of an approaching tempest, and, almost immediately, a succession of fearful squalls burst down upon the luckless yacht. The force of the wind is described by those on board as beyond all possible conception, the driving spray completely blinding the eyes, and shutting out all vision at once. Every shred of canvas was lowered, not required to keep the vessel going; and there was nothing that could possibly be done, save to run most carefully ahead, till the sky should clear.

It is needless here to detail the successive disasters of the doomed yacht. Whirled, by the unusual strength of the tide, to the edge of the Goodwin Sands, and crippled by the loss of her sails, blown away, with all anchors gone, and mercilessly knocked about in the broken water, the little vessel, two short hours ago in the full pride, so to speak, of her career, was brought to a position as terrible in its surroundings, as it was hopeless in regard to any expectation of rescue therefrom.

To each one on board, quick death was there present, in its most awful form. All around were the leaping waves, lashing themselves into foam, as they washed across the sands. The seas swept over the deck, and, with the fading daylight, the last hope of life grew less and less. Even if the signals of distress had been noticed, what chance was there, in the darkness, that this one little living speck would be seen amongst the billows! Little by little, must the trustfulness of the most stout-hearted man die away, amid such a scene; and, little by little, too, his life itself ebb out, in view of the end which seems so sure to come!

Could there be any more striking instance of the inherent perils of the guardian-waters with which these isles are, happily, begirt—those wild waves which, in their wanton swallowing up of treasure upon treasure, and, alas! of life upon life, engulf alike the rich with the poor, as they suddenly bring down the sturdiest, it may be, in one brief moment, or tardily end, at last, the lingering sufferings of many a storm-tossed crew!

We leave it to the reader, without any further description, to fill up from his imagination the remainder of the story regarding the yacht, when we say that there were watchers throughout that gale, who had seen the imminent peril of the little craft, and who, almost after every expectation and hope had vanished from the breasts of the little band of nine gathered upon her deck, by means of their tug and life-boat, effected a most gallant and daring rescue of every soul on board. R. A. B. P.

THE DROWNING SAILOR.

A

LL faint, to heaven he throws his dying eyes,

And, “Oh, protect my wife and child!" he cries

The gushing streams roll back the unfinished sound;
He gasps! and sinks amid the vast profound!

FALCONER.

T may be said, without fear of unduly flattering the venerable and, happily, still living subject of this sketch, that few lives have been so interesting as his, whether considered from the point of view of the Christian worker, and benevolent friend of suffering and helpless humanity, or from that of the patriot and lover of his country.

Captain the Honourable Francis Maude, R.N., the youngest of a numerous family of no less than nineteen children, was the sixth son of the first Viscount Hawarden; and to glance back upon the career of so old a "British Tar" is to inhale a great draught of sea air blown off the ocean when the century was only six years old, and Trafalgar had but twelve months before been won. For-only think of it !— Captain Maude was actually at sea seventy-seven years ago.

The ship, H.M.S. Lavinia (48 guns), on board of which Captain Maude was thus serving, was commanded by his brother-in-law, Lord William Stuart, son of the Marquis of Bute, and, as she was cruising off the coast of Spain, she fell in with another frigate, under the command of Captain-afterwards Sir James-Yeo, R.N. Somehow or other,

* From "Our Workers," in "The Rock" (October 27, 1882), &c., being Notes of the Life of the Chairman of "THE SHIPWRECKED MARINERS' SOCIETY," &c.

the two Captains learned that a Spanish line-of-battle ship was lying in Vigo, having undergone repair, but her sails were not on board; and the Captains forthwith planned a cutting-out expedition. The British ships stood in towards the land, and all the boats, well manned and armed, after dark, with spare sails, were despatched on the duty. Their orders were to pull into the harbour, at night, with muffled oars, board the Spaniard, bend the sails, and bring her out, the wind being then off shore. In another hour or more their object would have been achieved; but just as they reached the mouth of the harbour, and within hearing of the sentinels hailing each other, the wind shifted, and came on to blow hard from the sea, whereupon the boats with great difficulty returned to the ships, after about eighteen. hours' strenuous exertion, being greatly over-weighted with the now saturated spare sails. The late Captain the Honourable Sir James Ashley Maude, R.N., G.C.H. (brother of Captain the Honourable Francis Maude, and who commanded H.M.S. Glasgow at the Battle of Navarino), was, it may be noticed, second lieutenant on the occasion in question, and in that capacity had charge of one of the boats. It is easy to imagine the anxiety endured by the Captains, awaiting the result, with their ships deprived of crews, except what were called" idlers," such as servants, cooks, and a few marines.

This exciting adventure quickened the love of the, then, young sailor for the sea, instead of quenching it, as his mother, it seems, rather hoped would be the case. In due course he entered the college at Portsmouth, November 20th, 1811, and after witnessing the reception of the crowned heads at Oxford, during the short peace in 1814, joined H.M.S. Amphion (Captain J. P. Stewart), when he was ordered to Cork, to proceed with a convoy of one hundred and eighty sail to Madeira, where they branched off to different parts of the world-the Mediterranean, and the East and West Indies. Here they took charge of naval store-ships for Bermuda. It ought to be mentioned, however, that when running down the Channel from Portsmouth, in a fog, it suddenly cleared up, and the good ship found herself within short distance of an American frigate, at that time an enemy. Naturally, the Englishmen beat to quarters, took in their royals and studding sails, and were on the point of pouring in a raking broadside, when the American hoisted a white flag, she having on board at the moment two commissioners of peace; so that, in the end, merely complimentary

signals were exchanged. Curiously enough, in the following January, Mr. Maude sailed with his brother, Sir Ashley Maude, in H.M.S. Favourite, taking to New York other commissioners, in connection with the same peace, ratification of which they brought home in March.

Again, as though peace were the object of his early life, Mr. Maude sailed from Spithead, on June 30th, 1815, for India, with three sets of

despatches one announcing the escape of Napoleon from Elba, the second the Battle of Waterloo, and the third the great peace.

Next, we find him passing a year and a half in the Persian Gulf, looking after the Arab pirates, and subsequently in H.M.S. Magicienne (Captain J. B. Purvis) in the China Sea; and, later again, for a year and a half at the Mauritius, and off Madagascar, capturing slave ships,