As, day by day, the harrowing details became more accurate and complete, the regret became more and more poignant, and almost assumed a national character. Men soon thought little of the ship, magnificent though she was, or of the cargo, valuable as that was; both ship and cargo became insignificant in the presence of the vast sacrifice of human life by which the wreck of the _London_ had been accompanied. And then came tales of heroism and self-denial, of a lofty courage and sweet resignation on the part of her passengers, officers, and crew, that made it harder still to realize that the men and women who had been capable of such noble behaviour had been buried beneath the foaming waves, and that the world now was all the poorer and more desolate, for their absence from it. Both the pulpit and the press gave touching and eloquent expression to the grief which prevailed on every side; and while the mourning relatives of our own land received every mark of sympathy and consideration, those belonging to the colonies, and on whom the news will burst like a terrible thunderbolt, were not forgotten, either in the earnest prayers that were offered on behalf of the bereaved ones, or in the words of genuine kindness and commiseration which the knowledge of their heavy loss elicited. It has been thought that there is much belonging to the Wreck of the _London_ which entitles it to a more convenient place of record than the newspaper, and that many, both in England and Australia, will be glad to possess a simple, connected narrative of the ship’s doings, and especially of her passengers’ behaviour from the day they left our shores until the day of their foundering in the Bay of Biscay. There can be no question that the heroism and piety displayed on the occasion, demand a most distinguished place in the annals of the brave and good. Unhappily, shipwrecks of the most disastrous character are of only too frequent occurrence; but it is seldom that a Message from the Sea has borne the character of that mysterious and sublime one which the sinking _London_ wrote ere she went down. Many, too, will perhaps be glad to possess portraits of those whose names will now be historical for their behaviour amid the distressing circumstances in which they were placed. It is also in the sincere hope of administering some balm of consolation, however slight, to the hearts of thousands mourning in our own country and elsewhere, that we would now, avoiding, as far as possible, technical terms and details, invite the reader’s attention to the narrative of the Wreck of the _London_, first of all, however, looking at the ship herself, her Captain, and her list of passengers. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. THE IRON BEAUTY.