with one arm supporting his heavy brow, while the other,
cast around the restless form of his beloved sister,
seemed to offer protection and to impart confidence, even
while his lips denied the accents of consolation. Seated
on an empty hen-coop at their head, was Sir Everard
Valletort, his back reposing against the bulwarks of the
vessel, his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes
bent mechanically on the man at the helm, who stood within
a few paces of him,--an attitude of absorption, which
he, ever and anon, changed to one of anxious and enquiring
interest, whenever the agitation of Clara was manifested
in the manner already shown.

The main deck and forecastle of the vessel presented a
similar picture of mingled unquietness and repose. Many
of the seamen might be seen seated on the gun-carriages,
with their cheeks pressing the rude metal that served
them for a pillow. Others lay along the decks, with their
heads resting on the elevated hatches; while not a few,
squatted on their haunches with their knees doubled up
to their very chins, supported in that position the aching
head that rested between their rough and horny palms.
A first glance might have induced the belief that all
were buried in the most profound slumber; but the quick
jerking of a limb,--the fitful, sudden shifting of a
position,--the utter absence of that deep breathing which
indicates the unconsciousness of repose, and the occasional
spirting of tobacco juice upon the deck,--all these
symptoms only required to be noticed, to prove the living
silence that reigned throughout was not born either of