The sailors were seated near each other, on the side of the raft most remote from the sun,—they were dressed in a coarse shirt and trowsers,—and with their hands resting on their knees, and their faces upon their hands, they seemed to have surrendered themselves to their fate,—that is, to despair and death, by starvation.
The passengers were on the other side of the raft; one of them was a man of slender form, dressed in dark broadcloth; his head was buried in his hands, and the setting sun shone on his hair, which, sleek and brown lay behind his ears. Beside him, in a reclining posture, was the other passenger, a woman; a woman who had escaped from the burning vessel in her night-clothes, and who now, with the cloak of the man spread beneath her, turns her dark eyes hopelessly to the setting sun. A few days ago, with her proud bosom, and rounded limbs, and dark eyes flashing from that face, whose clear, brown complexion indicated her Spanish descent, she was very beautiful. Look at her now. Livid circles beneath each eye, lips parched, cheeks hollow,—her bosom is bare,—shrunken from its once voluptuous outline, it trembles with a faint pulsation. Five days have made terrible havoc of your beauty, proud Godiva!
The man by her side raises his head from his hands,—in that sallow face, lack-luster eyes, and hollowed cheeks, can you recognize the smooth, fair visage of Herman Barnhurst? Alas! Herman, your prospect of a West Indian paradise, with Godiva for the queen of your houris, is rather dim just now.
And the sky was above them, the trackless sea all around, the last rays of the red sun in their faces; and not a sail in sight, Scan the horizon, Herman, and in vain.
"O! it is horrible to die thus," exclaimed Godiva, in a voice so faint as to be scarcely audible.
But Herman made no reply.
And as the sailors raised their eyes,—wild and fiery from thirst and hunger,—the sun went down, and night came at once upon the scene.
"How beautiful they are,—the stars up yonder, Herman!"
Still Herman did not reply.
Godiva, resting one arm upon his knee, fell into a brief slumber, which was broken by the most incongruous dreams. At length her dreams resolved themselves into a view of Niagara Falls, that world of waters, singing its awful hymn as it plunges into the abyss. She saw the cool water, her face was bathed in the spray, and,—she awoke devoured by maddening thirst.