“Lorenzo,” resumed Appadocca, after a pause, “there is destiny—there is destiny—there is a synchronism of events and a simultaneousness of the actings of nature’s general laws that constitute destiny; against which no men from the absence of any power to read the future can provide. Thus, in the whirlwind, that raises in mid-air the light feather, there is to be seen the hand of destiny, for there is the synchronism of the feather’s being separated from the bird with the acting of the law of nature that produces the wind. It would have been as impossible to the bird, granting that its reasoning powers were less limited, to have provided against the falling of its feather and the eventual taking of it up by storm, as it was impossible to foresee the whirlwind that overcame the schooner which was made to pass through every danger.”
“Too true, your excellency,” answered Lorenzo.
“So that it follows,” continued Appadocca, “that since men are subject to the former of this destiny, their most strenuous efforts must always prove impotent in restraining its action, and that they are liable every moment, whether they are good, or whether they are bad, to be subjected to misfortune and calamity. And this corroborates what I have already said, that the only thing which we are bound to consider in life, is our honor, which alone is, or ought to be, the source of satisfaction or misery to us.”
Lorenzo assented to the philosophy of Appadocca.
“If ever I should be suddenly overtaken by the hand of this destiny recollect, beneath the solitary fig-tree that grows on the Island of Sombrero, you will find a treasure. Devote half to the erection of a college for abandoned children, and with the rest provide for my men who have served me truly. Do not forget that peculiar old servant,” he said in a low tone, and pointed to Jack Jimmy.
“Your excellency is growing melancholy,” observed Lorenzo, with some anxiety.
“No, no,” replied Appadocca. “Still, who knows how soon destiny may end his days.”
“For you, Lorenzo, you have acted towards me in a manner that I have duly appreciated,” continued Appadocca, while he grasped his officer’s hand, “here is my sword, wear it, and may the time soon arrive when you may use it in the cause to which you are pledged, farewell!”
With a spring Appadocca jumped from the rock and threw himself headlong into the thundering waves below.