once in my life! I shall go with you, Jenkins, on one condition, which I scruple not to name, because in this I am not more wicked, but only more sincere. than the world in general. This Hinton Douglas I never loved, as you supposed. My great object was revenge; and I refused then to sail with you, because I had vowed to pursue him day and night till I could fulfil my heart's wrath against him."

"And may I ask, thou remarkable woman, why he was the object of thy hatred ?"

you

'No, sir, you may not ask need not ask-you shall not!-I will not satisfy you there-I will not feign a cause to cheat your present thought, which I know very well, and which I despise. Listen to me, rather, and weigh that one condition, if you are indeed sincere in wishing me to sail with you. Hinton Douglas is at this moment lying in my house, in one of those dead sleeps which you have seen -Will you take him on board tonight? and do the same by me to-morrow night? till when I must be occupied in making arrangements for our voyage.'

"

'By yon chaste moon, lady, this is all too complicated and too refined for my poor wits. But suppose we take him on board, what then?"

"If you will have my stern wish, keep him fast bound in your hold till your vessel be blown to pieces, which, trust me, shall be ere long. Or if you grow weary of so detaining him, and he refuse to become one of your crew, then sell him for a slave to the Algerines, or get him in any way so bestowed that he may never revisit this kingdom more."

"Before my soul, madam, what were you saying? Did you talk of this Douglas becoming one of my crew? or did you say that he is to be captain under your own management ?"

Why, what a sorry fellow thou art, after all, Jenkins! I should have imagined, now, thy pride wished exactly such a trial, that thou mightest shew thyself one not to be overcome on all hands by Diana Clement and a paltry lad like this Douglas. But if you have a mind, we will throw him overboard the very first night, ere he have time to win thy sailors' hearts from their true allegiance.'

"But suppose you give us the slip to-morrow night?"

Prythee. now, teach me not bad lessons. Why, then, set him again

on shore; and what harm is done Moreover, to avenge thee of my false promise, tell him how I abused him with a wicked sleep, and set him to hunt me down in virtue of this, and that charge of thine own from Goldsmith's Hall."

"I shall obey thee in all things, lady, for thou art wiser than I am."

66

Now, then," said Diana, "to the execution of our purpose. The coachman must be detained for an hour or two in yon same house, where I can judge from the colour of his nose, it will be no hard matter to make him willingly abide; and in the meantime we two, with one or both of your lieutenants-lest our victim should awake --shall set off with the chaise for our sleepy luggage. You shall drive us, captain. And let me see-yes-both your lieutenants must go, that I may not need to come back with you. Is there any thing farther, Mr. Jenkins, which you wish to have explained."

"Let us walk on a little, my sweet Scarlet Witch-we have abundance of leisure, for the tide will not be up till midnight. Our shark shall then be in the firth; and some of my fellows in their boat shall be looking out for usso we'll have an opportunity of getting our cargo safely on board."

Bravely said, my dear captain; but the coachman may take offence at such a long detention; and the sooner the young dreamer is brought down to the sea-side the better. Will the landlord not stickle about letting him into his house?"

"Not he, by his Anchor! Yet we'll make arrangements to keep him out of the way. Nay, so soon as we can persuade the coachman to unyoke his horses and put them into the stable, we shall endeavour to have both landlord and driver so plied that they shall soon be unable to interfere with

us.

When all is otherwise ready. I myself can again yoke the horses. Come, sweet Di, come with me!"

All this was done easily; and Douglas, whose sleep was still unbroken, was brought down to the Anchor Inn.

Hinton Douglas awaked from his sleep; but, after lying still awhile with his eyes fully open, he could see no light whatever; and he knew not at all where he was. A cold stiffness all over him, with pains about his neck, and the touch of a damp floor beside him, made him perceive that he was not in a bed, as he had at first supposed. He was impressed, at the same time, with

an almost certain conviction that he had been roughly handled in his sleep, and that he had heard loud and external noises as of shouting and obstreperous singing, which, though ming ling with his dream with the quickest accommodation, had yet eventually waked him. A strong fume of ardent spirits, which he now felt all around him, might have contributed to the same. Miss Clement and the sleepy wine he now dimly recollected. This was enough to make him fear the worst; and he started up to ascertain, if possible, where he really was. Groping onward cautiously, he came in contact with something like a barrel; and on either side of it he found more of the same sort; and, farther to one side, he felt bottles piled among sawdust :-all which led him to suppose that he was in some low cellar. He was moving round the place in quest of the door, when a number of voices broke out in some contiguous apartment, evidently in threatening parley with other voices heard farther away. Immediately there was a violent beating, mingled with loud cries and the report of two or three pistols. Hinton stood still for a minute, expecting the din to cease; but it furiously increased, and with double earnestness he now sought his way out. At this moment a light came in upon him through a number of small chinks, thus shewing him the door; but on advancing to it he found it fast locked; yet, from the circumstance of its admitting the light so well, he judged it so frail that he might easily burst it open. Before attempting this, however, he looked through a small aperture, and saw two women half-dressed, one of them with a candle in her hand, and two or three children huddled together among some casks in a sort of passage, screaming more vehemently at every louder renewal of the farther din. Then came a great crash, testifying that some door had given way. A voice was heard, in which Douglas recognised the harsh tones of lieutenant Bucke; and shouting, "What, ho! Bucke!" Hinton instantly burst through the frail cellar-door, and passing the women and children, who glared on him, and cowered to the very ground when they saw him, he made his way into a sort of front room, and was just in time to strike down the arm of a man levelling a pistol at Bucke, who, without his hat, was heading a party at another door of the apartment. The pistol, thus diverted from its right aim,

sent its contents down into the floor; but the fellow drew another, and turned round bitterly upon his new assailant, shewing the face of Jenkins himself, writhing like a fury. At sight of Douglas he ground his teeth; but in a moment he was seized from behind, and rendered unable to fulfil his vindictive purpose. One awful point, however, he attained despite of the constraint, against which he struggled like a demon,-he managed to turn the pistol against his own life, and, shooting himself through the body, was dead in a moment. There was a fellow by the side of Jenkins, when Douglas entered, brandishing a cutlass with the maddest flourishes; but, as he was more than half drunk, Bucke's party had no difficulty in soon overpowering him. Another, who completed the list of armed defenders of the place, sat in a corner hammering away at his flint, till, observing Jenkins shot, he started up, reeling and scowling on Douglas; "So you have shot my captain in cold blood?" said he" you have, you lily-hearted vagabond! you! Why, a babe boiled in the whey of Paraoh's lean kine would not be such a weakling in the liver! You spoon for the mouth of sucklings! -you poor predestined curd! you-Have at you with a mess of pap!" He levelled and attempted to fire at Douglas; but his pistol would not go off; and he was immediately secured.

"Your servant, Mr. Douglas," said Bucke; "there is no time at present for farther greeting. Where is this mad host of the Anchor, who has so resisted the warrant of a magistrate ?"

"Here he is," said one of the party, "lying dead drunk on a bench."

At this moment a new alarm was given, that there was a ship in the frith, and a boat near the shore, and eight or ten fellows ready to land.

66 We must make fast the door," cried Bucke; and instantly he himself put a bench behind it, while some added tables, and other heavy furniture, and rolled a large barrel of liquor forward as a rear fortification,

"For God's sake, gentlemen," said Bucke, "keep out of the line of windows and doors, to avoid their shots. Now get ready what arms you have, and don't waste your fire foolishly; let us patiently bide their onslaught, till they have spent themselves a little.'

Voices came near- the door was tried-admittance was demanded; and, when this was refused, the door was

"Your captain has shot himself!" cried Bucke; and as for your lieutenants, they are our prisoners, and shall be, despite of you."

A savage yell from without answered this declaration; there was a renewed and more vehement attack upon the door; and it seemed on the point of giving way to the pieces of rock with which it was now battered; when Bucke having, in a whisper, ordered the half of his party to follow him, whilst the rest should keep up their fire for a reserve, advanced as nearly as possible to the door, and giving the word, his section fired through it upon the assailants without, who received it with an angry howl, mingled, however, with groans and cries of death, which testified that it had taken deadly effect. An intermission of the assault followed; the two lieutenants and the body of their captain were again demanded; and the party promised that, on this restitution, they would immediately draw off. They were refused, however, a second time. "And now," said Bucke, "load again all of you, till I remove that stuff, and then we shall sally out upon them. What can they be about now, that they are so quiet? Either they are sheering off, or it is an ominous calm before some new storm."

Ere the preparations were fully made for breaking out, a far-off shout was heard, mingled with the dashing of the sea, which told that the assailants were embarked, and away in their boat; but in the same minute a strong smell of fire was perceived, and the flames were heard beginning to crackle about the roof of the house.

"The ruffians have set us on fire," said Bucke. Deliberately, now, gentlemen; but yet we must be very quick in getting out all the inmates; for the wind is high, and things will buru rapidly. Rouse the landlord, some of you, call his wife. Bid them secure their money, if they have any. Has he children? Let us first open a way, and see that the coast is clear." This was done; and the assailants were found gone, having their dead or wounded with them.

proper distance from the house. The face of the drunken man the while was a strange picture of intoxication struggling with the alarms of awakening reason, which made him sensible that he was near the flames; whilst, at the same time, being unable to calculate matters aright, and being, probably, visited by a stroke of conscience, he thought that he was lost in hell, and, in the most fearful terms, began to deprecate Almighty wrath.

"Jenkins' body,' remarked Douglas, looking to Bucke; and both rushed away humanely to rescue it from the flames. As they got near the door, a gun was heard from the ship, which was nearly opposite, in the frith, and in the same moment they were covered with a drift of sand ploughed up by the shot, which was heard in upward recoil, shearing through the boughs of the trees behind the house. They paused, and looked at each other. A second bang!—a second ball passed crashing through the house. A third-a fourth rent the walls to their very foundation and the whole fabric fell in; and the flame, which had now reached the spirituous liquors, rose over all, in one bright pyramid. To heighten the confusion of the scene, a chaise, with two horses tied behind it, which had come with Bucke and his party, and had been stationed about a hundred yards above the Anchor Inn, came now rattling down the shore, dragged by a young horse, which, having taken fright at the fire, came dashing on, despite of the animals behind, and its own more sober yoke-fellow-despite, moreover, the resistance of the coachman, who, true to his hold of the rein, allowed himself, as he yet cried loudly for help to be hauled along by the side of the plunging and snorting brute. The horses which were fastened behind the carriage took the thing at first pretty quietly, and followed with heads and necks outstretched, till, gradually roused by the jolting vehicle before them, and coming near the central point of alarm, they swerved, from the noise of the cannon, on the one side, and the blazing house on the other, and, bursting their fastenings, gallopped madly over the sands. At the same time the coachman was obliged to relinquish his hold, and the chaise went soon out of sight, at a furious rate, pursued, however, by the faithful

To be continued in our next.