The reader will search the chronicles of wrecks in vain for the story
of that ill-fated ship. But if he comes upon the record of a certain
vessel, the _James and Elizabeth_, wrecked upon the Cornish coast on
the night of October 11th, 1849, he may know it to be the same.
For that was the name given by the only survivor, one Georgio
Rhodojani, a Greek sailor, and as the _James and Elizabeth_ she
stands entered to this day.
If, however, his curiosity lead him further to inquire into the
after-history of this same Georgio Rhodojani, let him go on a fine
summer day to the County Lunatic Asylum at Bodmin, and, with
permission, enter the grounds set apart for private patients.
There he may chance to see a strange sight.
On a garden seat against the sunny wall sit two persons--a man and a
woman. The man is decrepit and worn, being apparently about
sixty-seven or eight years old; but the woman, as the keepers will
tell, is ninety. She is his mother, and as they sit together, she
feeds him with sweets and fruit as tenderly as though he were a
child. He takes them, but never notices her, and when he has had
enough, rises abruptly and walks away humming a song which runs--
"So it's hey! for the homeward bound, my lads!
And ho! for the drunken crew,
For his mess-mates round lie dead and drowned,
And the devil has got his due, my lads--
Sing ho! but he waits for you!"
This is his only song now, and he will walk round the gravel paths by
the hour, singing it softly and muttering. Sometimes, however, he
will sit for long beside his mother and let her pat his hand.
They never speak.
Folks say that she is as mad as her son, but she lodges in the town
outside the walls and comes to see him every day. Certainly she is
as remarkable to look upon, for her skin is of a brilliant and
startling yellow, and her withered hands are loaded with diamonds.
As you pass, she will stare at you with eyes absolutely passionless
and vague; but see them as she sighs and turns to go, see them as she
watches for a responsive touch of love on her son's face, and you may
find some meaning in them then.
Mrs. Luttrell was never seen again from the hour when she stood below
the river steps and waved her white arms to me, crying "Kill him!
kill him!" I made every inquiry but could learn nothing, save that
my boat had been found floating below Gravesend, quite empty.
She can scarcely be alive, so that is yet one soul more added to the
account of the Great Ruby.
Failing to find her mother, I had Claire's body conveyed to
Polkimbra. She lies buried beside my father and mother in the
little churchyard there. Above her head stands a white stone with
the simple words, "In memory of C. L., died Dec. 23rd, 1863.
'Love is strong as death.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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