As the years passed, the youth and maiden grew in strength and beauty, and in mutual love. Julius, notwithstanding the fluctuating nature of his business, had increased in riches, and was worth several thousand dollars upon the day when he first asked the hand of Barbara from her father. Old Captain Brande gladly consented to a betrothal, with this stipulation—that the marriage should not be consummated until the end of the voyage upon which they were then bound, after which the mate, as Captain Luxmore, should have the command of the vessel, and the hand of the retired master’s daughter. Alas, we know how that promising voyage ended—in the wreck of the Mercury, with the loss of all on board except Julius Luxmore, who brought from the waves one wild hope connected with one wicked purpose. The circumstances in which he found himself placed on his restoration to life, formed the first terrible temptation to his integrity. He saw himself the sole survivor of a shipwrecked crew, with none to identify his person. He found himself left guardian to a young girl of almost fabulous beauty and immense wealth, who had always lived a life of utter seclusion, on a lovely sea-girt island—her own patrimony—and having no companions except a half-crazy old man in his ninetieth year, and a troop of negro slaves, that, like the fair island, was her own inheritance. “Princess,” she had been called by her mad old uncle, but was _that_ so mad a term, as applied to her, after all? Little Island Queen was she, rather—for, would not all the land, from its centre to its sea-washed shores, and all the people on it, belong absolutely to her?—to her, not only for government, but for bargain and sale, if she should will it? Truly, she would be “monarch of all she surveyed,” and not with a limited, but with an absolute monarchy! And this beautiful little millionaire, this little queen of eleven years of age, would, in four or five years, be legally marriageable. What a rich prize would she be! It almost took the breath of the ambitious and avaricious young man to think of it! He reflected. To wait five years, and then to marry her, would be the quickest, easiest, and surest way of securing an immense fortune. This lovely little Etoile—this radiant star of the sea—this young “Island Princess” had, as it appeared, never left her beautiful, solitary, sea-girt home, and had never seen any other human creatures than her mad old uncle and her negro or mulatto slaves. Good! He resolved that she should never see any other person, except himself—Julius Luxmore. He was quite conscious of possessing a handsome face and figure, with great powers of pleasing, and he determined to use his advantages to attach her affections to himself—and if that eventually failed, to use his power as her sole guardian to bring about a marriage with her, before he would ever consent to take her from the lone Isle.