"The features of Adrian—of my brother—but pale, ghastly, pinched, and damp with the dews of death; his eyes glazing with a terrible expression of combined affection and reproach, as they met mine, and then the whole seemed to melt away; the lamp went out, and the moonlight passed away too, as the schooner's stern fell round with the ebb tide—the usual time of death.
"I was alone—alone in the dark cabin—with terror in my heart, and a cold perspiration on my brow.
"I rushed on deck. The light still burned in the kitchen window, but to me it seemed brighter than before.
"'Lower the boat,' I exclaimed, 'for I must instantly go ashore. There is something wrong at home, lads.'
"Fortunately the sea and wind had gone down together, and we might venture to land safely now; thus the boat with two men in her, was ready almost before I was dressed.
"I was soon ashore, and hastened to my own house, where, as none knew we were at anchor in the Zuid-vliet, my arrival was quite unexpected.
"I found my household astir—the rooms all lighted up as for a festival; but, alas, what a festival it was! My wife threw herself into my arms, and wept, and our red-cheeked little ones clung about me in their night dresses, as I was led to the room of my good brother Adrian, who was then in his death agony.
"'Adrian,' I exclaimed, throwing myself on my knees at his bedside, 'tell me how fares it with you?'*
* This story is nearly similar to one which a friend related to me as having occurred in his own family not long ago.
"He turned his ghastly face toward me with the same expression of affection and reproach, which I had seen in the face of the vision in my cabin, and at that moment his last breath passed away; the jaw fell, his head turned on one side, and a mortal pallor spread over his features.