As Will closed the door after her, a little of the brightness died out of his face, and he sat down sighing in his easy-chair.

He had been praying for Guy Chichester tonight, wrestling for him as he had never wrestled for himself; the links that had bound these two men together had never been stronger than tonight. Will felt a strange intense longing to press his friend's hand again and look into his dark grief-worn face; while Guy, stretching out his arms over his dead wife's face in the fierce writhings of despair, thought that there was only one voice he could bear to hear in his misery, and that was Will's. Will raked up the dying embers of the fire again and fed it with fresh fuel; he had much to do tonight. With the clearness and perspicuity that sometimes come to us under the influence of some great emotion, he had set himself to review his past life again the years passed before him, one after the other, each with its several marks of joy and sorrow, with its burden of sins and regrets.

"I have done so little; it has been so short, after all; I have not earned my rest," he thought, sadly, and his head drooped on his breast.

He remembered how an old pauper had recognized this instinct of longing once.

"We have all our troubles to bear,' ," he had said to her, as he sat beside her in the great whitewashed ward, listening to her dismal category of woes-Jem was at sea, and Susan was too poor to come to her, and it was hard dying with naught but strange faces about her. "One may have food and raiment, and yet feel sad and lonely at times." Something in the patient tones seemed to touch her; she was a hard, battered-looking woman, with a tanned face and bristling gray hair, and Will's face looked strangely youthful beside hers.

Ay, ay, we all have our troubles, paupers as well as gentlefolks; thou'rt a lad to be a parson; thou'rt the sort women love; but I'm thinking the Lord loves thee, too, and He won't let thee be long lonesome."

Was not old Susan right? had it been long, after all? would he change his lot with Guy Chichester? No, a hundred times no.

"He doeth all things well.' Why have I been so impatient, so distrustful? He has made this pain easy to bear-a joy almost. 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant' ”- -we can guess how the humble soul chanted his Nunc Dimittis. Unhappy!-the length and breadth and depth of his peace seemed to flood the poor room with light; he stretched himself on his bed with a smile on his face; he was tired, and the morrow's work was before him. "I think I shall sleep now," thought Will, as he turned his face to the wall; and almost before the words left his lips he slept.

That night William Elliott had another dream. He thought he was standing on a strange place, neither land nor water, but on some shifting substance that gave way beneath his feet. A heavy burden was on his back, something that trailed behind him and dragged him back, and yet he dared not try to free himself.

"I am so tired of it all," he heard himself say; and the sound of his voice seemed to echo strangely; "so tired of it all."

"Conqueror, and tired!" said a voice that thrilled him strangely. "Look here!" and suddenly the weight slipped from him. At his feet lay a broken cross, and a crown of scarlet rowanberries lay beside it; but as he stooped and picked it up, they changed and brightened into gold.

kind of notice to the parts mentioned." (Polybius, Book X., Chapter 1.) As the army and the navy were not as distinctly separated in those days as at present, there is little doubt that the same system of night-signaling was known to the fleet. Livy informs us that Scipio Africanus when personally superintending the embarkation of the troops for the African campaign, directed that all the ships of war should carry one light as a distinction by night, the transports (of which there were four hundred), two each, while the ships of the commander-inchief was to carry three lights; the latter sign being common to all navies to this day.

Day-signals also are frequently mentioned as being in common use among the navies of antiquity; and in such a manner as to lead to the conclusion that they were adequate for directing the evolutions of a large fleet. In one of the battles off Artemesium, just before the fall of Thermopyla, the holding up of a shield is particularly mentioned as being used as a signal to the fleet; and, later, when the Spartan Lysander swooped like an eagle upon the Athenians, under Conon, at Goat's River in the Hellespont, the signal for the Lacedemonian fleet to advance was made from one of the lookout ships by "holding up a bright shield." The Greeks had a standard the elevation of which was the signal for joining battle. On the standard of Athens was represented the owl of Minerva. The galley of Alcibiades was known by its sail glowing with the rich purple dye of Tyre, as was that of the Antonia, the galley of Cleopatra, some generations later; and, generally, in the Roman fleet the purple sail was the sign of an admiral's ship.

In connection with the signals of the ancients may be mentioned the method of secret writing, by the seytale of the Spartans, once made use of to recall a celebrated admiral. The instrument consisted of a black staff which was intrusted to the general or admiral on his engaging in active service. A staff precisely similar was retained by the magistrates. To send a communication they wrote message on a strip of parchment wrapped about the staff; then, unwinding the band, it was sent by the hands of a trusty messenger to the chief. Perfectly unintelligible when expanded it could be read only by him to whose care the staff was confided.

the

The scytale was sent to Pausanias,' admiral of

1 One was sent to Lysander also.-See Plutarch's Lives.

the Lacedemonian fleet in the Hellespont, who was suspected by the ephors at Sparta of treason. "Stay behind the herald," said the stern and laconic missive, "and war is declared against you by the Spartans." He dared not disobey the dread command. In the Roman army the signal to prepare for battle was a red flag displayed on a spear from the top of the Prætorium. The trumpet. was also used to sound the assembly," and for other signals. (Cæsar, Book II., Chapter 20.)

Leo VI. surnamed the Wise, Emperor of the Roman Empire in the East (A.D. 886-911), in his instructions in naval tactics, says: "You will have in your trireme a signal flag conspicuously placed so that you may signify to the fleet the desired movements-whether to engage in battle, retreat, surround the enemy, or reinforce certain parts of the line; to increase or slacken speed; to go in ambush or come out to attack, or any other orders it may be necessary to give; to this end all should keep a good lookout on your trireme. In the noise and confusion of battle neither the voice nor the trumpet will suffice to convey orders." He then proceeds to explain the method of signaling by the kamelankion (a sort of cap, probably like our liberty cap) surmounting a spear, or by the phoinikis (a red flag), which was also the signal for battle. The spear with its signal-flag, he says, was to be held upright, inclined to the right, to the left, or to the front; shaken, elevated, or depressed as might be necessary; adding, "as the ancients did." He concludes by saying: "But in order to prevent mistakes you will with your own hand make the signals." (Tactics of Leo, Chapter 19., 39, 40, 41.) This is probably the only explanation of the naval signal system of the ancients extant; a system too strikingly like that of our present army code to escape notice.

The next notable instance of naval signaling is to be found in the account of the fleet commanded by King Richard I. of England during his crusade against the Saracens. From "the Kynges own galeie, he cal'd it Trenc the mere"(Plow the sea), signals were made by the trumpet. In describing one of the fleet formations (the order of convoy) after leaving Messina, April, 1191, the account says: "The lines were so close that a trumpet could be heard from one to the other, and each ship was

To be in ambush was to be under cover of an island or headland, in the mouth of a river, etc., so as to be out of the sight of the enemy.

near enough her consort to communicate by hailing." At the battle of Sluys, one hundred and forty-six years after, trumpets still seem to be used for making signals. The English fleet, commanded by Edward III. in person, advanced to the sound of trumpets, and Froissart says, "The French joined battle with many trumpets and other instruments of martial music; and the English giving altogether a mighty shout, it sounded horribly upon the waters" (A.D. 1337). We are not with

out negative evidence, however, in regard to the use, at this period, of naval signals. In what is known as the "Black Book of the Admiralty," written some time before A.D. 1351 in Norman French, there some curious items of information in regard to the navy regulations of the time. "If the King be in the fleet there shall be in his ship three great lanthorns, arranged in the form of a triangle." "All nights when the fleet is on the sea, the admiral ought to carry two great lanthorns in the two parts of the masthead of the ship in which he is." "When it shall please the admiral to assemble the captains and masters of the fleet to advise with them, he shall carry high in the middle of the mast of his ship, a Banner of Council, so that in all parts of the fleet it may be known." "In case that any ship of the fleet perceive any vessel of the enemy on the sea then he shall hoist a banner on high, whereby the fleet may have cognisance," etc. But the principal signals are, signals or motions of the admiral's ship. "No master of a ship shall cross his sail aloft before the admiral has done so; directly afterwards all the other ships shall cross their sails." "No ship shall cast anchor before the admiral shall have anchored." These directions indicate that the only signais in the case mentioned, were the motions of the commander-in-chief, which the fleet was commanded to follow; an injunction contained in every modern signal-book. The fact of this system being in use is curiously confirmed in the account of the movements preceding the battle of Agincourt. "The King (Henry V.) ordered the sailyard of the Trinity Royal to be hoisted to the middle of her mast, indicating that he was ready to put to sea and that all vessels in the neighboring havens were to hasten to him." The fleet, consisting of some fourteen hundred vessels of various kinds, left England August 11, 1415, and soon.

1 History of the Royal Navy by Sir Harris Nicolas.

after anchored in the Seine, about three miles from Harfluer, where the King proposed to disembark; and he desired a banner to be hoisted as a signal for his captains to attend a council;" the "banner of council" before mentioned. (Ibid.) Another of the regulations referred to required the divisional officers of a fleet at sea, to speak the commander-in-chief before sunset, so as to ascer tain the course to be steered during the night, and communicate it to their several commanders. The fact that no other signals are mentioned in a document going so much into detail leads to the belief that there were no others in use in the English navy at this time. As far as can be ascertained signals made by flags were first used in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Sir William Monson remarks, in one of his Naval Tracts (1587), "The shewing or taking in the Flag in the Admiral's Ship being well considered and resolved of beforehand, is able to direct a Fleet in many Cases, as fully as tho' he had given his Instructions by Writing." "The flag carried under the Poop of a ship shews a Disgrace, and never used but when it is won or taken from an enemy."

2

It was not, however, until the "Fighting Instructions" were issued by the Duke of York, in 1665, then High. Admiral of England, that signals were formed into anything like a regular code. Even up to a comparatively recent period (the early part of the present century) certain arbitrary signs were used instead of flags. To loose the fore topsail and fire one gun, for example, was the sig nal for sailing. All boats and persons to repair to their respective ships, the foretopgallant sail loosed and hoisted, and one gun. To unmoor, maintop sail loosed. To moor, mizzentopsail hoisted and cleared up, etc. As a further illustration, such expressions as the following may be met with in English naval history. "The Phaton made the well known signal for a fleet by letting fly the top gallant sheets and firing two guns in quick succession." Again, the look-out frigate made signal to call in the fleet "by hoisting the Dutch Ensign." Signals by arbitrary signs made with sails, etc., as given above were used by our Continental Navy in 1776 (see Preble's "History of the American Flag," page 163).

2 From this signal originated the expression (not to say custom) of paying one's bills with a foretopsail.

The two most celebrated naval signals of modern times are Nelson's last signal, hoisted on board the Victory, October 21, 1805, on going into action. with the allied French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar, “England expects every man to do his duty," and the signal hoisted by Perry, on board the Lawrence, September 10, 1813, containing the dying words of the gallant Lawrence, "Don't give up the Ship" an expression which has passed into a rallying cry in the United States Navy.

The signals now in common use among sea-faring people are made by flags of various shapes and colors. The flags in one system represent the nine digits; zero, and duplicate numbers, making ten numerals, as they are commonly called, and three repeaters. Any number under ten thousand may be made by them without having more than four flags in the hoist. The lower flag of the hoist stands for units. Now if the signal-book, indispensable to this system, be arranged with words and sentences covering every contingency likely to arise in navigation, and all numbered in regular order, it is very easy to see how two vessels, or a vessel and a signal station on shore, both being provided with the necessary apparatus, may freely communicate with each other.

In the signal-books used by national vessels is included a complete system of naval tactics, so that an admiral has the means of communicating to the vessels of his fleet the orders necessary to the performance of all the evolutions incident to navigation or battle.

The "International Code of Signals for the use of all Nations," which originated in England, in 1856, was a very important step in the right direction. In this excellent code eighteen consonants of the alphabet are used as intermediaries instead of the numerals just explained, the advantage being that the eighteen consonants are susceptible of so many permutations that seventy-eight thousand six hundred and forty-two signals may be made without using more than four flags at a time. As each country has the signal-book of this code printed in its own language, vessels of different nationalities can communicate with each other as freely as those sailing under the same flag. An important advantage in connection with this system is the establishment of coast signal stations in different countries, which afford signal communication between ships in the offing and their owners or agents on shore. France has one hundred and

The

twenty-four of such stations on her coasts. United States has about five, and the establishment of these is due entirely to private enterprise. One of the most useful codes of signaling, however, common to the naval or military service is that popularly known as the "Wig-Wag," otherwise called the Army Code, the invention of the Chief Signal Officer, General A. J. Myer, United States Army.

This code requires no signal-book, and scarcely any apparatus, though to make a skillful operator one should have a good memory and much practice. In almost every signal system there must be an intermediary lying between the sign and its signification. In the army code the intermediaries are the numbers 1, 2 and 3, the letters of the alphabet being represented by combinations of I and 2 to four places; and the punctuation necessary in this method effected by the 3. Having made up an alphabet of ones and twos, and determined on signs to represent each, we can, with an additional sign for three, spell out with a little practice long messages with tolerable rapidity and accuracy.

For example, let us represent A by 22, B by 2112, C by 121, D by 222, and so-forth. Then say that a full blast of a whistle, a motion of the right hand, or a wink with the right eye shall mean one; two short blasts of the whistle, a motion of the left hand, or a wink of the left eye shall mean two, and a prolonged blast, a movement of both hands, or the closing of both eyes shall stand for three. With these signs it is plain that the operator may indicate all the letters of a message, separating the words from each other by the sign representing three, and closing the message by a succession of them. In practice the operator holding a flag staff to his front centre and in a vertical position, nips his flag (or torch at night), to the right to represent one, to his left to make two, and to the front for three; the flag or torch in each case describing a little more than a quarter of a circle.

The ease with which messages, transmitted by this system, may be read by an enemy has been urged as an objection to it. A curious case in illustration of this occurred during the late war, in the blockading squadron off Charleston, South Carolina. On one occasion the commanding officer of one of the vessels of the blockading squadron "wig-wagged" to the commanding officer of another vessel, inviting him to dinner, and