The sunbeam travelled on, as if drifting before the wind, until it glanced on the dark hull, and lofty spars, and storm staysails of the noble frigate; and the weather moderating at the same time, we ran off the wind to close the commodore, sailing over the spot where the ship had foundered, as near as we could judge. Several hencoops and spars were floating about; but the whole crew were gone to "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
"Keep her away a bit," sung out Lennox, in a sharp excited tone, from forward—"keep her away a bit, Mr Lanyard, there is something struggling in the water close to. More yet—more yet," as the noble fellow fastened a rope round his waist; "that will do—now, messmates, hold on, and mind you haul me in if I miss." In a twinkling the poor fellow was overboard, striking out gallantly amongst the choking spray.
"I see the object," I exclaimed, forgetting all etiquette in the excitement of the moment, "that is flashing and struggling in the water; whatever it may be, he has it; down with the helm, and bring her to the wind; down with it, hard-a-lee. He has it—he has it!—No, missed it, by Heaven! No, no, he has fast hold; gently, haul him in, men—gently, that's it; now, handsomely, in with him. Hurra, well done, Lennox! You are on board again, my lad."
"Why, what have they hauled in with him?" said Donovan, who was standing aft beside me, while Lennox was got on board at the bows. I was myself confoundedly puzzled. "A sheep, and a bundle of clouts, ha, ha, ha!" shouted Joe Peak. I jumped forward. A bundle of clouts—alas, alas! it was the breathless body of the beautiful child I had seen on board the ship.
It was lashed to the neck of the pet lamb with a silk handkerchief, and now lay at my feet a little blue and ghastly corpse. I snatched it up in my arms, more from the impulse of the moment, than any expectation of the ethereal spark being still present in the little cold clammy body; and, to the great surprise of the crew, I called Lennox, and desiring him to get some hot salt in a piece of flannel, and two bottles of hot water, and to bring some warm cloths into the cabin immediately, I descended, stripped the child, and drying his little limbs with a piece of blanket, clapped him into my own berth—Donovan and Lennox followed; and, against all appearances, we set to, and chafed and manipulated the frigid limbs of the darling boy, and applied hot bottles to his feet, and the hot salt to his little chest and stomach; but it was all in vain. It was a moving sight to see great rough bushy-whiskered hard-a-weather seamen, in despite of all formality and discipline, struggling like children at a raree show to get a peep at what was going on below, through the open skylight that ventilated the little well cabin.
"Ah, my poor little fellow, you are gone; your unhappy mother might have spared her dying heart the pang of parting with you, when she made you fast to the lamb—you would then at least have died in her arms, and beside her heart, my sweet child!" As I said this, Donovan, Dick Lanyard, who had now joined us, and Lennox, the latter all dripping with sea water, and still pale and breathless with his recent exertions, were standing looking down on the body of the child, having done all they could, but in vain.
The tears were rolling down the Scotch lad's cheek, and Dennis, honest fellow, once or twice blew his nose very suspiciously, contriving during the trumpetings to steal a small swab at his eyes, lest the share which the old lady in Sackville Street, Dublin, had in him, might become too apparent.
"He is gone," said Lennox, after a long pause, as he stepped to the berth, with the intention of covering the dead body with the sheet. He no sooner stooped down, however, than he suddenly started back, and held up his hand to attract our attention. I looked—one eyelid quivered—it opened a little, then shut again, and again the aguish appearance passed over it; the chest heaved, and the little sufferer drew a long sigh. "He lives, he lives!" said Lennox, in a low voice, and speaking as if he was himself choking. The word was passed through the skylight to the warm-hearted expectants clustered round it on their knees on the deck above. My eye, what a row! They instantly jumped to their feet, and began to caper about overhead as if a legion of dancing devils had suddenly possessed them.
"He's alive," shouted one poor fellow, "and we can now spare Dicky Phantom."
"Forward with you, men," sung out Mr Wadding; "forward with you; how dare you lumber the quarterdeck in that way, with your lubberly carcasses?"