116 THE SHIPWRECK,

very precipice of eternity, deprived of the light of his
reason, and wholly unprepared for the rigorous trial await-
ing him. He remembered that a great number of the
faults to which the count would plead guilty were occa-
sioned by himself, by his own obstinacy in seeking every
possible means of irritating him; that he himself was the
greater sinner, and the prime cause of the poignant remorse
that was now consuming the count’s heart.

** Had I avoided his presence,” he exclaimed, “as sedu-
lously as I sought it, he would soon have forgotten an indi-
vidual so far beneath his rank and standing in society. I
am responsible fora great number of his sins. It is true
that be abused his powers on board the Achilles, but what
has been my conduct ever since our arrival at this island?”

Seated by the count’s bed, and fanning him with the
wing of a sea bird which Neptune had picked up the even-
ing before, Philip gave full scope to his reflections, The
weather ‘had been very close and sultry, and there had
been much thunder and lightning; but towards the de-
cline of day a heavy rain fell and moistened the parched
earth. This salutary change in the temperature of the
air exercised a prodigious influence on the malady of the
count, who, opening his eyes, gazed around with indescrib-