He grasped his aunt’s hand hastily as he hurried past her and disappeared. At the same moment, Arthur running in and throwing himself into his mother’s arms, told her, that they must all be lost. CHAPTER XXXIII. “The winds came rustling from their hills.” In the gunroom, meantime, some of the officers were eating their breakfast with as much composure as if there was nothing the matter. Others there were, it must be confessed, who sipped their coffee slowly and gloomily enough; while others again, with a strange mixture of caution and carelessness, were packing up their valuables, and calling aloud the while to the steward, to keep their breakfast hot. A cold one would scarcely have been remembered on such an occasion, by a landsman. One of the most affecting features of the hour was presented by the helpless prisoners at the hatchways, who, in profound silence, manifested their anxious feeling, by crowding to the bars which fastened them down, to gain, if possible, some intelligence of what was going on; while, at every roll of the ship, they expected to go to the bottom. On the coast, on the Tantallon side, the friendly Scots had collected to the number of thousands; bringing down boats, rafts, ropes, &c. to the part of the beach on which it was generally expected the ship must be wrecked. On the quarter-deck Fitz-Ullin walked alone, occasionally going forward to look at the cable, which, being strained to the utmost, was every moment in danger of parting; an accident which, should it occur, must be followed by instant destruction. From the cable he raised his eyes from time to time to the vane, and withdrew them again in bitter disappointment, for the wind was still right ahead. All things remained in this state of fearful suspense, till nearly twelve at noon; when our hero, whose eyes were, at the moment, anxiously raised to the vane, saw it veer round one point in his favour. Even this slight advantage was not to be neglected for a moment: it warranted an attempt to quit a situation of so much peril.