letter containing every minutiae of his escape, which he had forwarded to her, under cover to Captain Seaforth, only seven days after his supposed death.  Had the captain received this letter, all anxiety would have been spared, for as he did not write to Mr. Hamilton for above a week after Edward’s disappearance, it would have reached him first; it was therefore very clear it had been lost on its way, and Edward fearing such might be the case, from the uncertain method by which it had been sent, wrote again.  He had quite recovered, he said, all ill effects from being so long floating in the water on a narrow plank; that he was treated with marked kindness and attention by all the crew of the Alma, a Spanish vessel bound to Rio Janeiro and thence to New York, particularly by an Englishman, Lieutenant Mordaunt, to whose energetic exertions he said he greatly owed his preservation; for it was he who had prevailed on the captain to lower a boat, to discover what that strange object was floating on the waves.  He continued, there was something about Lieutenant Mordaunt he could not define, but which had the power of irresistibly attracting his respect, if not affection.  His story he believed was uncommon, but he had not yet heard it all, and had no time to repeat it, as he was writing in great haste.  Affectionately he hoped no alarm amongst his friends had been entertained on his account, that it would not be long before he returned home; for as soon as the slow-sailing Spaniard could finish her affairs with the ports along the coast of Spanish America and reach New York, Lieutenant Mordaunt and himself had determined on quitting her, and returning to England by the first packet that sailed.  A letter to New York might reach him, but it was a chance; therefore he did not expect to receive any certain intelligence of home—­a truth which only made him the more anxious to reach it.

Quickly the news that Edward Fortescue lived, and was returning home in perfect health, extended far and wide, and brought joy to all who heard it.  A messenger was instantly despatched to Trevilion Vicarage to impart the joyful intelligence to Arthur and Emmeline, and the next day saw them both at Oakwood to rejoice with Ellen at this unexpected but most welcome news.  There was not one who had been aware of the suspense Mr. Hamilton and Ellen had been enduring who did not sympathise in their relief.  Even Mrs. Greville left her solitary home to seek the friends of her youth:  she had done so previously when affliction was their portion.  She had more than once shared Ellen’s anxious task of nursing, when Mrs. Hamilton’s fever had been highest; kindly and judiciously she had soothed in grief, and Mrs. Greville’s character was too unselfish to refuse her sympathy in joy.