Still, both felt
convinced that the trifling delay which might thus be obtained, would, in
the end, be perfectly useless, should Captain Truck and his party have
really fallen into the hands of the common enemy. They were thus engaged,
sometimes in deep despondency, and sometimes buoyant with revived
expectations, when Saunders, on the part of Mr. Effingham summoned
them below.
On reaching the cabin, whither both immediately hastened, the two
gentlemen found the family party in the distress that the circumstances
would naturally create. Mr. Effingham was seated, his daughter's head
resting on a knee, for she had thrown herself on the carpet, by his side.
Mademoiselle Viefville paced the cabin, occasionally stopping to utter a
few words of consolation to her young charge, and then again reverting in
her mind to the true dangers of their situation, with a force that
completely undid all she had said, by betraying the extent of her own
apprehensions. Ann Sidley knelt near her young mistress, sometimes praying
fervently, though in silence, and at other moments folding her beloved in
her arms, as if to protect her from the ruffian grasp of the barbarians.
The _femme de chambre_ was sobbing in a state-room, while John Effingham
leaned, with his arms folded against a bulk-head, a picture of stern
submission rather than of despair.
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