450                           homeward voyage.
light, took Madame Ossoli's serviceable life-preserver and swam
ashore with it, in quest of aid for those left on board, and arrived
safe, but of course could not return his means of deliverance.
By 7 A. M. it became evident that the cabin must soon go to
pieces, and indeed it was scarcely tenantable then. The crew
were collected in the forecastle, which was stronger and less ex-
posed, the vessel having settled by the stern, and the sailors had
been repeatedly ordered to go aft and help the passengers for-
ward, but the peril was so great that none obeyed. At length
the second mate, Davis, went himself, and accompanied the
Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, safely to the forecastle, though with
great difficulty. Madame Ossoli went next, and had a narrow
escape from being washed away, but got over. Her child was
placed in a bag* tied around a sailor's neck, and thus carried
safely. Marquis OssoU and the rest followed, each convoyed by
the mate or one of the sailors.
All being collected in the forecastle, it was evident that their
position was still most perilous, and that the ship could not much
longer hold together. The women were urged to try first the
experiment of taking each a plank and committing themselves to
the waves. Madame Ossoli refused thus to be separated from her
husband and child. She had from the first expressed a willing-
ness to live or die with them, but not to live without them. Mrs.
Hasty was the first to try the plank, and, though the struggle
was for some time a doubtful one, did finally reach the shore,
utterly exhausted. There was a strong current setting to the
westward, so that, though the wreck lay but a quarter of a mile
from the shore, she landed three fourths of a mile distant No
other woman, and no passenger, survives, though several of the
crew came ashore after she did, in a similar manner. The last
who came reports that the child had been washed away from the
man who held it before the ship broke up, that Ossoli had in
like manner been washed from the foremast, to which he was
clinging; but, in the horror of the moment, Margaret never
learned that those she so clung to had preceded her to the
spirit land.    Those who remained of the crew had just persuaded