyes shall ever again open but to see our death, and then close forever,—if we should not be pious, who is there on the earth that should?" I hung my head in silence for some minutes, and a sigh found its way to my lips; for, though owing to the power of habit, which wears all things down to the same dead level, fact will not furnish the proper answer to this question, I thought how much happier I should have been, how much less miserable I should be now, were such my feelings. "When you speak thus, Mr. Berther," I said, "you Wd me think how basely I have misused the advantages that were heaped upon me—." "No," replied my friend—for was he not a friend in. deed ?—; "those advantages are the very causes of your straying: it is only adversity, Mr. Levis, such, for instance, as I have suffered, a complete destitution of all the comforts of this world, that bids men look for comfort to another. Besides, in youth though it is well to judge ourselves with harshness, as it is thus alone we may correct our faults, yet others should not look with too severe an eye upon the mis-steps we may make; for, when the imagination is so luxuriant, and overtops the dwarfish judgment, is it strange that we should love to slumber under its delusive shade? You reproach yourself for your errors, Mr. Levis; and you do rightly: but I am an older man,—I have known you, too, on one occasion,—and I may be permitted to judge more mildly. Your errors, Vol. II. 15 my dear sir, were errors of the head,—not of the heart for I am sure you must have turned a deaf ear to its dictates when you suffered yourself to become vicious." His gratitude was carrying him upon dangerous ground for my'modesty. I laid my hand on his, and begged hint to desist. The greater part of the voyage was very agreeable; for, too buoyant in temper to remain long submerged by misfortune, I soon rose superior to its waves. But this relief was merely transient; I was once more to be plunged into their black abyss, and that, ere yet the drops were dried upon me that marked my first immersion. We were within a'few days' sail of our destination,when a brig was descried bearing down upon our weatherquarter. I was standing by the captain at the time, and observed that he changed countenance. Without, however, communicating his fears, he merely gave orders to make all sail and endeavour to get clear of the strange vessel, which was evidently in chase of us. The exertion was fruitless : the brig gained rapidly upon us, and, hoisting British colours, fired a shot, which fell but a foot or two short of its aim. "It is as I thought," said the captain. —" She pretends to mistake us; but she must see our flag. We must heave to; we can neither fight nor fly." Preseutly two boats came along side of our vessel (—the brig lying off at a little distance—); and immediately we were boarded by more than twenty men, all well-armed, either with muskets, cutlasses, or long knives and pistols. In the confusion I managed to escape without notice, and conceal myself behind a coil of ropes, which lay in the bow of the vessel covered with a bit ot old sail. A moment's reflection must have convinced me that I could not remain long in such a situation without being discovered; but we are none of \is alike at all times, and on the present occasion I obeyed the imp"!86 of the moment, governed by the horrid fear of that worst of deaths—the being butchered tamely without a means |