The Windsor Castle sailed for Calcutta, and in a few days anchored at Kedgeree to wait for a pilot to come down the river.  During their short stay at this anchorage, Mr Williams, the first mate, who was an old Indian voyager, went on shore every evening to follow up his darling amusement of shooting jackals, a description of game by no means scarce in that quarter of the world.  Often remonstrated with for his imprudence in exposing himself to the heavy night-dew, he would listen to no advice.  “It was very true,” he acknowledged, “that his brother had died of a jungle fever in pursuing the same amusement, and what was more, the fowling-piece in his hand belonged to his brother, who had bequeathed it to him; but as he had never heard of two brothers dying from a jungle fever taken by shooting jackals, he considered that the odds were strongly in his favour.”  This argument, however specious, did not prove good.  The third morning he returned on board, complaining of a headache and shivering.  He was bled and put into his bed, which he never left again.

Before the Windsor Castle was ready to sail, the remains of Mr Williams were consigned to the burying-ground at Diamond Harbour, and Newton Forster was promoted to the rank of first mate of the Windsor Castle.  This, as will hereafter be proved, was a most fortunate occurrence to Newton Forster.  The Windsor Castle sailed with leave to call at Madras for letters or passengers, and in a few days was again at anchor in the roadstead.  The first intelligence which they received upon their arrival was, that the cholera morbus had been very fatal, and that among others, the old colonel had fallen a victim to the disease.  Newton again obtained permission to go on shore to Isabel.  He found her in distress at the house of a Mrs Enderby, a lady who had lost her husband by the same ravaging epidemic, and who had long been the intimate friend of the colonel and of Isabel.  Mrs Enderby was about to return to England by the first vessel, and had advised Isabel to take so favourable an opportunity of a chaperon.  Isabel, who had many reasons for wishing to leave the country, particularly the declining state of her mother’s health, had consented; and it was with great pleasure that she received from Newton the information of the best cabins of the Windsor Castle not having been hitherto engaged.

The colonel’s will had been opened.  He had bequeathed his property, the whole of which, with the exception of his establishment in India, was invested in the English funds, to his grand-niece Isabel Revel.  It amounted to nearly seventy thousand pounds.  It would be difficult to say whether Newton Forster felt glad or sorry at this intelligence.  For Isabel’s sake, he undoubtedly was glad; but he could not but feel that it increased the distance between them, and on that account, and on that alone, his reflections were painful.  “Had it,” thought he, “been five thousand, or even ten thousand pounds, it would have been different.  In the course of a few years I might have been able to produce an equivalent to it, and—­but this fortune has raised her above my hopes; even if she had a prepossession in my favour, it would be dishonest to take advantage of it.”