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178 send them by land to Chester, and from Chester they could cross the Channel, to Dublin, and proceed thence by land to Cork. The letter was sent, and it might have been supposed that the weight would have been taken from my mind, and my fears have been dissipated, but it was no such thing: the same dreadful sight appeared before me again, in my dreams, each succeeding night, and the impression made upon my mind was so powerful that I was really sick with anxiety and distress; On the next post day I wrote a second letter to my brother, I gave him the particulars of the repeated dreams which had affected me so much. I told him I could not look upon them in any light but that of a warning from God, and that if my children should still be with him, I charged him not to let them go to sea. I said that if he should do so, after my telling him of the warning I had received, and the calamity I feared were to befall them, I should for ever lay the blame at his door. I made use of the most solemn and impressive language in this letter, which he had but just received when De Coudre, being ready for sea, called upon my brother to take the boys from his house to the vessel. He put the letter into his hand that he might read it for himself. He was greatly infuriated and tried to take the boys by force. When he found he could not get them, he went off, and refused to let them have any of their effects from the vessel.

They returned by land, according to my directions; thanks be to my Heavenly Father for his providential warning! De Coudre put to sea without them; and neither he nor any of his crew have ever since been heard of.

The boys told me, when they reached home, that this man was the most horrid blasphemer they had ever heard; they said they had trembled with fright at hearing him vomit forth