Although I had merely caught a glimpse of this lady's figure, and had scarcely seen her face, I felt convinced there could be no mistake, and that except I were labouring under the most palpable delusion, it was neither more nor less than Mélanie de Crespigny, whom I had just beheld.

There was, however, no time for me either to attempt to follow, or obtain any further clue to her mysterious appearance at this place; for within a few seconds, the "skipper" came and announced that everything was ready for an immediate start.

As we accompanied him towards the beach, I inquired whether he knew who was the lady that had just left the hotel in a palankeen?

"C'est bien," replied he, laughing; "since you have still an eye pour les jupons, I don't despair of your soon getting well, for this is always a good sign in an invalid."

"Et en effet," added he, " Madame de St. Rémy est assez gentille; she came out in my ship, with son brigand de mari, who has obtained some military appointment at Pondicherry. Learning that I was here, Madame took advantage of her brutal husband being ill and confined to his bed, to come and

VOL. II.

P

inquire after her old compagnon de voyage, which her amiable better-half had not allowed her to do before."

St. Rémy! the name was certainly familiar to my ear, and the recollection of the Versailles adventures flashing at once across my mind, cleared up the whole mystery, showing that Mademoiselle Mélanie and Madanie de St. Rémy were one and the same.

I said nothing about having had any previous acquaintance with " Madame," but learned, as we pulled off towards our good ship, that she had shown herself not un peu coquette on the passage out; that her husband, whom he represented as a most overbearing, disagreeable fellow, was not a little jealous on her account; and that they by no means appeared to be the most happy couple in the world; for, added Monsieur Delalieu, "Ils ménent une vie de chien."

So much for the connubial felicity of Monsieur and Madame de St. Rémy, neither of whom, in all probability, did I ever expect to see again.

Once more we heaved the anchor and set sail; but our procrastination had provoked the stormy spirit of the monsoon, for that very

night it came on to blow. The breeze soon freshening to a gale, drove us far to the northward of Madras; and for several days we continued to battle against strong southwesterly winds: the usual precursors of the regular monsoon.

La Jeanne-Marie possessing all those good sailing qualities for which French vessels are so justly famed, gallantly held her own, against adverse gales, storms, -nay hurricanes-by which we were jeopardized more than once; and after a long, tedious passage, and encountering a more severe buffetting than I had ever before experienced, we at last safely reached Port St. Louis, in the Isle of France.

CHAPTER XII.

HOME.

"And as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return, and die at home at last."

GOLDSMITH.

WHO can describe the painful state of suspense, the overpowering feeling of hope and impatience,-experienced by the anxious exile as he once more returns to the land of his birth; when, after an absence of years, the approaching termination of a protracted voyage, brings with it the prospect of soon meeting all he holds dearest upon earth: the joyful expectation of again pressing to his heart those beloved objects on which are concentrated his thoughts, his hopes, his affections, and his love.

Such were my feelings on nearing the British Channel after a long and tedious voyage.

India is now comparatively near, to what it was at the period of which I write. The voyage round the Cape then occupied sometimes from four to six months; it was rare to get a reply to a letter under a whole year; and the Indian exile was consequently doomed to lengthened ignorance and suspense with regard to his affairs and to his friends at home.

All-powerful steam has greatly altered this; and the so-called "overland route " has in a four-fold ratio brought our great Eastern Empire into closer proximity to the West.

To the untiring energy and exertions of one individual, is all this due to Lieutenant Waghorn, of the Royal Navy, does England and her banished children owe so great a boon: a boon which one would have imagined could not have been sufficiently repaid, not only by the British nation in general, but more particularly by those whose interests have been so much promoted by this great and important change: a change which has brought our Eastern possessions within one month's communication with "Leadenhall."

Waghorn, in prosecuting this great en