i14 THE SHIPWRECK,

The sound of his voice,.and the manner in which he
uttered these few words, pierced Philip’s heart ; he leaned
over the count’s body with tender interest, awaiting with
great anxiety the crisis of his malady. He was but little
accustomed to services like these; he had never been near
any dying bed excepting his sister’s; and the hand of the
destroyer had touched her so gently, that her death might
be compared rather to some tender flower whose leaves are
scattered by the mildest breeze, than to the fearful agony
that precedes the dissolution of the many. What a con-
trast did her death offer to the spectacle he was now con-
templating! For there are but few maladies more terrible
than the burning attacks of a tropical fever, and this was
the illness which had placed Charles on the verge of eter-
nity.