"I thought," replied Philip, mournfully, "that I was sailing as captain of a vessel round the Cape: the sea was calm and the breeze light; I was abaft; the sun went down, and the stars were more than usually brilliant; the weather was warm, and I lay down on my cloak, with my face to the heavens, watching the gems twinkling in the sky and the occasionally falling meteors. I thought that I fell asleep, and awoke with a sensation as if sinking down. I looked around me; the masts, the rigging, the hull of the vessel--_all_ had disappeared, and I was floating by myself upon a large, beautifully shaped shell on the wide waste of waters. I was alarmed, and afraid to move, lest I should overturn my frail bark and perish. At last, I perceived the fore-part of the shell pressed down, as if a weight were hanging to it; and soon afterwards a small white hand, which grasped it. I remained motionless, and would have called out that my little bark would sink, but I could not. Gradually a figure raised itself from the waters, and leaned with both arms over the fore-part of the shell, where I first had seen but the hand. It was a female, in form beautiful to excess; the skin was white as driven snow; her long loose hair covered her, and the ends floated in the water; her arms were rounded and like ivory: she said, in a soft sweet voice-- "'Philip Vanderdecken, what do you fear? Have you not a charmed life?' "'I know not,' replied I, 'whether my life be charmed or not; but this I know, that it is in danger.' "'In danger!' replied she; 'it might have been in danger when you were trusting to the frail works of men, which the waves love to rend to fragments--your _good_ ships, as you call them, which but float about upon sufferance; but where can be the danger when in a mermaid's shell, which the mountain wave respects, and upon which the cresting surge dare not throw its spray? Philip Vanderdecken, you have come to seek your father?' "'I have,' replied I; 'is it not the will of Heaven?' "'It is your destiny--and destiny rules all above and below. Shall we seek him together? This shell is mine; you know not how to navigate it; shall I assist you?' "'Will it bear us both?' "'You will see," replied she, laughing, as she sank down from the fore-part of the shell, and immediately afterwards appeared at the side, which was not more than three inches above the water. To my alarm, she raised herself up, and sat upon the edge, but her weight appeared to have no effect. As soon as she was seated in this way--for her feet still remained in the water--the shell moved rapidly along, and each moment increased its speed, with no other propelling power than that of her volition. "'Do you fear now, Philip Vanderdecken?' "'No!' replied I. "She passed her hands across her forehead, threw aside the tresses which had partly concealed her face, and said-- "'Then look at me.' "I looked, Amine, and I beheld you!" "Me!" observed Amine, with a smile upon her lips.