"You here?" he cried.

A gentle face, its veil blown about by the gale,
was looking up into his. It was pale and wistful.

"I would not stop you. Not for the whole
world! It is indeed noble of you. I heard it
all. God will watch over you and protect you."

"Ah," said Vivian, "if you were to know how
happy and confident I feel! We shall do better
now that you are looking on. Now! Come,
friends, take your places. Davy, you pull stroke.
I sit next you. You direct us."

Was it not like a blissful ray of the sun, and a
sudden lulling of the winds and waves, as the
hapless figures on the wreck saw the little black
speck emerge swiftly from the piers? But how
many perils were before them! what chances!
for all the cruel imps of death were between
them, floating like sharks.

Lucy, her hands all but clenched together,
and, indeed, not so much thinking of her friend
as of the superb devotion and splendid sacrifice
of the whole, stood following them with her
eyes, and a little gasp on her lips every time
they sank down in the waves. Turning round
for a minute, she found herself all but alone; for
the whole crowd was on its knees apart, at the
feet of the great crucifix. With a swift flutter
she had joined them, and poured out her little
soul in the most passionate entreaties. Even
Captain Filby was heard to say, later:

"Begad, sir! I took off my hat, and prayed
like a trooper!"

Some one gave a cry, and they were all on their
feet again. "The boat had been struck, as if by
the fin of a whale, by a huge wave, and had
filled. Here was an oar gone; one of the
Frenchmen beaten nearly senseless; Davy
waving his arms, the others stooping and trying
to bale out the water. Again are the wistful
faces and stooped figures bent forward. "They
are lost! O mon Dieu! they will never accomplish
it." They are at work again, now going
forward a foot, now beaten back a dozen yards,
whilst Davy, who has become coxswain, watched
to give notice of the coming waves. They
were not taking the direct course for the wreck.
Again were there cries, "They will miss her;
they will be carried out to sea; they have lost
control." But an old French salt saw what
Davy's plan was—to get to leeward of the
wreck. At last, after about an hour's hard
work, they succeeded.

It had grown dark, lanterns were brought
down; but the spectacle was one of such
absorbing interest that, had it lasted till
midnight, the lookers-on could never have tired.
The "Phare," faithless and theatrical guide,
was blazing away, as if to mock the poor lost
victims. As the heavy boat was carried within
a few yards of the wreck, they were called
on to throw themselves into the water, and
were thence dragged out by hair, or hand, or
any way. Three were lost, but five got safely
into the boat. It was so dark, those on shore
could not tell what was going on, and indeed
presently lost sight of boat and all. Then
agitation rose. But they had to wait an
hour more for the return. And oh! when
there was a rush of lanterns to the pier, and
the clumsy craft, crowded with figures, came
suddenly out of the darkness, and swept by
on the top of a great green wave like a hill,
actually on a level with the top of the pier,
a shout was raised that reached to the back
streets of the town. The rare, gallant
English sailors! Though a thousand stupid
things be associated with the English abroad,
a thousand such heroic deeds as this have
redeemed them.

If there were prayers and gesticulations
before, what was there now, as the noble fellows,
drenched and beaten out of all human shape,
staggered up? But the two who came last had
to drag up an insensible figure, the slightest
and tallest. A girl in a black silk dress, pale
with cold, terror, and anxiety, stooping forward
in the crowd, as he was laid on the ground,
saw that it was what she dreaded, and gave a
cry of despair and agony. "The poor child,"
said a tender-hearted fishwife; "it is her
sweetheart! But, my God! what is that to
those who have lost brothers, fathers, and
husbands on this terrible night?"

       ITALIAN ACADEMIES AND
               UNIVERSITIES.

SICILY claims the palm for having the first
university in Italy. To Frederick the Second,
King of Sicily, is the honour due of introducing
the Italian language at his court (A.D. 1218).
His courts at Naples and Palermo were the
rendezvous of men of talent and of genius. In
1224, he founded the University of Naples,
which soon flourished in that populous city; he
opened various schools at Palermo and in other
cities of Sicily; he reorganised the academy of
Salerno—an academy of medicine, founded, it is
supposed, by the Moors in the tenth century.

The crusades, which threw open the East to
the populations of the West, unfolding to the
admiring gaze of the less cultivated Europeans
the treasures and the masterpieces of Greek
literature and art, a school of jurisprudence
established at Bologna, in which Irnerio (or
Guarnerio) expounded the Roman law, and
Guido Aretino a new system of music, led to the
establishment of academies and universities in
other cities of Italy. From 1314 to 1334
we find Cino di Pistoja lecturing at the universities
of Perugia and Florence, and afterwards
at Bologna, where Petrarch and Boccacio were
among his pupils. Giovanni Andrea, who,
according to Tiraboschi, is the greatest lawyer that
ever lived, was holding a course of lectures.
His daughter Novella was so well instructed by
her father that at times she used to lecture in
his stead. On these occasions she sat behind a
small curtain, that the attention of the students
might not be distracted by her great beauty.
In April, 1361, Boccacio was sent on a special
mission to Petrarch by the republic of Florence,
offering him the chancellorship of the university