Clara attempted to assist me in heaving the water from the hold, and, as she turned her eyes to look on the lightning, I could discern by that momentary gleam that resignation had conquered every fear. We have a power given us in any worst extremity which props the else feeble mind of man, and enables us to endure the most savage tortures with a stillness of soul which in hours of happiness we could not have imagined. A calm, more dreadful in truth than the tempest, allayed the wild beatings of my heart-a calm like that of the gamester, the suicide, and the murdererwhen the last die is on the point of being cast-while the poisoned cup is at the lips as the death-blow is about to be given.

Hours passed thus,-hours which might write old age on the face of beardless youth, and grizzle the silky hair of infancy,-hours, while the chaotic uproar continued, while each dread gust transcended in fury the one before, and our skiff hung on the breaking wave, and then rushed. into the valley below, and trembled and spun between the watery precipices that seemed almost to meet above her. For a moment the gale paused, and ocean sank to comparative silence-it was a breathing interval, the wind, which, as a practised leaper, had gathered itself up before it sprung, now with terrific roar rushed over the sea, and the waves struck our stern. Adrian exclaimed that the rudder was gone ;-" We are lost," cried Clara; "save yourselves-oh, save yourselves!" The lightning showed me the poor girl half buried in the water at the bottom of the boat; as she was sinking in it, Adrian caught her up, and sustained her in his arms. We were without a rudder; we rushed prow foremost into the vast billows piled up a-head; they broke over and filled the tiny skiff; one scream I heard-one cry that we were gone I uttered; I found myself in the waters; darkness was around. When the light of the tempest flashed, I saw the keel of our upset boat close to me. I clung to this, grasping it with clenched hands and nails, while I endeavoured during each flash to discover any appearance of my companions. I thought I saw Adrian at no great distance from me, clinging to an oar; I sprung from my hold, and with energy beyond my human strength, I dashed aside the waters as I strove to lay hold of him. As that hope failed, instinctive love of life animated me, and feelings of contention, as if a hostile will combated with mine. I breasted the surges, and flung them from me as I would the opposing front and sharpened claws of a

lion about to enfang my bosom. When I had been beaten down by one wave, I rose on another, while I felt bitter pride curl my lip.

Ever since the storm had carried us near the shore, we had never attained any great distance from it. With every flash I saw the bordering coast; yet the progress I made was small, while each wave, as it receded, carried me back into ocean's far abysses. At one moment I felt my foot touch the sand, and then again I was in deep water; my arms began to lose their power of motion; my breath failed me under the influence of the strangling waters; a thousand wild and delirious thoughts crossed me; as well as I can now recall them, my chief feeling was how sweet it would be to lay my head on the quiet earth, where the surges would no longer strike my weakened frame, nor the sound of waters ring in my ears. To attain this repose, not to save my life, I made a last effort ;—the shelving shore suddenly presented a footing for me. I rose, and was again thrown down by the breakers. A point of rock to which I was enabled to cling gave me a moment's respite; and then, taking advantage of the ebbing of the waves, I ran forward, gained the dry sands, and fell senseless on the oozy reeds that sprinkled them.

I must have lain long deprived of life, for when first, with a sickening feeling, I unclosed my eyes, the light of morning met them. Great change had taken place meanwhile: gray dawn dappled the flying clouds, which sped onwards, leaving visible at intervals vast lakes of pure æther. A fountain of light arose in an increasing stream from the east, behind the waves of the Atlantic, changing the gray to a roseate hue, and then flooding sky and sea with ærial gold.

A kind of stupor followed my fainting; my senses were alive, but memory was indistinct. The blessed respite was short,—a snake lurked near me to sting me into life. On the first retrospective emotion I would have started up, but my limbs refused to obey me; my knees trembled, the muscles had lost all power. I still believed that I might find one of my beloved companions, cast, like me, half alive, on the beach; and I strove in every way to restore my frame to the use of its animal functions. I wrung the brine from my hair, and the rays of the risen sun soon visited me with genial warmth. With the restoration of my bodily powers, my mind became in some degree aware of the universe of misery henceforth to be its dwelling. I ran to the water's edge, calling on the beloved

names.

Ocean drank in, and absorbed my feeble voice, replying with pitiless roar. I climbed a near tree; the level sands, bounded by a pine forest, and the sea, clipped round by the horizon, was all that I could discern. In vain I extended my researches along the beach; the mast we had thrown overboard, with tangled cordage and remnants of a sail, Iwas the sole relic land received of our wreck. Sometimes I stood still and wrung my hands. I accused earth and sky-the universal machine. and the Almighty Power that misdirected it. Again I threw myself on the sands, and then the sighing wind, mimicking a human cry, roused me to a bitter fallacious hope. Assuredly, if any little bark or smallest canoe had been near, I should have sought the savage plains of ocean, found the dear remains of my lost ones, and, clinging round them, have shared their grave.

The day passed thus; each moment contained eternity; although when hour after hour had gone by I wondered at the quick flight of time. Yet even now I had not drunk the bitter potion to the dregs; I was not yet persuaded of my loss; I did not feel in every pulsation, in every nerve, in every thought, that I remained alone of my race,-that I was the LAST MAN.

-MRS SHELLEY.

I

THE CLOUD.

BRING fresh showers for the thirsting flowers
From the sea and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet birds every one,

When rock'd to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun,

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under;

And then again I dissolve in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the Blast,
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers
Lightning, my pilot, sits;

In a cavern under is fetter'd the Thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits.

Over earth and ocean with gentle motion

This pilot is guiding me,

Lured by the love of the Genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills and the crags and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,