with a rapidity which was only exceeded by that of the subtler flame winning its fiery way through her blazing bulwarks and rigging aloft.

Here Hasty was observed pacing the deck in an anxious, fretful mood, as though labouring under some awful foreboding, suddenly turning to his captain, he exclaimed, as if they had previously been discussing a subject hitherto untouched by either

"Recollect, Sir, we shan't now find it so easy a matter to drown the magazine!--It 's most likely we shall have to get the powder up by hand, and heave it overboard." "Overboard!" interrupted Staunch; 66 suppose her foremast falls, and we get the fire under, we shall be more defenceless than, a collier. No, no! we 'll still preserve our powder."

"Impossible, Sir-how are we to do it?"

"Drop the mainsail-haul both sheets aft-'twill serve as a fire-screen; whip the powder up, and lower it over the taffel into the boats astern."

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Egad, you'll make every boat a regular built catamaran to blow ourselves up."

"Well, never mind!-up with it for all that," said Staunch.

"Overhawl the gear on the main yard--man the main sheets," cried Hasty, whose tone betrayed that he thought if the duty were to be done, 'twere well 'twere done quickly; however disappointed that his own suggestion had not been adopted.

The preparations being completed, almost as rapidly as related, the gunner, with a careful party, soon relieved them from a fear, which momentarily grew more pressing; by depositing one half of the powder in the boats astern, and drowning the other by hand.

The flames now ascended so fast, that the topmen aloft were compelled to retreat from the foremast, and slide down by the topmast stays, to a far from enviable position on the bowsprit:-the communication with the ship being now cut off, by the raging of the flames on the forecastle. The fate of these brave fellows would have been inevitable, had not the last, prior to attempting his descent, with a presence of mind worthy of a more fortunate result for

himself, cut away both top-gallant bow-lines from their insertion into the leach of the sails as he stood at the topmast head. These lines, from their great length, when made fast on the bowsprit, enabled the men to lower themselves into the sea, and escape to the boats now towing astern. Unhappily for the inventor of this singular fire-escape, the rope was by this time stranded, and snapped as he plunged into the water; leaving him to buffet vainly the huge billows through which the ship maintained her wild career.

How gladly would he have exchanged his prospect of lonely suffering and death, for that of companionship in misery on board that bark, which, he foreboded, must prove the grave of many a messmate. The prayer was hardly conceived ere he was taken into the jolly-boat by the only seaman on board her, who, on witnessing this poor fellow's gallant conduct aloft, and subsequent accident, had, in a moment of excitement, cut the boat adrift, and resolved to share his peril. All this was the work of a few moments; and now, for the first time, the boat was discovered by the ship's company to have parted. The poor fellows on board her were seen, as they surmounted the heavy deep swells, stepping the masts, hoisting the sail, and endeavouring to keep the ship's track, though at an alarmingly fast increasing distance.

Preceding the brig, and far to leeward, like an avant courier of her fate, or harbinger of wo, a dark mass of dense smoke, fitfully illumined by flakes of fire, or bursts of burning embers obscured that part of the atmosphere, whither the forlorn bark seemed recklessly to urge her desperate way.

The day was fast drawing to its dreaded close; and no prospect of relief could be discovered throughout the wide horizon of waters, by young eyes straining themselves from their sockets, in bewildered anxiety, as these little centinels of the ship's safety sat perched in the giddy eyrie of the main-topmast-head. Many were the painful anticipa tions of these young adventurers, as they alternately glanced from the fire, now fast mounting aloft, to the hopeless prospect around. Nor will it be thought unworthy of the hardy profession which they had embraced, that the tear

glistened in those eyes, or traced those downy cheeks, as they thought with many a mournful presage on their far distant home, and the unambitious happy companions of their childhood.

The explosion of a gun forward, in consequence of the fire now reaching it, was quickly followed by another, and suggested to the captain the propriety of discharging the remainder to prevent any accident occurring, should they be compelled to have recourse to the boats.

Such was the general state of anxiety on board, that the sun's approaching descent in the horizon had been, until now, unnoticed. By some perversity the quarter-master was destined, as in the case of the breaking out of the fire, to be again the boder of bad tidings. His lameness prevented him being otherwise serviceable than in watching the boats astern; and now, as he looked from the poop, his ominous voice was heard remarking, that they could not expect above an hour and a half's longer light. Pointing to the sun, as he addressed the captain, he exclaimed, "She'll dip, you see, Sir, in less than three quarters of an hour. She looks very watery too."

'This observation roused the ever vigilant spirit of poor Burton, who, it may be conjectured, bore his fair proportion of the toils and anxiety of this dismal day. Fatigued as he was, he seized a glass from the capstan head, and flew aloft, determined to avail himself of the short period of day-light, that yet remained, to sweep with his eye the wide-spread prospect, in the hope of discovering approaching relief.

Three hours and a half had nearly elapsed since the fire was first discovered. Though sometimes partially checked by the ceaseless exertions of the crew, it as often appeared to be renewed with overwhelming violence; despite of the prudent precautions of Staunch, and the daring endeavours of his intrepid tars. He, until now, had been buoyed up with the flattering hope of saving, perhaps, the ship herself; but certainly with a fair expectation of falling in with timely succour, so as to preserve the lives of his crew in this distressing emergency. Independently of the threatening indications of the sky, and peculiarly marked manner of the quarter-master, in thus

directing his attention to the gloomy prospect of the setting sun; there was something so dreadfully appalling in the idea of struggling with the raging element in the dark, or being indebted for light to the all-consuming flame, which must, ere to-morrow's sun, burn their bark to the water's edge; that it required no ordinary command of countenance to conceal from his crew all the distraction which inwardly preyed upon his mind. Neither was his anxiety likely to be allayed by perceiving the boatswain relax in that boisterous loquacity, which had so long cheered them during their severe labour; or by over-hear. ing the few remarks, which escaped from the seamen, while ominously hinting at the causes of their unfortunate fate."Ah, Jack," said the captain of the forecastle, addressing the boatswain's-mate, who had again taken a spell in directing the pipe of the engine-" one pipe's as good as the other now-the game's all up, I fear. I thought no good 'ou'd come o' sailing of a Friday."

"I knew," said one of the fore-topmen, "them there pauposes warn't tumbling about the bows for nothing." "Never mind that, bo," cried Cheerly, the captain's coxswain, "it can't be so bad with us either; for you see the skipper still looks up nor-west-and-by-well."

These observations, uttered in an under tone, added to the increasing perplexities of this painfully responsible situation; nor could even the compliment conveyed by the last speaker, who so generously borrowed confidence from the gesture of his commander, console him for the disposition now betrayed by these desponding spirits, to relax in their exertions.

He had been turning in his mind the best mode to save the lives of as many as possible of the crew, if forced by the fire to desert the ship. He knew that all her boats, so far from being able to contain the entire ship's company, could not accommodate even half the crew, in the event of bad weather. The danger could no longer be disguised. The carpenter was soon summoned, and received a prompt order to commence at once, with his crew, to saw off, and detach the poop-deck from the bulwarks abaft, in order to act as a raft, if required.

While thus engaged, the brig was overtaken by a squall

of wind, accompanied by a welcome torrent of rain. Although the violence of the wind, for a moment, fanned the flame, the influence of the rain tended materially to keep it under.

Burton had been nearly half an hour at the mast-head, sweeping, with searching eye, the whole extent of the horizon. It is in vain to attempt to convey in language the agitated forebodings, or agonizing recollections, which fain would have interrupted him in this anxious scrutiny. Severed, as he then was, though but for a short period, from the bustling throng on deck, busy memory availed itself of this temporary relaxation of mind, to suggest again and again, that, which had for weeks constituted his day dreams, and haunted his short slumbers by night. The flattering hopes with which he commenced this cruize, and its too probable termination, formed a contrast sufficiently striking. Until now, he had been altogether a creature of ambition; this feeling pervaded even the spirit of acquirement, and prompted every effort to distinguish himself. But, of late, all motive, whether of honourable emulation, personal distinction, or professional advancement, seemed to merge in one overwhelming solicitude. Even now, as he grasped the mast-head, to render firmer his giddy glass, and direct it with more certainty, in search of distant objects, on the utmost verge of vision, that loved object, whose ubiquity at all times, and at all places, he acknowledged with devout homage'; flitted across his imagination, despite of the many subjects of fearful solicitude which surrounded him on all sides.

In this state of mind, it was not surprising that his attention should be arrested by the dubious form of a sail, which appeared for a moment astern, and coming down with the wind. That anxiety, which so naturally prompts us to be the first to communicate gratifying intelligence, had nearly impelled him to excite a lively, though, in fact, unfounded hope, among men disposed, like the forlorn crew of the Spitfire, to catch at any chance of escape. He had already drawn in his breath to enable him to give more effective utterance to the welcome words "A strange sail;" when the still imperfect syllables were checked by the startling recollection, that it could, from its size and