But in the long-boat they contrived to stow
Some pounds of bread, though injured by the wet;
Water, a twenty-gallon cask or so;

Six flasks of wine; and they contrived to get

A portion of their beef up from below, 4

And with a piece of pork, moreover, met,
But scarce enough to serve them for a luncheon -
Then there was rum, eight gallons in a puncheon.
XLVIII.

The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had
Been stove in the beginning of the gale; 5
And the long-boat's condition was but bad,
As there were but two blankets for a sail, 6
And one oar for a mast, which a young lad

Threw in by good luck over the ship's rail;
And two boats could not hold, far less be stored,
To save one half the people then on board.
XLIX.

"T was twilight, and the sunless day went down Over the waste of waters; like a veil,

as he could, the man reiterated this offer, an acquaintance that by chance stood next, known to him, touched him with his elbow, and said- Have a care what you promise; though you make an auction of all your goods, you'll not be able to pay. Then he says, with a voice now lower, to wit, lest Christopher should hear,-Hold your tongue, you fool; do you think I speak from my heart? If once I touch land, I'll not give him a tallow candle.'"- CLARKE's Translation.]

1 ["You cannot imagine," says Cardinal de Retz, (who narrowly escaped shipwreck in the Gulf of Lyons)-the horror of a great storm: you can as little imagine the ridicule of it. Everybody were at their prayers, or were confessing themselves. The private captain of the galley caused, in the greatest height of the danger, his embroidered coat and his red scarf to be brought to him, saying, that a true Spaniard ought to die bearing his king's marks of distinction. He sat himself down in his great elbow chair, and with his foot struck a poor Neapolitan in the chops, who, not being able to stand, was crawling along, crying out aloud, Senhor Don Fernando, por l'amor de Dios, confession.' The captain, when he struck him, said to him, Inimigo de Dios piedes confession!' and on my representing to him, that his interference was not right, he said that that old man gave offence to the whole galley. A Sicilian Observantine monk was preaching at the foot of the great mast, that St. Francis had appeared to him, and had assured him that we should not perish. I should never have done, were I to describe all the ridiculous sights that are seen on these occasions."]

2 ["Some appeared perfectly resigned, went to their hammocks, and desired their messmates to lash them in; others were for securing themselves to gratings and small rafts; but

Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown
Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail. 7
Thus to their hopeless eyes the night was shown,
And grimly darkled o'er the faces pale,
And the dim desolate deep: twelve days had Fear
Been their familiar, and now Death was here.
L.

Some trial had been making at a raft,

With little hope in such a rolling sea,
A sort of thing at which one would have laugh'd, 8
If any laughter at such times could be,
Unless with people who too much have quaff'd,

And have a kind of wild and horrid glee,
Half epileptical, and half hysterical :·
Their preservation would have been a miracle.

4 ["Eight bags of rice, six flasks of wine, and a small quantity of salted beef and pork, were put into the long-boat, as provisions for the whole."- Wreck of the Sydney.]

5 ["The yawl was stove alongside and sunk."— Centaur.] 6 [One oar was erected for a main-mast, and the other bent to the breadth of the blankets for a sail."— Loss of the Wellington Transport.]

7 ["Which being withdrawn, discloses but the frown

Of one who hates us, so the night was shown," &c.-MS.]

8 ["As rafts had been mentioned by the carpenter, I thought it right to make the attempt. It was impossible for any man to deceive himself with the hopes of being saved on a raft in such a sea as this."— Centaur.]

9 ["Spars, booms, hencoops, and every thing buoyant, were therefore cast loose, that the men might have some chance to save themselves." Loss of the Pandora.]

10 ["We had scarcely quitted the ship, when she gave a heavy lurch to port, and then went down, head foremost.". Lady Hobart.]

11["At this instant, one of the officers told the captain she was going down, and bidding him farewell, leapt overboard: the crew had just time to leap overboard, which they did, uttering a most dreadful yell."—. -Pandora.]

12 [How accurately has Byron described the whole progress Rr 4

"Yes, Don Alfonso! husband now no more,

If ever you indeed deserved the name,

Is 't worthy of your years?-you have threescoreFifty, or sixty, it is all the same

Is't wise or fitting, causeless to explore

For facts against a virtuous woman's fame? Ungrateful, perjured, barbarous Don Alfonso, How dare you think your lady would go on so? CXLVII.

"Is it for this I have disdain'd to hold
The common privileges of my sex?
That I have chosen a confessor so old

And deaf, that any other it would vex,
And never once he has had cause to scold,
But found my very innocence perplex
So much, he always doubted I was married-
How sorry you will be when I've miscarried!
CXLVIII.

"Was it for this that no Cortejo1 e'er

I yet have chosen from out the youth of Seville? Is it for this I scarce went anywhere,

Except to bull-fights, mass, play, rout, and revel?

Is it for this, whate'er my suitors were,

I favour'd none-nay, was almost uncivil ?
Is it for this that General Count O'Reilly,
Who took Algiers 2, declares I used him vilely?
CXLIX.

"Did not the Italian Musico Cazzani

Sing at my heart six months at least in vain ?
Did not his countryman, Count Corniani,

Call me the only virtuous wife in Spain?
Were there not also Russians, English, many?
The Count Strongstroganoff I put in pain,
And Lord Mount Coffeehouse, the Irish peer,
Who kill'd himself for love (with wine) last year.
CL.

"Have I not had two bishops at my feet?

The Duke of Ichar, and Don Fernan Nunez; And is it thus a faithful wife you treat?

I wonder in what quarter now the moon is: I praise your vast forbearance not to beat

Me also, since the time so opportune is Oh, valiant man! with sword drawn and cock'd trigger, Now, tell me, don't you cut a pretty figure?

"There is the closet, there the toilet, there
The antechamber-search them under, over;
There is the sofa, there the great arm-chair,
The chimney- which would really hold a lover. 3
I wish to sleep, and beg you will take care
And make no further noise, till you discover
The secret cavern of this lurking treasure-
And when 't is found, let me, too, have that pleasure.
CLIV.

"And now, Hidalgo! now that you have thrown Doubt upon me, confusion over all,

Pray have the courtesy to make it known

Who is the man you search for? how d'ye call Him? what's his lineage? let him but be shownI hope he 's young and handsome-is he tall? Tell me and be assured, that since you stain My honour thus, it shall not be in vain.

She ceased, and turn'd upon her pillow; pale
She lay, her dark eyes flashing through their tears,
Like skies that rain and lighten; as a veil,

Waved and o'ershading her wan cheek, appears
Her streaming hair; the black curls strive, but fail,
To hide the glossy shoulder, which uprears
Its snow through all; her soft lips lie apart,
And louder than her breathing beats her heart.
CLIX.

The Senhor Don Alfonso stood confused;

Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room,
And, turning up her nose, with looks abused
Her master, and his myrmidons, of whom
Not one, except the attorney, was amused;
He, like Achates, faithful to the tomb,
So there were quarrels, cared not for the cause,
Knowing they must be settled by the laws.

and his army and fleet retreated with great loss, and not much credit, from before that city, in the year 1775.

3 ["The chimney-fit retreat for any lover!"-MS.]

CLX.

With prying snub-nose, and small eyes, he stood,
Following Antonia's motions here and there,
With much suspicion in his attitude;
For reputations he had little care;
So that a suit or action were made good,
Small pity had he for the young and fair,
And ne'er believed in negatives, till these
Were proved by competent false witnesses.

CLXI.

But Don Alfonso stood with downcast looks,
And, truth to say, he made a foolish figure;
When, after searching in five hundred nooks,

And treating a young wife with so much rigour,
He gain'd no point, except some self-rebukes,
Added to those his lady with such vigour
Had pour'd upon him for the last half-hour,
Quick, thick, and heavy-as a thunder-shower.
CLXII.

At first he tried to hammer an excuse,

To which the sole reply was tears, and sobs, And indications of hysterics, whose

Prologue is always certain throes, and throbs,
Gasps, and whatever else the owners choose:

Alfonso saw his wife, and thought of Job's;
He saw too, in perspective, her relations,
And then he tried to muster all his patience.

Oh shame!

No sooner was it bolted, than
Oh sin! Oh sorrow! and Oh womankind!
How can you do such things and keep your fame,
Unless this world, and t' other too, be blind?
Nothing so dear as an unfilch'd good name!

But to proceed for there is more behind:
With much heartfelt reluctance be it said,
Young Juan slipp'd, half-smother'd, from the bed.
CLXVI.

He had been hid-I don't pretend to say
How, nor can I indeed describe the where
Young, slender, and pack'd easily, he lay,

CLXVII.

And, secondly, I pity not, because

He had no business to commit a sin, Forbid by heavenly, fined by human laws, At least 't was rather early to begin; But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws

So much as when we call our old debts in At sixty years, and draw the accompts of evil, And find a deuced balance with the devil.

CLXVIII.

Of his position I can give no notion:

"T is written in the Hebrew Chronicle, How the physicians, leaving pill and potion,

Prescribed, by way of blister, a young belle, When old King David's blood grew dull in motion, And that the medicine answer'd very well; Perhaps 't was in a different way applied, For David lived, but Juan nearly died.

CLXIX.

What's to be done? Alfonso will be back
The moment he has sent his fools away.
Antonia's skill was put upon the rack,

But no device could be brought into play.
And how to parry the renew`d attack?

Besides, it wanted but few hours of day:
Antonia puzzled; Julia did not speak,
But press'd her bloodless lip to Juan's cheek.
CLXX.

He turn'd his lip to hers, and with his hand

Call'd back the tangles of her wandering hair; Even then their love they could not all command, And half forgot their danger and despair: Antonia's patience now was at a stand

"Come, come, 't is no time now for fooling there," She whisper'd, in great wrath-"I must deposit This pretty gentleman within the closet:

CLXXI.

"Pray, keep your nonsense for some luckier night Who can have put my master in this mood ? What will become on 't I'm in such a fright, The devil's in the urchin, and no good

Is this a time for giggling? this a plight?

Why, don't you know that it may end in blood? You'll lose your life, and I shall lose my place, My mistress all, for that half-girlish face.

CLXXII.

"Had it but been for a stout cavalier

Of twenty-five or thirty (come, make haste)
But for a child, what piece of work is here!
I really, madam, wonder at your taste —
(Come, sir, get in) — my master must be near:
There, for the present, at the least, he 's fast,
And if we can but till the morning keep
Our counsel-(Juan, mind, you must not sleep.)"
CLXXIII.

Now, Don Alfonso entering, but alone,
Closed the oration of the trusty maid :
She loiter'd, and he told her to be gone,
An order somewhat sullenly obey'd;
However, present remedy was none,

And no great good seem'd answer'd if she staid :
Regarding both with slow and sidelong view,
She snuff'd the candle, curtsied, and withdrew.

2 ["And reckon up our balance with the devil.”—MS.]