Alfred never held up his head, and never once spoke to me of his own accord the whole time we were at sea in the merchantman.

I observed, however, with alarm, that he talked often and incoherently to himself--constantly muttering the lines of the old prophecy--constantly referring to the fatal place that was empty in Wincot vault--constantly repeating in broken accents, which it affected me inexpressibly to hear, the name of the poor girl who was awaiting his return to England.

Nor were these the only causes for the apprehension that I now felt on his account.

Toward the end of our voyage he began to suffer from alternations of fever-fits and shivering-fits, which I ignorantly imagined to be attacks of ague.

I was soon undeceived.