involuntarily followed his example, and made a reverential
obeisance to the venerated monument.

It was, in truth, the very spot on which tradition asserts that
the canonized monarch came to die, a spot to which for six centuries
and more his countrymen had paid the homage of a pious regard.
The lamp that had been kindled at the memorial shrine of a saint
was now in all probability the only beacon that threw a light
across the waters of the Mediterranean, and even this ere long
must itself expire.

There was nothing more to explore. The three together quitted the mosque,
and descended the rock to the shore, whence their boat re-conveyed
them to the schooner, which was soon again on her southward voyage;
and it was not long before the tomb of St. Louis, the only spot that had
survived the mysterious shock, was lost to view.



CHAPTER XII

AT THE MERCY OF THE WINDS

As the affrighted cormorants had winged their flight towards the south,
there sprang up a sanguine hope on board the schooner that land might be
discovered in that direction. Thither, accordingly, it was determined
to proceed, and in a few hours after quitting the island of the tomb,
the _Dobryna_ was traversing the shallow waters that now covered
the peninsula of Dakhul, which had separated the Bay of Tunis from
the Gulf of Hammamet. For two days she continued an undeviating course,