LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 644, 12 July 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE. ( Concluded .) Miss Talbot had not been long in India before she was, as predicted, not only a favourite at Government House, but the acknowledged belle at Chowringee. She had many offers ; and within a few months after her arrival, made a brilliant marriage with a civilian of high standing, though twenty years older than herself. The marriage was brought about by her father. It was about twelve months after her marriage, that Lady Goldsack, late Blanche Talbot, the admired and lovely wife of Sir Parkle Goldsack, was reclining in hear canoe-shaped carriage at the Band Stand of the Eden Gardens at Calcutta, listening to the band of the Highlanders, and also to the compliments of several admiring civilians and military officers, when her eye fell upon the figure of a young man dressed in black, remarkably good-looking, with a profusion of dark surly hair. There was no mistaking him; it was Vaughan, well-dressed, and looking, if anything, better than he ever did before. He had been calmly watching Lady Goldsack from a short distance for the last ten minutes, when a a handsome livery, came up, and making a salaam, said that the Burra Mem Sahib desired to speak to him. He approached the carriage, and after being very warmly greeted, gave an account of himself from the time he left Lady Goldsack at Cape Town. He had, he said, at the risk of being shot, deserted from the French transport shortly after her arrival at Pondicherry, and managed to get a passage to Calcutta on board an Arab nacoda, and had, as soon as it was in his power, kept his promise to meet her in Calcutta. He expressed his surprise to hear of her marriage, but what followed need not be recorded. Suffice it to say, that, through Lady Goldsack’s influence, Vaughan was speedily advanced to the command of a steamer of the inland service of the Bengal marine. He would doubtless have obtained other advancement, had he not been recognised in Calcutta, and warrant for his arrest obtained by the agents of the Bangalore. The particulars of his arrest, as reported by the Englishman and Bengal Hurltaru, attracted much attention in Calcutta. On the case being tried in London, the only important evidence against him was that of the boatswain ; and as there was no actual proof of his having wilfully set the vessel on fire, Vaughan was acquitted. The owners did not press the charge, and for the loss of an old vessel obtained the price of a brand new ship. The owners, who were interested in Vaughan, offered him an officer’s berth in their fleet. This offer he declined: and having signified his intention of proceeding to. Calcutta, they presented him with a free passage to that port. On his arrival there, he enjoyed the friendship of Lady Goldsack and her husband until his death, which happened in the well-remembered cyclone of 1864. The steamer which he commanded, when full of passengers, foundered in the Bay of Bengal on her homeward voyage from Rangoon, not one soul surviving to tell the tale. Among the many monuments in the Hourah Cemetery is one remarkable for its classic simplicity. At the base there is a profile medallion in marble, and underneath are the words, ‘ln Memoriam Desmond Vaughan, drowned October 1864, “ And the sea shall give up its dead." ’ The work was executed in England; and when completed and placed in position, a lady, accompanied by an elderly gentleman, came to look at it. She seemed much affected, and left a wreath of immortelles at the foot of the monument, Lady Goldsack when last heard of was at Simla, and was the centre of attraction at that well-known hill station. She has no family, but has apparently recovered the effects of her first romance. Yet among her private possessions, and not the least valued, are two water-colour drawings—one a portrait of herself, and the other a landscape. Both are signed I D. V., Bangalore.’