Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 119: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLHASURE, heat, and strength into Hlverstone’s frame; and becoming completely conscious of his position once more, he murmured, “Good youth! excellent Gustavus! I knew you would not abandon me !” Young Barrington proceeded to inform the old man of the preparations he had made for their escape, if the moment of need should come and compel them to leave the wreck ; and Elverstone kept exclaiming, ‘ Good youth ! excellent Gus- tavus! you shall have a portion of my gold. I do not possess much—but you shall have the full half—I mean the quarter of one of these 33 ~~ ee “ Talk not of your gold !” ejaculated Gustavus. “ If you had to swim for your life, it would help to sink you; and the god of your existence would thus become the demon to plunge you down into the abyss! -Haste—rise—get upon the raft—and let me fasten you to it: for at the first cracking of the timbers—at the first warning sound—we must in the twinkling of an eye commit ourselves to the ocean !” The wretched helpless old man suffered himself to be guided by the youth who had already saved his life more than once during this fearful night, and who seemed to have his energies so completely about him. Elverstone accordingly arose from the spot where he had been crouching down upon the deck in the safest place that Gustavus could have deposited him in; and clinging to his young companion, he advanced to the raft. On this he seated himself ; and Gustavus prepared to attach a cord round the old man’s waist and then fasten it to the ropes which held the spars and planks together. “For God’s sake don’t touch my gold! don’t | 111 the place of execution and in the almost desperate condition of his guilty soul repeating the words that flowed from the mouth of the chaplain, At length daybreak began to appear in the eastern horizon—at first slowly and fitfully ; for the sombre storm-clouds. hung heavily with their dark gloomy curtainings upon the canopy of heaven. Gustavus kept his eyes riveted upon that point where the sun was struggling to pierce with its rays the obscurity that remained from night ; and gradually the gleam advanced—gradu- ally it grew stronger and stronger, until the en- tire prospect of the surrounding ocean was re- vealed to the view of the youth and his aged companion. Not a sail was to be seen, save the canvass which hung to the yards of the wreck; and though Gustavus swept the ocean with a glass, and carried his regards scrutinizingly all round tho horizon, no hopeful sign could he discern. Nor was there so much as a speck upon the sea co permit the belief that any of the ill-fated crew of the Catharine Millard still held existence in this world ; and the generous-hearted youth shed tears as he sadly murmured to himself, “ Alas, they have doubtless all perished !” He again descended to the cabins, to procure some refreshment : but he now found that the water was much higher in the ship than he could have anticipated ; and moreover that there were certain ominous sounds which made him fear that she must soon goto pieces. In short, at about an hour after daybreak Gustavus came to the con- clusion ‘that it would be an act of madness to de- lay any longer the departure from the wreck ; for if the ship should suddenly heel over or break in the midst, himself and his aged companion would inevitably be sucked down into the vortex, and per- take it!” earnestly whispered the avaricious | haps crushed amongst the parting planks and beams. | wretch, while through the obscurity his eyes | He therefore communicated his intention to Elver- were penetratingly fixed on the youth’s counte- | stone; and having supplied himself with as much nance as if in an agony of suspense to ascertain | biscuit as he could find in the cabins, as well as with a small cask of fresh water, Gustavus pre- pared to commit the raft to the ocean. This wag easily accomplished, inasmuch as it had been fashioned at a part of the deck where the bulwarks had been torn away; and as the ship itself heeled somewhat over on one side, the slope gave an im- petus to the raft the moment Gustavus cut the cords which had hitherto retained it in a fixed position. The proceeding was accomplished with perfeet safety ; and the raft, launched upon the troubled waters, with those two human beings upon it, was borne away by the force of the tide from the neighbourhood of the wreck. what his real purpose might be. But Gustavus was too indignant to make any response : and yet instead of abandoning the old wretch to his fate, as he might have been well excused for domg, he prosecuted his gene- rous task. The cords were fixed; and the young man now felt that he had done as much as mortal man could do on behalf of a fellow-creature. “You are a good youth,’’ said Elverstone ; ** and—and—I will treat you well. Only save me—for God’s sake save me,”’ he continued, with drivelling childishness: “‘ and you shall have your fair share——’”’ ‘Instead of appealing thus to me,’’ answered Gustavus solemnly, ‘“‘you should lift up your > prayers to Him whose name you have just men- | }?? . tioned “Yes, yes—I will pray,”’ responded Elverstone ; ** but—but—I know not how. Teach me.”’ Gustavus was infinitely shocked at this evidence of the deplorable religious ignorance of that old man,—a man who in the wor- ship which he had given undividedly unto the golden idol, had lost sight of that in- finitely sublimer worship which was due unto the Eternal. But quickly conquering his feel- ing of repugnance towards his aged com- panion, the youth prayed aloud; and Elverstone followed him—but with a nervous tremulousness of accents, as if he were a wretch proceeding to CHAPTER XXI KINGSTON. GusTAvus had not been long seated on the raft with his aged companion before the apprehension began to seize upon him that its construction was not sufficiently solid to enable it to resist the vio- lence of the waves. It was tossed up and down, hither and thither—now being elevated high upon the summit of a mighty wave—then being plunged deep down into a yawningabyss. The cords were so strained at one moment that they became per- clo@olk S CO