' Saying that, he gently drew the ring from her finger, and threw
it into the sea."
It was strongly suspected that Mary shed a tear at this point of the
recital.
"It is all over with you now, Herbert," cried Fritz.
"You had better make a bonfire of your ships, like Fernando Cortez in
Mexico; or, if you are on your way home, better pray for a hurricane
to swallow you up, than have all your bright hopes dashed to atoms,
when you arrive in port."
"I am only a little girl," said Sophia; "but I know what I should have
said, if the gentleman had done the same thing to me."
"And what would you have said, child?" inquired her mother.
"I should have said, that I was not the Doge of Venice, and had no
intention of marrying the British Channel."
"Can you describe the ceremony to which you refer?"
"Yes; but it would interrupt papa's story, and Jack would laugh at
me."
"Never mind my story," replied her father, "there is plenty of time
to finish that."
"And as for me," said Jack, "though I do not wear a cocked hat and
knee breeches, and though, in other respects, my tailor has rather
neglected my outward man, still I know what is due to a lady and a
queen."
"There, he begins already!" said Sophia.
"Never mind him, child; go on with your account of the marriage."
"Well," began Sophia, "for a long time, there had been disputes
between the states of Bologna, Ancona, and Venice, as to which
possessed the sovereignty of the Adriatic.
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