“What news, Sandy! what news do ye bring?”
“The vessel is safe,” was the answer. “Thank Heaven for its mercy!” I ejaculated; and springing up and running towards the young fisherman, “Tell me, lad, tell me, how is my wife!”
“The puir young leddy was taken very bad—very bad indeed, when she found that you had gone overboard, and all on board thought that she could not live. No one could give her any comfort, for no one thought you could have escaped. The rest on board, indeed, had soon to think of themselves. The vessel drove past the Inchcape Rock, and all heard the tolling of the bell, and believed that they were going to strike on it.
“While others were bemoaning their fate, and crying out for mercy, and expecting to be drowned, she sat up and seemed to have forgotten the cause of her own grief.
“‘Ah,’ she said with a smile, ‘what makes you miserable, gives me joy. You fear death. I look forward to it as a happiness, because I shall soon be joined to him who has been torn from me.’
“Ay, sir, the bell tolled louder and louder, and each toll that it gave made her heart beat quicker with joy, while it drove the life-blood away from the hearts of those who feared death as the greatest of evils. On drifted the vessel—darkness was around them—still that solemn bell kept tolling and tolling, but yet the expected shock was not felt. The bell tolled on, but the sounds grew fainter and fainter, and the master told them that they had no longer cause to fear, and might thank Heaven for their preservation, for that he knew where they were, and could take them into a port in safety. Well, but of your wife, I know that you will want to hear.”
“Yes! yes!” I exclaimed, “tell me how is she—where is she!” We wore all the time the young fisherman was speaking hurrying down towards the ferry-boat.
“That is just what I was about to tell ye,” he answered, with the deliberate way in which the inhabitants of that part of Scotland of his rank generally speak. “The young leddy, they told me, no sooner heard that the vessel was in safety, than she gave way to a sorrow which it was pitiful to witness. They tried to comfort her, but she was not to be comforted. She had gone off into a sort of trance when the vessel brought up this morning under Saint Ann’s Head.
“The master was thinking about putting to sea when I got on board. He and all the people were very much surprised to hear that you had escaped; but the difficulty seemed to be to break the news to your wife. The master promised not to sail till you appeared, and I promised to come and hurry you on.”
“Thank ye, thank ye, my kind friend!” I exclaimed, shaking him by the hand. “But my wife—tell me about my wife. How did she bear the sudden reaction?”