When I recall the tranquil, and even happy mood in which I passed those hours, and remember, at the same time, the position in which I was placed; its hazardous--some would have said its hopeless--character; I feel that, as-- Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars--a cage, so peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.
I was not sick till long after we passed Margate, and deep was the pleasure I drank in with the sea-breeze; divine the delight I drew from the heaving Channel waves, from the sea-birds on their ridges, from the white sails on their dark distance, from the quiet yet beclouded sky, overhanging all.

In my reverie, methought I saw the continent of Europe, like a wide dream-land, far away.

Sunshine lay on it, making the long coast one line of gold; tiniest tracery of clustered town and snow-gleaming tower, of woods deep massed, of heights serrated, of smooth pasturage and veiny stream, embossed the metal-bright prospect.
For background, spread a sky, solemn and dark blue, and--grand with imperial promise, soft with tints of enchantment--strode from north to south a God-bent bow, an arch of hope.
Cancel the whole of that, if you please, reader--or rather let it stand, and draw thence a moral--an alliterative, text-hand copy-- Day-dreams are delusions of the demon.
Becoming excessively sick, I faltered down into the cabin.
Miss Fanshawe's berth chanced to be next mine; and, I am sorry to say, she tormented me with an unsparing selfishness during the whole time of our mutual distress.

Nothing could exceed her impatience and fretfulness.

The Watsons, who were very sick too, and on whom the stewardess attended with shameless partiality, were stoics compared with her.