cutting away the wreck, each of us being lashed with a rope round the waist; ropes were also fastened across the deck, in parallel lines, to hold on by; for such was the violence of the vessel’s motion, that without such assistance it would have been impossible to stand.  As for my Virginia, she was in her cot, hearing all that was going forward on deck,—­sensible of her danger, and a prey to the apprehension of meeting a death similar to that of her prototype, and equally dreadful.

A drizzling shower now came on, and having continued for some time, was at length succeeded by heavy rain, which having been converted into sleet, was carried in flakes swiftly along the tops of the towering mountains of sea; while the cold sensibly affected the already exhausted lascars, at once disinclining them from exertion, and incapacitating them from making any; some of them even sat down like inanimate statues, with a fixed stare, and a deathlike hue upon their countenances:  the most afflicting circumstance was, their being destitute of warm clothing, which they had neglected to provide themselves with, as they ought to have done, out of the four months’ advance they received in Calcutta.  All that I could spare was given to Thomson; but unable to endure the sight of their misery, I distributed among them many articles which I could ill spare,—­sheets, shirts, and blankets, except one of the latter, which I had reserved as a provision against any further extreme of suffering which might yet await us.  There was one poor lascar, a simple inoffensive youth, about nineteen, who was an object of the liveliest commiseration; he was nearly naked, and in that state had been continually drenched by the sea and rain, during the whole of the day and night; he was holding his hands up to heaven in a supplicating attitude, and shaking in an aguish fit; the tears fell in torrents down his cheeks, while he uttered his plaints in loud and piercing lamentations.  Unable, at last, to witness his misery any longer, I rushed down to my cabin—­“Can you, Virginia, spare me this blanket without feeling the cold too much yourself?—­it is to save the life of a fellow-creature.”—­“Yes, take it; but stay with me, or, under the horrors I feel, I shall die in this cabin, and alone.  I know we must perish, and why not die together?” I entreated her to support herself with all the fortitude she could collect, urged the impossibility of my keeping her company, as every moment called for my assistance; and assuring her there was no real danger, I hurried on deck with the blanket, and wrapped the poor wretch in its folds.  I thought he would have worshipped me.

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