hood. However, at Gravesend, a wherry brought us two individuals of some promise. The first was a tall, very thin man, evidently in bad health, or, as one of the sailors remarked, performing quarantine, his face being of the same color as the yellow flag which indicates that sanitary excommunication; the other was a punchy, florid, red-wattled human cock-bird, who, according to the poultry-wife's practice, had seemingly had two pepper-corns thrust down his gullet on first leaving the shell, and had ever since felt their fiery influence in his gizzard. In default of their proper names, I immediately christened them, after Dandie Dinmont's two celebrated dogs, Pepper and Mustard. I had, however, but a short glimpse of their quality, for the yellow-face went forward amongst the seamen, whilst the red-visage dived downwards towards the steward's pantry. In the mean time we progressed merrily; and had soon passed that remarkably fine specimen of sea-urchin, the buoy at the Nore. But here the breeze died off, an occurrence, before the invention of steamers, of some moment; indeed, in the old shoy-hoy times I was once at sea three days and two nights between London and Ramsgate, now a certain passage of a few hours. But now calms are annihilated, and so long as the movement party are inclined to dance, the steamengine will find them in music; in fact, I could not help associating its regular tramp, tramp, tramp, with the tune of a galoppe I had recently performed. But these musings were suddenly diverted by the appearance of one of the most startling and singular phenomena that ever came under my notice. Imagine on one side the sea, gently ruffled by a dying wind into waves of a fine emerald green, playfully sparkling in the noontide sun; on the other hand, a terrific pitch-black mass rising abruptly from sea to sky, as if visibly dividing "the warm precincts of a cheerful day," from "the dark realms of Chaos and Old Night." But I am growing poetical. Suppose, then, if you have ever been under the white Flamborough Head, a black ditto, quite as bluff and as solid, and which you might have mistaken for some such stupendous headland but for the color, and that on looking upwards you could find no summit. So strong was the impression on my own fancy, that when my aunt inquired where we were, I could not help answering, in allusion to the hue and build of the phenomenon, that we were off Blackwall. "You are right, sir," said a

B

strange voice; "I have observed the same black and wall-like appearance in the West Indies, and it was the forerunner of a hurricane." I looked for this prophet of ill-omen, and saw the yellow-faced man at my elbow. "It would be a charity,” exclaimed my aunt, "to give the captain warning." "He knows it well enough," said the stranger, "and so does the steward; yonder he runs to the caboose, to tell the cook to gallop his potatoes and scorch his roasts, that he may lay his cloth before the gale comes." “A gale, eh!” mumbled the red-face, who had just climbed from below, with his mouth still full of victuals. 66 Why don't the captain put back?" "We have gone about once," said the yellow-face, “to run into Margate; but the master thinks, perhaps, that he can edge off, and so escape the storm, or only catch a flap with its skirts. There it comes!" and he pointed towards the black mass, now rapidly diffusing itself over the surface of the sea, which became first black, and then white beneath its shadow; whilst a few faint forks of lightning darted about between the base of the cloud and the water. The waves immediately round us had gradually subsided into a dead calm, and there was no perceptible motion but the vibration from the engine; when suddenly, with a brief but violent rush of wind, the vessel gave a deep lurch, and thenceforward indulged in a succession of rolls and heavings which took speedy effect on the very stoutest of our passengers. "Renounce me!" said he, “if I like the look of it!" "Or the feel of it, either," said a voice in an undertone. The red-faced man turned still redder: fixed an angry eye on the speaker's complexion, and was evidently meditating some very personal retort; but whatever it might be, he was abruptly compelled to give it, with other matters, to the winds. If there be such a thing as love at first sight, there certainly are antipathies got up at quite as short a notice; and the man with the red face had thus conceived an instinctive aversion to the man with the yellow one, at whom he could not even look without visible symptoms of dislike. "And how do you feel, sir?" inquired the sufferer as I passed near him, just after one of his paroxysms. "Perfectly well as yet." The better for you, sir," said the peppery man, rather sharply. "As for me, I'm as sick as a dog! I should not mind that, if it was in regular course; but there's that yellow fellow-just look at him, sir there's a liver for

you!

there's disordered bile! a perfect walking Jaundice! He's the man to be sick, and yet he's quite well and comfortable; and I'm the man to be well, — and here I can't keep anything! I assure you, sir, I have naturally a strong stomach, like a horse, sir; never had an indigestion, never! and as for appetite, I've been eating and drinking ever since I came on board! And yet you see how I am! And there's that saffron-colored fellow, I do believe it was his sickly face that first turned me, I do, upon my honor; there's that yellow-fevered rascal renounce me! if he is n't going down

to dinner!"

As had been predicted, we dined early, and, par conséquent, on half-dressed vegetables, a piece of red beef, superficially done brown, and a very hasty pudding. The coarse, inferior nature of the fare, did not escape my uncle's notice; “but I suppose," said he, " a keen salt-water appetite is not particular as to feeding on prime qualities." The words were scarcely uttered when he suddenly turned pale, and laid down his knife and fork. Never having been at sea before, and aware of some unusual sensations within, he instantly attributed them to the old source, and whispered to me to forbid my stirring. "I am a dead man, but don't alarm your aunt." Guessing how the matter stood, I let him scramble by himself to the deck, from which in a few minutes he returned, filled a glass of wine, drank it off, and then gave me a significant nod. "Another reprieve, Frank. It's very unpleasant, but I'm convinced what has just happened was the saving of my life. The circulation was all but gone, when a sort of convulsion of the stomach set it a-going again, and gave me time to rally." "Accidents that will happen at sea," remarked our skipper. "And on shore, too," replied my uncle, very solemnly. "Captain, I have been dying suddenly these ten years." The captain screwed up his lips for a whistle, but it was not audible. "And for my part, sir," said our Daffodil, "I envy you your apoplexy. I am going, going, going, going, by inches."

At this announcement, the cabin-boy hastily pulled out an assortment of basins, selected a large blue and white one, and placed it conveniently at the feet of the speaker. From the first glimpse of the sickly-looking passenger, our steward's mate had pitched upon him for a pet patient, - he had watched him, listened to him, and whenever "Boy" was summoned in

a strange voice, he invariably tried first at the yellow man. To his surprise, however, the latter only gave the utensil a slight touch with his foot, saying, "It will do very well at a pinch; and boy-(yes, sir) - another time, when you bring me such a thing as this (yes, sir) — let me have the kettle along with it, (yes, sir) the sugar, a few lemons, and a bottle of rum." The boy, in sea phrase, was taken all aback. "Renounce me," whispered the red-face, who happened to sit next me, renounce me if he don't mean punch: I can't stand him! — I can't, upon my soul!" and off he rushed again upon deck.

The

By this time the motion of the vessel had considerably increased, and between fear and curiosity, and certain more physical motives, the whole of the company successively went above to enjoy what proved to be a very bad look-out. whole sky had now gone into sables, and like Hamlet seemed contending with " a sea of troubles." On the lee side, swaying by the backstay, stood the man with the red face, turned by recent exertion almost into purple. Instead of the languor and depression usually ascribed to the sea malady, it seemed to put him up instead of down, and his temper rose with his stomach. "I am worse than ever!" he said to me, almost choking between his affliction and his passion, "and there's that yellow wretch, quite composed, with a dd cigar in his mouth! I can't understand it, sir: it's against nature. As for me, I shall die of it! I know I shall!-I shall burst a vessel, sir. I thought I had just now, — but it was only the pint of port!"

As he spoke, the vessel shipped a heavy sea, and heeled over almost on her beam-ends. "I suppose," said my uncle, "that's what they call a water-spout." "It's a squall!" said the yellow-face. "It's a female scream," cried my aunt, wringing her hands, and in reality we heard a shrill cry of distress that drew us in a body towards the fore-part of the vessel. "It's the lady o' title," said the mate; "she was above 'sociating with the passengers, and preferred sitting in her own carriage; - lucky she did n't go overboard, coach didn't and all.”—My worthy uncle indignantly declared the thing to be impossible. "Do you pretend to say there's a human being shut up in that carriage, because she won't even condescend to be drowned along with her fellow-creatures?" By way

of answer, the mate and assistants contrived to drag the human being out of the vehicle, and certainly, between fright and a good ducking, she was a very forlorn-looking specimen of her order. "Well," muttered my uncle, "this is dignity with a vengeance! I should have thought even a lady of title might prefer a comfortable cabin to sitting in such a bathing-machine, even with coronets on the top." "Poor thing!" interposed my aunt; "it's the nature of her bringing up." "No doubt of it!" retorted Nuncle; "but to my mind it's an unchristian bringing up that prepares one so badly for going down." This shot silenced my poor aunt, but it did not prevent her from paying all possible attention to the Woman of Quality, on her way to the ladies' cabin, where she was deposited, at her own request, in a high berth. And so ended for the present the little episode of Lady D and her own carriage.

And now, my dear Gerard, imagine us all to creep like the exclusive lady into our own narrow dormitories, not that we were sleepy, but the violent pitching of the ship made it difficult, if not impossible, for any mere landsman to sit or stand. Indeed it would not have been easy to sleep, in spite of the concert that prevailed. First, a beam in one corner seemed taken in labor, then another began groaning, — plank after plank chimed in with its peculiar creak,—every bulkhead seemed to fret with an ache in it; sometimes the floor complained of a strain, next the ceiling cried out with a pain in its joints, and then came a general squeezing sound, as if the whole vessel was in the last stage of collapse. Add to these the wild howling of the wind through the rigging, till the demon of the storm seemed to be playing coronachs over us on an Æolian harp, the clatter of hail, the constant rushes of water around and overhead, and at every uncommon pitch, a chorus of female shrieks from the next cabin. To describe my own feelings, the night seemed spent between dozing and delirium. When I closed my eyes, I had dreams of nightmares, not squatting ones merely, but vicious jades, that kicked, plunged, reared with and rolled over me: when I opened them, I beheld stools, trunks, bags, endowed with supernatural life, violently dancing, change sides, down the middle, back again, all round, and then, sauve qui peut, in a sudden panic making a general rush at the cabin stairs. In