We had neglected to provide ourselves with a boat; but two or three of the men swam to the shore, which proved to be at no great distance, carrying the end of a rope along with them; by the aid of which all the rest of us were enabled to reach the land in safety. "Thus did my seven companions and I terminate our adventures. Once in safety, I began to laugh heartily at our mishap. '_O passi graviora mecum_,' cried I, gaily, as they seemed to stand down-hearted in their dripping garments; 'it is on no desolate or inhospitable shore that we are now cast. Stay there for a little, till I see where we are, and look out for shelter.' With that I went a little way inland, until, having observed the appearance of distant lights on my left, I ran in all haste in that direction, scarcely feeling the ground under my feet. In about half an hour, I came to a number of buildings which I seemed to know; I found a narrow lane, at the end of it a door, and within the door a stair, which I seemed to know. My heart began to beat violently. Having mounted the stair, and gone along a dark passage at the head of it, I came to a door, on opening which, the forms of the very friends, after leaving whom I was carried away, seemed to appear before me, as at their usual meeting. All gazed on me; but none of them spoke except old Adam Muzzy, who was in his usual state of inebriety, which so strangely brightens one part of his faculties, and darkens another. Recognising me, and having some very indistinct perception of circumstances, he exclaimed, in the usual style of his address to a retired and returned bottle-companion--'Guide me! ye hae been lang away; but we hae thocht that ye would be back, for ye left yer hat ahint ye. Sit doon, man, and tak aff yer glass.' "The sight of my hat hanging where I left it, and the daized dreamy look of the creature, with his half-shut eye, so affected me, that I sunk unconsciously down into the chair to which he had pointed, painfully impressed with the idea that I had only been dreaming of home, as I had often done, in the lonely isles of the West Indian seas. It was my name loudly pronounced by the friendly voice of Plainworth which first awoke me from my stupor. "'My dear Mary,' said he, as he concluded, 'he will tell you what were the first questions which I asked.' "'Indeed,' said I, addressing her, 'his two first questions were both about you; and the second of them was, whether you were still unmarried?'" * * * * *