Then, as we sank down again in utter abandonment, how bitterly we reproached ourselves and each other for not maintaining a lookout! Had we done so, we should assuredly have made her out while still to windward of her, and could have lowered our sail until she had approached near enough to enable us to run down upon her. However, it was too late now to remind each other of that; the mischief was done; and the only thing that remained was to take care that there should be no recurrence of it.
But I will dwell no longer upon the details of those endless days and interminable nights of indescribable torture. Suffice it to say that I endured two more days and nights of suffering, during which I was only dimly cognisant of my surroundings; all my faculties were engaged in the task of wrestling with and assisting my tortured frame to bear up against the terrible anguish which consumed me; at the end of that time exhausted nature could bear no more, and relief at length came with unconsciousness.
Chapter Twenty Nine.
Farewell.
When at length I recovered my senses, I found myself in bed, in a small, light, airy room lighted by a couple of windows, the jalousies of which were so adjusted as to admit all the air possible, while at the same time the direct rays of the sun were excluded. The bed upon which I was lying was a tolerably roomy affair for one person, and the linen, though somewhat plain in quality, was fresh and scrupulously clean. The only other furniture in the room was a small table, well-stocked with medicine-phials, etcetera, and a couple of chairs, upon one of which—the one which stood next the head of the bed—sat a man in a white flannel shell-jacket and blue military trousers with a stripe of yellow braid down the seams.
The room in which I found myself was evidently, from the size and position of the windows—one in the wall at the foot of the bed, and the other in the wall on my left—a corner room in some tolerably extensive building. Looking out between the lattices of the jalousies, which were adjusted in such a way that I was able to see distinctly the various objects outside, I perceived that the building was situated in the midst of a park or grove of magnificent cotton, kennip, and other trees, the branches of which were swaying and the leaves rustling cheerily in the strong sea-breeze which rushed through them. The sunlight flashed brilliantly upon the swaying foliage, and gleamed upon the plumage of the bright-winged birds and gaudy butterflies which flitted restlessly from tree to tree; while the long, luxuriant grass in the distance—where I could see it—bowed and undulated beneath the strong breeze like a billowy sea; the background of clear, pure, blue sky beyond completing a picture, the joyous freshness of which seemed almost heavenly to me in my extreme weakness. The air, too, was full of the chirping of millions of insects and lizards, the lowing of distant cattle, the bleat of sheep, the rifle-like crack of waggon-drivers’ whips, the voices and laughter of men close beneath my window, and a multitude of other joyous sounds.
I lay for a long time drinking in with silent ecstasy these glorious sights and sounds which fell so soothingly upon my senses, quite forgetful of self and my past suffering, and utterly indifferent to everything but the sensuous pleasure of the moment. Indeed my poor head felt so light and weak that I seemed almost incapable of the exertion of thought.
At length I turned my head toward the man in the chair by my bedside. He had a book in his hand, and his body was turned somewhat from me in order that the light might fall more fully upon the pages.