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How I Fared at the Siege of Plymouth.

"Pretty soldiers you be!" was Bridget's scornful rejoinder.

The change in her manner somewhat surprised me, but I only laughed. Then she pulled out from some mysteriously hidden pocket a small sealed note, and my heart beat fast at sight of it. But Bridget never did things in a hurry, unless under very strong provocation, and I was anxious now, as always, to propitiate her if possible.

"Some folks is thought a deal of for doing nothing," she remarked, "and other folks is thought little of for doing much."

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'Very true," I assented.

"And them that does little be always they that thinks they does much," she continued.

I could hardly doubt that her words were intended to apply to myself, but I was determined, for my sweet Lucy's sake, not to feel annoyed with her faithful servant. I had detected unmistakeable signs of jealousy towards me before now, yet I would be purposely blind to it.

"I have no doubt you are right," I answered. "I'm not one to be always talking and parleying and disputing about Bible texes and Bible words, but the Bible does say we've not got to serve two masters; I know that."

"We cannot," I answered, "if the masters are opposed, and require a different kind of service."

She answered, not with any words, but with a significant grunt, and pushed out her under lip so as to form what, when I was a child, was called a dripping-pan. This ugly pout by no means improved of the " grown Dutch doll," the personal appearance and I began to realise that Lucy Woollcombe might have a good deal to put up with in the strange Yet that she was temper of her liege woman. devotedly fond of, and loyally attached to, her sweet young mistress I was fully assured; and that alone would have made her bearable in my sight, whatever she had said or done to me personally.

"There's no use wasting words about it," she observed at length, as she handed me the note, dropped me a curtsey, and disappeared, before I could detain her.

I was very sorry, but saw not how to mend matters by regrets. I opened Lucy's note; no one will blame me that I delayed to do so till I had kissed again and again the fair superscription to

Ensign Benjamin Holbeck,
Plymouth Fort.

What a delicate tracery it was! just suitable to emanate from those soft little hands that last night I had felt, with their delicious power of soothing, on my burning brows; I could feel them yet. This was her dear letter:

“DEAR MR. HOLBECK,-I hope Bridget will be able to tell me on her return that you are very much better. Indeed, you must take care of yourself, for the sake of your dear family so far away at Brier Grange, and for the sake of all your many friends

here.

“I am afraid you heard last night what it was not at all intended anyone should hear who is not on the I am very much puzzled how to side of the King. act in this matter. But I think I shall feel I have done all that is required of me if I ask you not to mention what you heard, unless, indeed, you feel it

trust, however serious the consequences may be, I am
to be contrary to your honour not to do so. Then I
the last who could advise a man [these two words
were crossed out and the one word "you" substi-
"I remain, sir,
tuted] against your duty.

"Yours faithfully,

"LUCY WOOLLCOMBE.

I was half ashamed to remember how little atten-
tion I had paid to the words of the Cavalier the
I had been so absorbed in my fair charmer,
army.
preceding evening, in relation to our condition as an
and the progress I believed I had made in her favour;
a friend so unmistakeably to her guest, that his words
so delighted that she had shown her liking for me as
had not set me thinking, as Lucy doubtless had be-
lieved they would do. Now, like a flash of lightning,
I seemed to understand it all.

"Wasn't it worth while," the Cavalier had said,
"to sacrifice a few to thirst for the sake of our
cause?"

Mr. Woollcombe, then, had devised a plan to cut off our water supply, but had not divulged it to Prince Maurice, probably from reasons of humanity.

The water of Plymouth was brought into the town from the beautiful springs of Dartmoor, just fifty of Sir Francis Drake, for which some, notably Mrs. years ago, by the good skill and careful engineering Tonkin, are willing to give him more praise than for all his bravery abroad.

Mr. Tonkin has pleasantly related to me the ceremony of first receiving the water, which he, though then a very little child, has a clear remembrance of. For the Mayor in his robes and all the Corporation went out in state to meet the water, as it flowed along towards the town, through its newly-cut channel; and every parent was minded that his child should taste of the pure stream on that auspicious day; and of the great navigator much lauded. Before this many eloquent speeches were made, and the ability time, merchant vessels putting into this harbour, otherwise so convenient, had had great difficulty in obtaining water.

But my heart seemed almost to stand still as I reflected how easily impediments might be put in the way to block the channel, if once the idea had got and anxious lest, if the blockade should be again into the minds of the besiegers. And I felt troubled changed into a siege, the plans of Mr. Woollcombe should be adopted, and the garrison, and, above all, the townspeople themselves, should die of thirst. There were wells, it is true, but sadly insufficient for a bountiful supply of water.

Must I make known what I had heard; if I did not, would not the blood of the innocent victims be on my head? And if I made it known, what but ruin could come to my Lucy? I wished much I could consult with my father in so difficult a business, and yet more often, perhaps, I regretted the death in our fort of that After much reflection, I decided to ask the good old sergeant to whom I might have confided the Almighty to direct me, knowing that both those to been possible, would themselves have turned to Him whom I would so gladly have turned for advice had it (To be continued.) for counsel. And it seemed to be made very plain to me that I must do nothing rashly.

matter.

SEA STORIES OF PERIL AND ADVENTURE, BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK.

BY W. DAVENPORT ADAMS.

THE ICE-RAFT (continued). HE night was one of terror; profound was the darkness, the wind raged tempestuously, the snow fell in blinding showers. "We did not know," says Tyson, who was on the ice, or who was on the ship; but I knew some of the children were on the ice, because almost the last things I had pulled away from the crushing keel of the ship were some musk-ox skins; they were lying across a wide crack in the ice, and as I pulled them towards me to save them, I saw that there were two or three of Hans' children rolled up in one of the skins. A slight motion of the ice, and in a moment more they would either have been in the water and drowned, in the darkness, or crushed between the ice." When morning dawned, the cold grey light disclosed to Tyson that some of the men were afloat on small blocks of ice; these were rescued by the whale boat, and the whole company then consisted of eighteen persons, besides himself, namely Mr. Meyers, the meteorologist; Herron, steward; Jackson, cook; Kruger, Jamka, Lindermann, Anthing, Lindguist, and Johnson, seamen; Eskimo Joe, his wife Hannah, and their child Puney; and Eskimo Hans, his wife Christiana, her children Augustina, Tobias, and Sucri, and baby Charlie Polaris, so called because born on board the ship. Their temporary asylum was a circular piece of floe, about four miles in circumference, diversified, like a small island, by hillocks and ponds, the latter, formed by the summer-melting of the ice. Its thickness varied at different parts. Some of the mounds or hummocks were as much as thirty feet thick, others did not exceed ten or fifteen feet. As a whole, it formed a kind of ice-raft, which moved slowly southward with the current, but might at any time be broken up.

For the company thus strangely cast adrift, the supply of provisions consisted only of fourteen cans of pemmican, i.e., dried and pounded meat; eleven and a half bags of bread, one can of dried apples, and fourteen hams; and if the ship did not return for them, they might have to support themselves on this scanty stock throughout the winter, or perish miserably of starvation. Fortunately, they had a couple of boats, and in these it might just be possible to reach the land.

Tyson soon came to the conclusion that the Polaris would not return for them; and proceeded to make a bold effort to comfort his little company and make for the shore. The two boats had been got off the floe for this purpose, and partly loaded, and the men were pulling shorewards, with the intention of coming back for what was left, when the loose drift rendered progress impossible, and forced them to haul up on the floe. Soon after, to their great joy, they saw the Polaris, which came round a point above them, at a distance of eight or ten miles. Captain Tyson not unnaturally wondered why she did not come and look for them; and, to attract her attention, set up the colours he had with him, and a piece of india-rubber cloth. Glass in hand, he closely watched

the vessel, which was under both steam and sail, with feelings (as the novelists say) impossible to describe -alternating emotions of hope and fear. But she kept along the coast, and then, instead of steering towards the castaways, dropped behind Littleton Island. In other words, she abandoned them.

Tyson thereupon resolved to cross to the other side of the floe, and make for the land, at a point lower down than the Polaris, so as to intercept her. Everything was cast aside, except two or three days' provisions, and the boats were got ready. But the men, not apprehending the full extent of their danger, were slow and reluctant. They had no oars; it blew almost a gale; and as night approached, Tyson felt obliged to abandon his purpose. During the night of the 16th the floe again broke; so that Tyson and his companions found themselves adrift on one part, with one of the boats, while the other boat, part of the provisions, and a hut which they had run up with spars, remained on the main body of the floe. The portion carrying Tyson and his companions measured about 150 yards each way.

On the 21st they succeeded in recovering the other boat and the provisions. Joe, with the quick eyes of an Eskimo, caught sight of the boat's bow projecting from a fragment of the broken ice, and with Captain Tyson and six dogs hastened in quest of it. The dogs were harnessed to the boat, which they soon dragged across the disrupted floe. The whole party then removed to a larger and firmer floe, which lay nearer the shore. There they set to work to build some snow huts or igloes, as a protection from the weather. First they levelled off the ground, and one-half of the floor, towards the end opposite the entrance, was slightly raised above the other or front half. The raised part formed parlour and bedroom; the front part workshop and kitchen. The arched roof and the walls were alike built of square blocks of solid snow; a square of about eighteen inches of thin ice or compressed snow served for window. The low entrance was approached through a narrow gallery, which at night was blocked up by a slab of frozen snow.

A snug little encampment was speedily completed: a hut for Captain Tyson and Mr. Meyers; another for Eskimo Joe, Hannah, and Puney; a third for the seamen ; a fourth for Eskimo Hans and his family; also a store-hut for provisions, and a cask house, all connected by arched galleries or corridors made of snow. In one of these igloës a white man of average stature could just manage to stand erect. They are admirably adapted, however, for the rough experiences of an Arctic climate. They cannot be blown over, though they are frequently buried in the snow drift; and when there is oil enough to keep the lamps burning, they can be kept quite comfortably warm.

Towards the end of October, like a thrifty housekeeper, Captain Tyson took stock, and found that the provisions still at their disposal consisted of :Eleven and a half bags of bread.

Fourteen cans of pemmican, each weighing 45 lbs.

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66

Tyson writes thus in his diary: • We are living now on as little as the human frame can endure without succumbing; some tumble with weakness when they try to walk. Mr. Meyers suffers much from this cause; he was not well when he came on the ice, and the regimen here has not improved him. He lives with the men now; they are mostly Germans, and so is he, and the affinity of blood draws them together, I suppose. Since he has housed with the men, I have lived in the hut with Joe, Hannah, and Puney. Puney, poor child, is often hungry; indeed, all the children often. cry with hunger. We give them all that it is safe to use. I can do no more, however sorry I may feel for them."

An Arctic Scene-Watching a Seal Hole.

Fourteen small hams.

A can of dried apples, weighing 22 lbs. Two dozen cans of meats and soups, from one to two pounds each; and,

About twenty pounds of chocolate and sugar mixed. Such a supply was clearly inadequate to the support of nineteen persons through the dreary, deadly Arctic winter, and Captain Tyson's hope lay in getting to the shore, where their guns might possibly provide them with some species of game.

The daily ration of the whole company was fixed at two pounds of pemmican, six pounds of bread, and four pounds of canned meat. On so small an allowance, everybody's strength declined rapidly; and it was not supplemented by any fresh provisions, for though the Eskimo went out hunting every day, they failed to bring in any game. In winter the seal is not easily found. Living mainly under the ice, he can be seen only when it cracks, or when he comes up for air. For breathing purposes, he makes air holes through the ice and snow, but as these do not exceed two inches and a half in diameter, it is difficult to distinguish them in the duskiness of an Arctic day. The patience displayed by the native hunter is extraordinary; he will remain watching a seal hole for thirty-five or forty-eight hours before getting a chance to strike, and then if he make but one false aim, the chance is lost, for the seal returns no more. He makes use of a barbed spear as a weapon; and as the seal's skin is very thin, a well directed blow invariably penetrates it, so that the prize can be held securely until the air hole has been sufficiently enlarged to admit of the passage of the victim's body.

On the 21st of November a couple of seals were captured, furnishing the castaways with a welcome supply.

By this time they had slaughtered all the dogs but four, and every member of the little company was grievously feeble. Captain

One day, when Joe and Hans were out on the chase, they lost one another among the hummocks; and Joe, after some fruitless efforts to track game, returned to the huts as night approached. He expected to find Hans at home, and was much alarmed when he heard that nothing had been seen of him. Accompanied by Robert, he started in search of the wanderer. Hurrying along through the growing darkness, they saw, as they conceived, a Polar bear advancing in their direction, and loaded their pistols in order to welcome him warmly. At this moment the." creature" stood erect, threw up his arms, and revealed himself as their missing comrade. In climbing the rough hummocks he had used both his hands and feet, and his fur clothing being white with snow, he presented a very fair imitation of Ursus Arcticus.

Meanwhile, the floe, or ice-raft, continued its slow progress to the southward. The stormy weather prevented its reluctant passengers from making an attempt to reach the shore. When any lull in the gale occurred, Tyson yoked his dog-team to the sledge and drove across the broken ice, as near the shore as he could safely venture. The miserable condition of the captain. anl his little company, can easily

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The Esquimaux and his way of traveling.

be imagined. With hurricane and snow-storm constantly beating around them-adrift on a raft of ice, half clad, half fed, and lacking all those appliances by which science has enabled men to endure with comparative comfort the rigour of an Arctic winter-apprehensive that at any moment their insecure asylum might betray them-their wretchedness was scarcely deficient in a single element that could make it complete.

A seal was caught on the 29th of December, and enabled the castaways to close up the year with a banquet. Captain Tyson tells us there is but one way of properly dividing a seal, and, indeed, there is but one way of properly doing anything. First, the Eskimo remove the "blanket," that is the skin, and the blubber, the two being inseparable as they come off the creature. Next, they open up the body with great care, to prevent any loss of blood, and place it in such a position that all the blood may flow into the internal cavity, which is laboriously scooped out, and the blood either saved for future use or passed round, that each person present may enjoy a draught. As the liver and heart are precious dainties, they are divided into equal portions, that all may partake. So, too, with the brain, another valuable delicacy. The youngest child receives the eyes; and afterwards the flesh is fairly divided. Frequently the "cutter-up" stands with his back to the slices, and, as the different names of the company are called out in succession, hands one to each, so that no display of partiality or prejudice is possible. The entrails are usually scraped and allowed to freeze, before they are eaten. The skins are saved to be made into garments, or reins and harness, or coverings for huts and canoes. It may safely be said that no part of the animal is wasted. In a region where animal life is so limited, the seal is too valuable not to be utilised down even to the membranous tissue, which, stretched and dried, serves as a semi-transparent window for the snow-hut or igloë.

In the water the small Greenland seal is pretty to look at, with its shining white fur beautifully variegated on the back and sides by black and dusky spots. This species is more frequently met with in shoals, as is the case with the springing seal. The latter is a lively animal, and plays with its comrades in the open water, much like a porpoise, except that it has a springing instead of a rolling motion. Largest of all the tribe is the harp or bearded seal, which is ponderous and even awkward in its movements. When attacked, it makes a revolution, and dives head foremost, like a whale; the small seal, on the contrary, sinks backward, tail first, and head last.

By the 9th of January the ice-raft had drifted down to lat. 72°, or about the middle of Davis Strait, and was making in the direction of Labrador, though those on board of it flattered themselves that it was steering for Disco in Greenland. The cold was excessive: 35° below zero at noon, and 37° at midnight. On the 13th it sank to 40°. Next day, however, the temperature rose to 14°, under the more genial influence of a strong westerly wind. The Eskimo launched a kayack (or skin canoe); a seal was hunted down; and a good meal enjoyed. On the 17th down went the thermometer to 38° below zero, and no more seals could be seen. The men had hitherto caused Captain Tyson much trouble by their unruly be

haviour, but the reduction of their daily ration to less than twelve ounces had a sobering effect. Hope springs eternal in the human breast; at all events, it revived in the breasts of our navigators on the 19th, when, after an absence of eighty-three days, the sun rose once more above the horizon. O glorious source of life and light, how all men rejoice in thy genial beams! How the fearful soul gains courage, and the sorrowful finds a relief for its pain! How the young feel their veins aglow with ecstacy, and the old become sensible of renewed strength! The sea that wore such an aspect of terror, breaks at once into a myriad smiles; the shadows flee from the valley; the mountain-tops kindle into holy altars; the waves of the rolling river gleam and glitter like the spearheads of an advancing army; the corn-fields shine with billows of ruddy gold! Thank God for the sun! Type of the Eternal Love, it puts away the darkness of death, as, day after day, it rises, sublime in its pure splendour, with healing on its wings!

Stimulated by the burst of sunlight, Eskimo Joe undertook another hunting expedition, and, about five miles from the hut, found open water, and shot a couple of seals. He could bring only one to land, however; the other was carried away by the young ice.

The 25th of January was the one hundred and third day of this weary voyage on the ice-raft. It was a calm, beautiful day; but the thermometer marked 40° below zero (that is, 72° below freezing-point !). At midnight a magnificent auroral display lighted up the heavens with luminous colours. From south-west to north-east, from horizon to zenith, the magnetic fires shot with capricious, undulating motion, like that of flame before a strong wind. The brilliant display reached such a climax that the human eye turned away from its excess of light, almost blinded.

A heavy gale arose on the 1st of February, and the ice-floe rocked and rolled until it was broken by a number of great cracks and fissures. Huge fragments fell off from the mass; and the vast bergs which had hitherto attended it, and to some extent sheltered it, drove before the storm like mastless hulks. Though surrounded by masses of ice, which, if driven against their encampment, must have overwhelmed it, they continued their dreary and singular voyage in safetyoccasionally disturbed by the reflection that, at some time or other, the floe must break up, and that then they might be involved in the ruin. This reflection, however, seems to have weighed very lightly on the minds of most of Tyson's followers, who, amid all the "elemental war," preserved their old habits of indifference and composure. If we look into one of their igloë, we see some such picture as the following: "Joe and Hannah seated in front of the lamp, playing checkers on an old piece of canvas, the squares being marked out with Tyson's pencil. They use buttons for men, as they have nothing better. The natives easily learn any sort of game; some of them can even play a respectable game of chess; and cards they understand as well as the "heathen Chinee." Cards go wherever sailors go, and the first lessons that the natives of any uncivilised country get are usually from sailors. Little Puney, and Joe, and Hannah's adopted child, a little girl, are sitting wrapped in a musk-ox skin; every few minutes the child says to her mother, I am so hungry! The children often

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cry with hunger. It makes one's heart ache, but they are obliged to bear it with the rest."

In February they descended into a part of the Strait where icebergs of all sizes and forms abounded, presenting a spectacle as strange as it was picturesque. When lighted up by the occasional sunshine, they gleamed with prismatic colours, like the creations of a fairy world; but in days of gloom they drifted through the mist like sheeted phantoms, weird and portentous in their colossal bulk. The pressure of hunger was now less felt by the inmates of the ice-raft. Seals were caught on the 5th and 7th, and occasionally a dovekie relieved their meagre bill of fare. They also shot, but failed to capture, a couple of narwhals, or sea-unicorns, so called on account of the elongated tooth, some six to eight feet in measurement, which projects from the upper jaw. Day after day the raft sailed slowly onward, carrying its living freight through mist and snow-the snow sometimes falling so thickly as to wrap the scene in the gloom of desolation. Through the darkness of the night and the obscurity of the day, ever onward, onward, until, on the 17th of February, land was sighted in the west at no greater distance than thirty-eight or forty miles. The hearts of our adventurers kindled anew with hope and confidence. On the 21st the thermometer, for the first time, was above zero, and next day it had risen to 20°, or within 12° of freezing point; so that men accustomed to the deadly severity of the Arctic winter smiled in each other's face quite cheerily.

a drawback, however, that game began to fail, and that the hunters returned from their day's expeditions empty-handed. The men, too, grew very feeble; so that a light Eskimo kajack, which any moderately robust man can carry easily, proved a burden scarcely to be borne by six or seven. Captain Tyson at last perceived that they must reach the shore or die. On the 3rd of March the floe drew near Cumberland Gulf, and he resolved, as soon as the weather was favourable, to take to the boats. But for some days pitiless hurricanes of frozen snow raged from the north-west, rendering any such attempt impossible. The ice, meanwhile, cracked and snapped under them with a sound like that of distant thunder, until they wondered what new calamity awaited them. The noises were so ominously loud on the 7th that it was evident the disruption of the floe would not be long deferred. Captain Tyson speaks of them as very various in character, and as having a peculiar effect upon the listener; and feeling unable to do justice to them in plain prose, indulges in a poetical quotation :

"Hark! a dull crash, a howling, ravenous yell,

Opening full symphony of ghastly sound;

Jarring, yet blunt, as if the dismal hell

Sent its strange anguish from the rent profound.
Through all its scale the horrid discord ran;

Now mocked the beast, now took the groan of man." The long-anticipated disruption took place on the 11th, when, in the midst of a terrible storm, the iceraft shivered and split into hundreds of pieces, on one of which, measuring not more than a hundred yards by seventy-five, they found themselves afloat. Judge of their alarm, their anxiety, lest this piece too should be broken up, plunging them into the whirl of waters! But it remained intact; and in the morn

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ing the wind subsided, the snow-drifts ceased; and they were able to look around them. A complete. change had taken place in the aspect of the scene: the different "floes were jammed together into one immense "pack;" and huge blocks of all shapes and sizes were heaped into a singular chaotic mass. The diminished ice-raft reached lat. 61° 59′ N. on the 25th of March. Hooded seals were now numerous, and a good supply of fresh meat did something to restore the strength and spirits of the involuntary voyagers. On the 28th a bear was killed. Shortly after dusk a noise was heard outside one of the tents; and Joe, reconnoitring, discovered Bruin near his kajack, which lay within ten feet of the hut occupied by Joe and Captain Tyson. Both their rifles were outside, one in the kajack, the other close to it. Tyson and Joe stealthily glided out, and perceived that the visitor was leisurely feasting upon the sealskins and pieces of blubber scattered over the floe. While Joe crept into the sailors' hut to give the alarm, Tyson crawled forward and seized his rifle, but in doing so knocked down a shot-gun and aroused Mr. Bruin's attention. The Captain loaded' his rifle; Bruin growled; the trigger would not go off; a second and a third time it would not go off; but the Captain did, for the bear made a rush! When within the hut Tyson reloaded his rifle, again' sallied forth, faced the bear, and shot him dead. It was a glorious victory," and provided a welcome change of food for several days.

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As the ice-raft was rapidly wearing away, Tyson launched his one sea-worthy boat, huddled into her his whole company, with their hut, sleeping gear, and a supply of powder and shot, and abandoning everything else, stood to the westward, in order to reach "the pack." In this they succeeded on the 4th of April. But a terrible gale arose, and as it continued for several days, the storm-beaten voyagers were reduced to grievous distress by the failure of their provisions. Their sufferings from hunger were extreme, and wild, mad thoughts entered the minds of some of the famished ones. "The men," writes Tyson, on the 10th of April," have dangerous looks; this hunger is distracting their brains. I cannot but fear that they contemplate crime. After what we have gone through, I hope this company may be preserved from any fatal wrong. We can, and we must, bear what God sends without crime. This party must not disgrace humanity by cannibalism." Happily, a seal was killed on the 18th.

Yet another calamity! At night, on the 20th, a heavy sea suddenly arose, and sweeping upon the ice-floe in tremendous billows, carried away their hut, their skins, most of their bed-clothing, in fact, all that was movable, and left them in a sad state of destitution. Only a few articles were saved; these they managed to stow in the boat, in which, happily, the women and children had taken shelter, or the latter must have perished. The boat itself narrowly escaped destruction. But the men knew that all their hopes of safety centred in it, and this knowledge animated them to almost incredible efforts. For twelve hours they held on to it " like grim death." Above the turmo i of the night rose Captain Tyson's orders, "Hold on,'" Bear down, my men!" "Now put on all your might!" with the men's

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