“Not you,” said the Yankees; “you will never see your prize any more, nor any one that went in her.”

These words were repeated to the captain of the frigate, when he questioned the mate and the crew, and the whole nefarious transaction came out.  They said the ship was sinking when they left her, and that was the reason they had hurried into the boat.  The mate said it was impossible to get at the leaks, which were in the fore peak, and under the cabin deck in the run; that he wondered Captain Green had not made it known, but he supposed he must have been drunk:  “the ship,” continued the mate, “must have gone down in twelve hours after we left her.”

This was reported to the Admiralty by my captain, and my poor father was formally acquainted with the fatal story.  Five months had elapsed since I was last heard of, and all hopes of my safety had vanished:  this was the reason that when I knocked at the door, I found the servant in mourning:  he was one who had been hired since my departure, and did not know me.  Of course he expressed no surprise at seeing me.

“Good Heavens!” said I, “who is dead?” “My master’s only son, Sir,” said the man, “Mr Frank, drowned at sea.”

“Oh! is that all?” said I, “I am glad it’s no worse.”  The man concluded that I was an unfeeling brute, and stared stupidly at me as I brushed by him and ran up stairs to the drawing-room.  I ought to have been more guarded; but, as usual, I followed the impulse of my feelings.  I opened the door, when I saw my sister sitting at a table in deep mourning, with another young lady whose back was turned towards me.  My sister screamed as soon as she saw me.  The other lady turned round, and I beheld my Emily, my dear, dear Emily:  she too was in deep mourning.  My sister, after screaming, fell on the floor in a swoon.  Emily instantly followed her example, and there they both lay, like two petrified queens in Westminster Abbey.  It was a beautiful sight, “pretty, though a plague.”

I was confoundedly frightened myself, and thought I had done a very foolish thing; but as I had no time to lose, I rang the bell furiously, and seeing some jars with fresh flowers in them, I caught them up and poured plentiful libations over the faces and necks of the young ladies; but Emily came in for much the largest share, which proves that I had neither lost my presence of mind nor my love for her.

My sister’s maid, Higgins, was the first to answer the drawing-room bell, which, from its violent ringing, announced some serious event.  She came bouncing into the room like a recouchee shot.  She was an old acquaintance of mine; I had often kissed her when a boy, and she had just as often boxed my ears.  I used to give her a ribbon to tie up her jaw with, telling her at the same time that she had too much of it.  This Abigail, like a true lady’s maid, seeing me, whom she thought a ghost, standing bolt upright, and the two ladies stretched out, as she supposed, dead, gave a loud and most interesting scream, ran out of the room for her life, nearly knocking down the footman, whom she met coming in.