If I had not been a mother, I should have wished to
have followed them; but my two girls lay senseless at my side, and I was
anxious, as I perceived they still breathed, to recover them. At the
moment M. Hirtel pushed the raft into the water, he threw upon it a box
bound with iron, which I grasped mechanically, and still held, when we
were left on shore. It was not locked, yet it was with some difficulty,
in my confined position, that I succeeded in opening it. It contained a
quantity of gold and bank-notes, which I looked upon with contempt, and
regret. But there was something useful in the box. In the morocco
portfolio which contained the bank-notes, there were the usual little
instruments--a knife, scissors, pencils, stiletto, and also a small
bottle of Eau de Cologne, which was particularly serviceable in
restoring my children. I began by cutting the cords that tied us. I then
rubbed my dear children with the Eau de Cologne, made them inhale it,
and even swallow a little. The wind was still blowing, but the clouds
began to break, and the sun appeared, which dried and warmed us. My poor
children opened their eyes, and knew me, and I felt I was not utterly
comfortless; but their first words were to ask for their father and
brother. I could not tell them they were no more.
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