’I have, you understand, no pain now, only some discomfort.  The fact that I can’t do things, move about, &c., like a sound healthy person is not a trial.  The relief from pain, the resty feeling, is such a blessing and enjoyment that I don’t seem, as yet at all events, to care about the other.’

So of that restful state Lady Martin says:  ’Indeed it was a most happy time to us, and I think on the whole to him.  It was a new state of things to keep him without any pricks of conscience or restlessness on his part.  He liked to have a quiet half-hour by the fire at night; and before I left him I used to put his books near him:  his Bible, his Hebrew Psalter, his father’s copy of Bishop Andrewes.  Sometimes I would linger for a few minutes to talk about his past illness.  He used to dwell specially on his dear father’s nearness to him at that time.  He spoke once or twice with a reverent holy awe and joy of sleepless nights, when thoughts of God had filled his soul and sustained him.

’His face, always beautiful from the unworldly purity of its expression, was really as the face of an angel while he spoke of these things and of the love and kindness he had received.  He seemed to have been standing on the very brink of the river, and it was yet doubtful whether he was to abide with us.  Now, looking back, we can see how mercifully God was dealing with His servant.  A time of quiet and of preparation for death given to him apart from the hurry of his daily life, then a few months of active service, and then the crown.

’At the end of a fortnight (?—­you must please to rectify dates) the “Southern Cross” sailed again, with Mr. Bice and Malagona on board; when, just as we were expecting she would have reached Norfolk Island, she was driving back into the harbour.’

The following letter to the Bishop of Lichfield gives an account of her peril:—­

’Taurarua:  May 11, 1870.

’My dear Bishop,—­I have to tell you of another great mercy.  The “Southern Cross” left Auckland on May 3—­fair wind and fine weather.

’On May 5 she was within 185 miles of Norfolk Island.

’Then came on a fearful gale from the east and northeast to north-west.  They were hove-to for three days, everything battened down; port boat and davits carried away by a sea; after a while the starboard boat dashed to pieces.

’Malagona, my nurse at Norfolk Island, who was brought up for a treat, was thrown completely across the cabin by one lurch, when she seemed almost settling down.  It was dark.  The water in the cabin, which had come through the dead-light, showed a little phosphoric glimmer.  “Brother,” he said to Bice, “are we dying?” “I don’t know; it seems like it.  We are in God’s hands.”  “Yes, I know.”

’Mr. (Captain) Jacobs was calm and self-possessed.  He even behaved excellently.  Once, all on deck were washed into the lee scuppers, and one man washed overboard; but he held a rope, and with it and the recoil was borne in again upon the deck.  Lowest barometer, 28° 65’!  We were startled yesterday at about 4 P.M. with the news of the reappearance of the vessel.  I think that some £30 and the replacing the boats will pay damages, but one doesn’t think of that.