of Helsinburg, thundered forth a salute to the Swedish flag, and the guns of the captured ships repeated the humiliating roar. A deathlike silence seemed to pervade the frowning turrets of Elsinore Castle as the strength of the nation passed away.

They were now proceeding down the Kattegat, that little boisterous sea which is con

tinually wrangling with its

master, having taken the

shores, when the

bearings of the

land, and finished measuring the log-line, was joined by Harold on the poop, to listen to the sketch of his life, which he had promised him.

་

“Every one can master grief but he that has it."

“I am, by nature, Harold, one of those people the world uncharitably call 'Bristol hogs,' but I assure you, they are not more swinish than their neighbours, and their environs are much too beautiful to be the paradise of pigs.

"I too was born of what tradespeople, in

1

heir way, call respectable parents, who gave ne, as far as it went, the best education the town could afford. I was always fond of reading, especially voyages and travels, and had no objection to stories of love or war; but nothing took my fancy more than the verbal history of the sailors' lives, full of perils and pranks, and I listened to every story of danger and wreck with a kind of feeling, as if I wished to suffer it, for the joy that was to follow; and long before misfortune had reduced my parents to the class of poor people, I asked their permission to go to sea, they refused, and I ran away.

66

They kept, at that time, a kind of shop, where every body used to buy every thing; but, from a sort of monopoly among the wealthier in trade, (which, although it makes a town appear to suffer less in great commercial emergencies, yet, in the end, produces a sort of consumption which terminates more fatally) my parents fell victims, and were

of Helsinburg, thundered forth a salute to the Swedish flag, and the guns of the captured ships repeated the humiliating roar. A deathlike silence seemed to pervade the frowning turrets of Elsinore Castle as the strength of the nation passed away.

They were now proceeding down the Kattegat, that little boisterous sea which is con

tinually wrangling with its

master, having taken the

shores, when the

bearings of the

land, and finished measuring the log-line, was joined by Harold on the poop, to listen to the sketch of his life, which he had promised

him.

"Every one can master grief but he that has it."

"I am, by nature, Harold, one of those people the world uncharitably call Bristol hogs,' but I assure you, they are not more swinish than their neighbours, and their environs are much too beautiful to be the paradise of pigs.

"I too was born of what tradespeople, in

their way, call respectable parents, who gave me, as far as it went, the best education the "town could afford. I was always fond of reading, especially voyages and travels, and had no objection to stories of love or war; but nothing took my fancy more than the verbal history of the sailors' lives, full of perils and pranks, and I listened to every story of danger and wreck with a kind of feeling, as if I wished to suffer it, for the joy that was to follow; and long before misfortune had reduced my parents to the class of poor people, I asked their permission to go to sea,-they refused, and I ran away.

"They kept, at that time, a kind of shop, where every body used to buy every thing; but, from a sort of monopoly among the wealthier in trade, (which, although it makes a town appear to suffer less in great commercial emergencies, yet, in the end, produces a sort of consumption which terminates more fatally) my parents fell victims, and were

CHAPTER III.

Then tower'd the masts, the canvass swell'd on high,
And waving streamers floated in the sky.

FALCONER.

A WEEK after the former conversation had taken place, the whole of the Danish fleet were equipped, and lugged forth from their harbour-moorings to the roads. The troops were embarked, and a gun, fired on board the flagship, called the attention of the fleet to the signal for a division to weigh. In a minute, similar flags were displayed by the repeatingships, while their guns echoed the command, and the ready-answering pendants flew at the mast-heads of the squadron. The shrill notes of the boatswains' pipes were now heard, a