Mr. Stevens rose and left the room, but soon returned with the tract which gives such an interesting account of Covey. He read some passages from it, and while he was reading, I watched the countenance of the sailor, which betrayed alternately symptoms of astonishment, of joy, and of the deepest solemnity. "I am right glad," said the honest tar, "to hear that my old shipmate is got safe into such a port. He had a roughish voyage; but the storm is over; and from that account,[2] he is now safe landed." [2] Covey was one of the bravest of the brave, and as wicked as he was brave. Mr. Pratt, in the second volume of his _Gleanings_, gives us the following account of him:-- As the two fleets were coming into action, the noble admiral, to save the lives of his men, ordered them to lie flat on the deck, till, being nearer the enemy, their firing might do the more execution. The Dutch ships at this time were pouring their broadsides into the _Venerable_ as she passed down part of the Dutch fleet, in order to break their line. This stout-hearted and wicked Covey, heaped in rapid succession the most dreadful imprecations on the eyes, and limbs, and souls of what he called his cowardly shipmates, for lying down to avoid the balls of the Dutch. He refused to obey the order, till, fearing the authority of an officer not far from him, he in part complied, by leaning over a cask which stood near, till the word of command was given to fire. At the moment of rising, a bar-shot carried away one of his legs, and the greater part of the other; but so instantaneous was the stroke, though he was sensible of something like a jar in his limbs, he knew not that he had lost a leg till his stump came to the deck, and he fell. He was sent home to Haslar hospital, with many others; and soon after he left it, he went on a Sabbath evening to Orange Street Chapel, Portsea, where he heard the Rev. Mr. Griffin preach from Mark v. 15. "He listened," says his biographer, "with attention and surprise, wondering how the minister should know him among so many hundred people; or who could have told him his character and state of mind. This astonishment was still more increased when he found him describe, as he thought, the whole of his life, and even his secret sins. Some weeks after this," says Mr. Griffin, "he called and related to me the whole of his history and experience. He was surprised to find that I had never received any information about him at the time the sermon was preached which so exactly met his case. Something more than twelve months after this time he was received a member of our church, having given satisfactory evidences of being a genuine and consistent Christian. A few weeks since, hearing he was ill, I went to visit him. When I entered his room, he said, 'Come in, thou man of God! I have been longing to see you, and to tell you the happy state of my mind. I believe I shall soon die;