Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 3.djvu/76

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THE NAVAL OFFICER.

each other's health, and then we shall get on better."

They took my advice, and it answered the purpose. Our repast was cheerful, but tempered and corrected by a feeling of past sorrow, and a deep sense of great mercies from Heaven.

"If Heaven were every day like this,
Then 'twere indeed a Heaven of bliss."

Reader, I know you have long thought mea vain man—a profligate, unprincipled Don Juan, ready to pray when in danger, and to sin when out of it: but as I have always told you the truth, even when my honour and character were at stake, I expect you will believe me now, when I say a word in my own favour. That I felt gratitude to God for my deliverance and safe return, I do most solemnly aver; my heart was ready to burst with the escape of this feeling, which I suppressed from a false sense of shame, though I never was given much to the