While he was thus employed he heard a soft but mournful voice whisper ‘Albion!’
He turned hastily round, and saw the form of the identical Marina at a little distance distinctly visible by the moonlight.
‘Marina! My dearest Marina!’ he exclaimed, springing towards her, while joy unutterable filled his heart; ‘how did you come here? Have the angels in Heaven brought you?’
So saying he stretched out his hand, but she eluded his grasp, and slowly gliding away, said: ‘Do not forget me; I shall be happy when you return.’
Then the apparition vanished. It seemed to have appeared merely to assert her superiority over her rival, and indeed the moment Albion beheld her beauty he felt that it was peerless.
But now wonder and perplexity took possession of his mind. He could not account for this vision except by the common solution of supernatural agency, and that ancient creed’ his enlightened understanding had hitherto rejected until it was forced upon him by this extraordinary incident.
One thing there was, however, the interpretation of which he thought he could not mistake, and that was the repetition of her last words: ‘I shall be happy when you return.’ It showed that she was still alive, and that which he had seen could not be her wraith. However, he made a memorandum of the day and hour, namely, the 18th of June 1815, twelve o’clock at night.
From this time the natural melancholy turn of his disposition increased, for the dread of her death before he should return was constantly before him, and the ardency of his adoration and desire to see her again redoubled.
At length, not being able any longer to bear his misery he revealed it to his father; and the duke, touched with his grief and the fidelity of his attachment, gave him full permission to visit England and bring back Marina with him to Africa.