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""Tis the breeze freshening," answered Ludlow, in sadness, at her side. "Each moment takes them away The melancholy truth was too apparent for denial, and for half an hour the retiring ship was watched in the bitterness of disappointment. At the end of that time, she fired a gun, spread additional canvas on her wide booms and stood away before the wind, to join her consort, whose upper sails were already dipping to the surface of the sea, in the southern board. With this change in her movements, vanished all expectation of succor from the cruiser of the enemy.

Perhaps, in every situation of life, it is necessary that hope should be first lessened by disappointment, before the buoyancy of the human mind will permit it to descend to the level of an evil fortune. Until a frustrated effort teaches him the difficulty of the attempt, he who has fallen may hope to rise again; and it is only when an exertion has been made with lessened means, that we learn the value of advantages, which have perhaps been long enjoyed, with a very undue estimate of their importance. Until the stern of the French frigate was seen retiring from the raft, those who were on it had not been fully sensible of the extreme danger of their situation. Hope had been strongly excited by the return of dawn; for while the shadows of night lay on the ocean, their situation resembled that of one who strove to pierce the obscurity of the future, in order to obtain a presage of better fortunes. With the light had come the distant sail. As the day advanced, the ship had approached, relinquished her search and disappeared, without a prospect of her return.

The stoutest heart among the group on the raft began to sink at the gloomy fate which now seemed inevitable.

"Here is an evil omen!" whispered Ludlow, directing his companion's eyes to the dark and pointed fins of three or four sharks, that were gliding above the surface of the water, and in so fearful a proximity to their persons, as to render their situation on the low spars, over which the water was washing and retiring at each rise and fall of the waves, doubly dangerous."The creatures' instinct speaks ill for our hopes!"

"There is a belief among seamen, that these animals feel a secret impulse, which directs them to their prey," returned the Skimmer. "But fortune may yet balk them. Rogerson!" calling to one of his followers;-"thy pockets are rarely wanting in a fisherman's tackle. Hast thou, haply, line and hook, for these hungry miscreants? The question is getting narrowed to one in which the simplest philosophy is the wisest. When eat or to be eaten, is the mooted point, most men will decide for the former."

A hook of sufficient size was soon produced, and a line was quietly provided from some of the small cordage that still remained about the masts. A piece of leather, torn from a spar, answered for the bait; and the lure was thrown. Extreme hunger "seemed to engross the voracious animals, who darted at the imaginary prey with the rapidity of lightning. The shock was so sudden and violent, that the hapless mariner was drawn from his slippery and precarious footing into the sea. The whole passed with a frightful and alarming rapidity. A com mon cry of horror was heard, and the last despairing glance of the fallen man was witnessed. The mutilated body floated for an instant in its blood, with the look of agony and terror still imprinted on the conscious countenance. At the next moment, it had become food for the monsters of the sea.

All had passed away, but the deep dye on the surface of the ocean. The gorged fish disappeared: but the dark spot remained near the immovable raft, as if placed there to warn the survivors of their fate.

"This is horrible !" said Ludlow.

"A sail!" shouted the Skimmer, whose voice and tone, breaking in on that moment of intense horror and apprehension, sounded like a cry from the heavens. "My gallant brigantine !" "God grant she come with better fortune than those who have so lately left us !"

"God grant it, truly! If this hope fail there is none left. Few pass here, and we have had sufficient proof that our top gallants are not so lofty as to catch every eye."

All attention was now bestowed on the white speck which was visible on the margin of the ocean, and which the "Skimmer of the Seas" confidently pronounced to be the Water-Witch. None but a seaman could have felt this certainty; for, seen from the low raft, there was little else to be distinguished but the heads of the upper sails. The direction too was unfavorable, as it was to leeward; but both Ludlow and the free-trader assured their companions, that the vessel was endeavoring to beat in with the land.

The two hours that succeeded lingered like days of misery. So much depended on a variety of events, that every circumstance was noted by the seamen of the party, with an interest bordering on agony. A failure of the wind might compel the vessel to remain stationary, and then both brigantine and raft would be at the mercy of the uncertain currents of the ocean; a change of wind might cause a change of course, and render a meeting impossible; an increase of the breeze might cause destruction, even before the succor could come. In addition to these obvious hazards, there were all the chances which were dependent on the fact that the people of the brigantine had every reason to believe the fate of the party was already sealed.

Still fortune seemed propitious; for the breeze, though steady, was light, the intention of the vessel was evidently to pass somewhere near them, and the hope that their object was search, so strong and plausible, as to exhilarate every bosom.

At the expiration of the time named, the brigantine passed the raft to leeward and so near as to render the smaller objects in her rigging distinctly visible.

"The faithful fellows are looking for us !" exclaimed the freetrader, with strong emotion in his voice. "They are men to scour the coast, ere they abandon us!"

'They pass us-wave the signal—it may catch their eyes!" The little flag was unheeded, and, after so long and so intense expectation, the party on the raft had the pain to see the swiftmoving vessel glide past them, and drawing so far ahead as to leave little hope of her return. The heart of even the "Skimmer

of the Seas" appeared to sink within him, at the disappoint

ment.

"For myself, I care not," said the stout mariner, mournfully. "Of what consequence is it, in what sea, or on what voyage, a seaman goes into his watery tomb ?--but for thee, my hapless and playful Eudora, I could wish another fate-ha!—she tacks !---the sea-green lady has an instinct for her children, after all !” The brigantine was in stays.-In ten or fifteen minutes more the vessel was again abeam of the raft, and to windward.

"If she pass us now, our chance is gone, without a shadow of hope," said the Skimmer, motioning solemnly for silence. Then, applying his hands to his mouth, he shouted, as if despair lent a giant's volume to his lungs

"Ho! The Water-Witch ahoy!"

The last word issued from his lips with the clear,.audible cry, that the peculiar sound is intended to produce. It appeared as if the conscious little bark knew its commander's voice; for its course changed slightly, as if the fabric were possessed of the consciousness and faculties of life.

"Ho! The Water-Witch-ahoy!" shouted the Skimmer, with a still mightier effort.

"Hilloa!" came down faintly on the breeze, and the direction of the brigantine again altered.

"The Water-Witch!--the Water-Witch !-ahoy!" broke out of the lips of the mariner of the shawl, with a supernatural force,—the last cry being drawn out, till he who uttered it sank back exhausted with the effort.

The words were still ringing in the ears of the breathless party on the raft, when a heavy shout swept across the water. At the next moment the boom of the brigantine swung off, and her narrow bows were seen pointing towards the little beacon of white that played above the sea. It was but a moment, but it was a moment pregnant with a thousand hopes and fears, before the beautiful craft was gliding within fifty feet of the top. In less than five minutes, the spars of the Coquette were floating on the wide ocean, urpeopled and abandoned.

The first sensation of the "Skimmer of the Seas," when his foot touched the deck of his brigantine, might have been one of deep and intense gratitude. He was silent, and seemingly oppressed at the throat. Stepping along the planks, he cast an eye aloft, and struck his hand powerfully on the capstan, in a manner that was divided between convulsion and affection Then he smiled grimly on his attentive and obedient crew, speaking with his wonted cheerfulness and authority.

"Fill away the topsail-brace up and haul aft! Trim everything flat as boards, boys;-jam the dear huzzy in with the coast!"