Although young and inexperienced, scarce more than a nestling that had for the first time fledged its wing, this girl possessed the noblest attributes of her sex, and hers was more than the ordinary love of woman. True, deep, fervent love, such as that sex alone can feel, cannot harbor a doubt. Undying and unchangeable in itself, it cannot comprehend that, of the existence of which it is unconscious. Often placed unhappily, often denied the communion for which it yearns, it looks beyond the grave for the fruition of its hopes.
She had listened to the soft and hesitating whisper of proffered love, and her gushing eye and mantling cheek and throbbing breath had confessed that love to be requited. Her soul had mingled with another’s in the dearest and the noblest union which adorns and irradiates existence—the union of manly strength with shrinking beauty; of the clear eye to look upon, and the bold heart to encounter peril, with the step hesitating and timid as a fawn! of skill to do and will to dare, with affection to sustain and fortitude to endure; of man, fashioned in comeliness and radiant with virtue, with woman, the celestial link that binds him to a purer state! With a pledge as dear as it was enduring, they had sworn to preserve that union until it should be merged into that most glorious, holiest and most beautiful of all, which is effected in death—when their souls, stripped of the mortal coils which encumbered them, and wafted on the wings of love, should soar upward and onward, until side by side, inseparable as in life, and inseparable forever, they intoned their hymns of praise with the choir which surrounds the Eternal!
Could a woman capable of conceiving such a pledge ever falter, much less prove unfaithful? Never. And Miss Gillespie was as unmoved by the insinuations of those around her, as is the calm and placid moon by the howlings of a hungry wolf.
As the two orphans sat apart, occasionally exchanging a few words, and then relapsing into silence, the first lieutenant, an old and worthy officer, who, from the want of family influence, had long been denied promotion, touched by the sadness of the fair captive, approached and respectfully accosted them. He first confined himself to inquiries respecting their health and comfort, and made some cheering observations on their prospects of liberation. He then, after musing a few moments, left them and whispered a few words to the officer of the deck. The latter nodded intelligence, and immediately gave an order which required those of the crew hovering about to go forward to aid in its execution. The lieutenant then returning said, “Young lady, may I speak a few words with you?” and leading her a few steps from where her brother sat, continued, “I have two daughters at home, one of them about your age, and when I think how I should feel if either of them were in your almost unprotected situation, I sympathize deeply with you. Indeed I am not the only one. There is a general feeling among the officers to protect you if need be. You may rely upon our disposition to serve you—and now answer me frankly—Does your extreme sadness proceed solely from your detention here, and the escape and apparent desertion of your friend?”