FAIR FORTUNE WRECKED, FAIR FORTUNE FOUND,
     AND ALL BUT THE FINDER UNDERGROUND.—­A.T.

This, as, far as I know, was my grandfather’s one and only attempt at verse; and its apparent application to the wreck of the Belle Fortune is a coincidence which puzzles me to this day.

The reader will search the chronicles of wrecks in vain for the story of that ill-fated ship.  But if he comes upon the record of a certain vessel, the James and Elizabeth, wrecked upon the Cornish coast on the night of October 11th, 1849, he may know it to be the same.  For that was the name given by the only survivor, one Georgio Rhodojani, a Greek sailor, and as the James and Elizabeth she stands entered to this day.

If, however, his curiosity lead him further to inquire into the after-history of this same Georgio Rhodojani, let him go on a fine summer day to the County Lunatic Asylum at Bodmin, and, with permission, enter the grounds set apart for private patients.  There he may chance to see a strange sight.

On a garden seat against the sunny wall sit two persons—­a man and a woman.  The man is decrepit and worn, being apparently about sixty-seven or eight years old; but the woman, as the keepers will tell, is ninety.  She is his mother, and as they sit together, she feeds him with sweets and fruit as tenderly as though he were a child.  He takes them, but never notices her, and when he has had enough, rises abruptly and walks away humming a song which runs—­

    “So it’s hey! for the homeward bound, my lads! 
        And ho! for the drunken crew,
     For his mess-mates round lie dead and drowned,
     And the devil has got his due, my lads—­
        Sing ho! but he waits for you!”

This is his only song now, and he will walk round the gravel paths by the hour, singing it softly and muttering.  Sometimes, however, he will sit for long beside his mother and let her pat his hand.  They never speak.

Folks say that she is as mad as her son, but she lodges in the town outside the walls and comes to see him every day.  Certainly she is as remarkable to look upon, for her skin is of a brilliant and startling yellow, and her withered hands are loaded with diamonds.  As you pass, she will stare at you with eyes absolutely passionless and vague; but see them as she sighs and turns to go, see them as she watches for a responsive touch of love on her son’s face, and you may find some meaning in them then.

Mrs. Luttrell was never seen again from the hour when she stood below the river steps and waved her white arms to me, crying “Kill him! kill him!” I made every inquiry but could learn nothing, save that my boat had been found floating below Gravesend, quite empty.  She can scarcely be alive, so that is yet one soul more added to the account of the Great Ruby.

Failing to find her mother, I had Claire’s body conveyed to Polkimbra.  She lies buried beside my father and mother in the little churchyard there.  Above her head stands a white stone with the simple words, “In memory of C. L., died Dec. 23rd, 1863.  ‘Love is strong as death.’”