End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
It was late in the day before Perdita awoke, and a longer time elapsed
before recovering from the torpor occasioned by the laudanum, she
perceived her change of situation. She started wildly from her couch,
and flew to the cabin window. The blue and troubled sea sped past the
vessel, and was spread shoreless around: the sky was covered by a rack,
which in its swift motion shewed how speedily she was borne away. The
creaking of the masts, the clang of the wheels, the tramp above, all
persuaded her that she was already far from the shores of
Greece.—“Where are we?” she cried, “where are we going?”—
The attendant whom I had stationed to watch her, replied, “to
England.”—
“And my brother?”—
“Is on deck, Madam.”
“Unkind! unkind!” exclaimed the poor victim, as with a deep sigh she
looked on the waste of waters. Then without further remark, she threw
herself on her couch, and closing her eyes remained motionless; so that
but for the deep sighs that burst from her, it would have seemed that
she slept.
As soon as I heard that she had spoken, I sent Clara to her, that the
sight of the lovely innocent might inspire gentle and affectionate
thoughts. But neither the presence of her child, nor a subsequent visit
from me, could rouse my sister. She looked on Clara with a countenance
of woful meaning, but she did not speak. When I appeared, she turned
away, and in reply to my enquiries, only said, “You know not what you
have done!”—I trusted that this sullenness betokened merely the
struggle between disappointment and natural affection, and that in a
few days she would be reconciled to her fate.
When night came on, she begged that Clara might sleep in a separate
cabin. Her servant, however, remained with her. About midnight she
spoke to the latter, saying that she had had a bad dream, and bade her
go to her daughter, and bring word whether she rested quietly. The
woman obeyed.
The breeze, that had flagged since sunset, now rose again. I was on
deck, enjoying our swift progress. The quiet was disturbed only by the
rush of waters as they divided before the steady keel, the murmur of
the moveless and full sails, the wind whistling in the shrouds, and the
regular motion of the engine. The sea was gently agitated, now shewing
a white crest, and now resuming an uniform hue; the clouds had
disappeared; and dark ether clipt the broad ocean, in which the
constellations vainly sought their accustomed mirror. Our rate could
not have been less than eight knots.
Suddenly I heard a splash in the sea. The sailors on watch rushed to
the side of the vessel, with the cry—some one gone overboard. “It is
not from deck,” said the man at the helm, “something has been thrown
from the aft cabin.” A call for the boat to be lowered was echoed from
the deck. I rushed into my sister’s cabin; it was empty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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