Part 25 (2/2)

”Yes”

”Did you ever live in Holby?”

”Yes My father was organist in Trinity Church, and I and my sister lived there some years She lives there still”

”My God!” was her ejaculation

”Why?” I asked, with eager curiosity ”What do you know about Holby, and about Langhetti?”

She looked at me with solemn earnestness ”I,” said she, ”am the wife, and these are the children of one as your father's friend He as my husband, and the father of these children, was Ralph Brandon, of Brandon Hall”

I stood for a moment stupefied Then I burst into tears Then I embraced them all, and said I know not what of pity and sympathy and affection

My God! to think of such a fate as this awaiting the family of Ralph Brandon Did you know this, oh, Teresina? If so, why did you keep it secret? But no--you could not have known it If you had this would not have happened

They took my room in the cabin--the dear ones--Mrs Brandon and the sweet Edith The son Frank and I stay together arants Here I a low, and the uproar of all these hundreds is sounding in my ears

June 30--There is a panic in the shi+p The dread pestilence known as ”shi+p-fever” has appeared This disease is the terror of erant shi+ps

Surely there was never any vessel so well adapted to be the prey of the pestilence as this of ours! I have lived for ten days aers, and have witnessed their misery Is God just? Can he look down unmoved upon scenes like these? Now that the disease has come, where will it stop?

July 3--The disease is spreading Fifteen are prostrate Three have died

July 10--Thirty deaths have occurred, and fifty are sick I a to nurse them

July 15--Thirty-four deaths since my last One hundred and thirty are sick I will labor here if I have to die for it

July 18--If this is my last entry let this diary be sent to Mrs

Thornton, care of Willialand--(the above entry ritten in English, the remainder was all in Italian, as before) More than two hundred are sick Frank Brandon is down I aht and day In three days there have been forty-seven deaths The crew are demoralized and panic-stricken

July 23--Shall I survive these horrors? More than fifty new deaths have occurred The disease has spread a the sailors Two are dead, and seven are sick Horror prevails Frank Brandon is recovering slowly

Mrs Brandon does not know that he has been sick We send word that we are afraid to co the disease to her and to Edith

July 27--More than half of the sailors are sick Eleven dead

Sixty-seven passengers dead since last report Frank Brandon al me in my work

July 30--Nearly all the sailorstheeable In the Gulf of St Lawrence Talk of putting into soust 2--Worse yet Disease has spread into the cabin Three cabin passengers dead God have mercy upon poor Mrs Brandon and sweet Edith!

All the steerage passengers, with a few exceptions, prostrate Frank Brandon is weak but helpspest-house Forty new deaths since last report

August 7--Drifting along, I know not how, up the St Lawrence The weather cale the shi+p Captain and ers dead Three more sailors dead