68 THE SHIPWRECK,

he perceived Philip near a brilliant fire cheerfully cooking
his evening meal. He immediately removed from this
delightful spot, and returned to the shore, where he picked
up some turtle’s eggs (which may be eaten raw), and with
these he appeased his hunger. Once more in his cavern,
he extended himself on its flinty floor with Neptune for
his pillow, and despite his distress and sorrow, he fell,
overpowered by fatigue, into a profound sleep.

Next. morning his perplexity was redoubled ; for, al-
though ‘he had with heroic patience endured the fatigues
and privations incident to naval life—though during the
famine on board the Achilles he was content with the
same allowance that was distributed to the lowest of the
ship’s crew, and had even willingly shared that little por-
tion with his faithful dog, he could not now see himself
obliged to procure by his daily vigilance a mere sustenance
for his miserable life, without yielding almost to despair.

During his childhood he had been incumbered with
waiters and valets, who were ever on the watch to divine
and gratify his every whim and caprice; so that at the

_age of seventeen years the count, though already a brave
officer and well skilled in his profession, was totally igno-
rant of many things which every child is familiar with—
or if not ignorant of them in theory, he was undoubtedly

Gee?