and daughters, were heard shouting and screaming for aid. Arousing the stupefied servants, Amsden, by their aid, and that of one or two others, who by this time had reached the spot, procured a ladder, and placed it to the window from which the cries had been heard; when, one by one, the family were seen emerging, half-suffocated, from the thick smoke that enveloped the upper part of the ladder, and hastily descending to the ground; the last one having barely time to avoid the broad gush of flames that now burst from the window below, and cut off all further chance of egress by the avenue through which they had so narrowly escaped. Standing at the foot of the ladder, and eagerly examining the disfigured persons of each of the females, as they came down, Amsden uttered an exclamation of despair, on finding, as the last one reached the ground, that she whom he most anxiously sought was not there!

"Where is Mary? O! where is Mary?" burst from his agonized lips, as he cast a wild and frenzied look on those around him.

"Yes, where?" responded Carter, throwing a startled and agitated look upon his wife and daughters, as he now for the first time discovered that the object of inquiry was not among them.

"She ran back to add another article to her scant dress, just as the ladder was raised for our escape," now recollected one of the females.

“Her retreat then was cut off by the flames," said the former; "mount at some other place and find her, or in another moment she is lost!"

Waiting only to catch the import of these replies to his question, the maddened youth flew to the ladder, planted it against another window, sprang up the rounds, and with a billet of wood before caught up for the purpose, cleared both sash and glass at a blow, and leaped in, to rescue his perilled

friend, or perish with her. While this was transpiring, a well-dressed gentleman, whom no one appeared to recognize, came rushing, with distracted looks, through the crowd. He had evidently been apprised, on the way, of the peril and probable situation of the lady left in the burning building; for, calling aloud for assistance, he seized a spare ladder, and, with such help as was at hand, bore it round to an opposite side of the house, reared it, ascended, beat in a window, and quickly disappeared in the smoke that came pouring through the breach he had thus effected. For many minutes, nothing was seen or heard of the two individuals who had thus bravely hazarded their lives in the search. And as the fire, which had commenced on the lower floor, was plainly seen to be rapidly making its way upward, the spectators, now equally alarmed for the fate of all within, awaited, with breathless anxiety, for their reäppearance. Suddenly, the crash of a breaking window, in a different room from those which either of the two bold adventurers had entered, was heard; and they were seen, in the flying fragments and outpouring smoke, throwing themselves headlong through the opening, to the ground. They had rushed through the halffired chambers in the fruitless search for the supposed perishing girl, till, their retreat being cut off, they met, nearly suffocated by the vapor, and took the only course left them to save their lives. The stranger, though not materially injured by the fall, was yet so much stunned, that he was taken up and borne off nearly senseless, out of the crowd. Amsden almost instantly gained his feet, and rushed, convulsed and gasping for breath, out of the stifling smoke and heat that encircled the spot, into the fresh air. The eyes of all followed him, and many gathered round to hear if he brought hope or information on the subject of the general solicitude. He did not, could not, utter words; but his woe-speaking countenance, as he looked upon the burning pile, and turned

hopelessly away from the overpowering sight, told the sad tale that his tongue would have uttered. And the next moment brought confirmation, to the minds of all, of the dreadful sup position. A general burst of flames through every window below the roof of the building, disclosed the whole interior in a mass of flames, glowing with the bright heat of a furnace. "She is lost! she is lost!" now rose, in the low, deep murmurs of grief, from the shuddering throng, who stood appalled at the thought of a fate so awful, for one so good, so loved, and so lovely. With the subsidence of this burst of anguished sensibilities, a funereal silence for some moments pervaded the whole assembled multitude. The tumultuous shouts and varied commotion that had marked the scene, seemed hushed into awe; and nought was heard but the ceaseless crackling of consuming timbers, and the dull, farsounding roar of the mounting flames. The gloomy silence, however, was soon broken by a cry of mingled joy and horror which now arose from a new and unexpected spectacle. She, whom all had given up as lost, was discovered, emerging from the scuttle, on to the nearly flat roof of the building, and advancing, with hasty, agitated steps, to the low terrace that ran round it at the eaves. Here, in the occasional openings of the eddying smoke that was swiftly whirling over and around her, she was seen, looking hopelessly down from the dizzy height, upon the anxious throng of friends below, who saw no way to rescue her from the fiery tomb, in which the already trembling fabric gave token she must soon be engulfed. In a moment she appeared to single out her distressed lover from the crowd; and she stretched forth her arms towards him, with the same imploring look with which he had seen her in his dream. Aroused by the mute appeal from the stupor with which his overmastering emotions had chained him to the spot where he stood, at the thrilling sight that had been so unexpectedly revealed, Amsden sprang for

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ward to the very verge of the flames, and, calling aloud for assistance, looked distractedly round for some means by which she might yet be snatched from the fearful doom that hung over her. But how was any effectual assistance to be rendered? The body of the building, which was isolated from all others, was now but a bright mass of fire; while the whole compass of its exterior, on every side, from the base nearly to the eaves, was wrapped by the flashing gusts of the same fearful element. There was no ladder to be had long enough to reach the roof, or near it, if placed at an inclination in which it would be out of reach of the flames. expedients were, indeed, hastily suggested; but each in its turn, was quickly rejected, as wholly fruitless. And the seemingly fated girl was again about to be given up as beyond the reach of all human assistance, when an encouraging shout, as of approaching aid, was raised by those standing in the outer circles of the crowd. Eager to grasp at every appearance of hope, Amsden turned his eyes to the quarter from which the sounds proceeded, and beheld a small party rapidly approaching, with a long spliced ladder on their shoulders. As they drew near, the former unexpectedly recognized, in the burly frame and energetic manner of the foremost, his old friend Bunker, who, it appeared, having been aroused by the alarm from an inn nearly two miles distant, reached by him on a journey, a few hours before, had arrived just as the present emergency arose, and, with a quick glance at the means of relief, ran back to a neighboring barn, where he procured, and hastily lashed together, the implements with which he and others were now rushing forward to the rescue.

"Be ready there with pike-poles and pitch-forks to raise it," he exclaimed to the receding throng, as with long, rapid strides he came sweeping with his end of the load to the spot “She may be saved! Now up with this ladder; and

ho! there, you firemen! bring round your engine to bear on this side of the building to deaden the flames! What! can you neither think nor act? I tell you she must be saved!"

With that sort of half-mechanical obedience which superior energy and promptitude will always command, in a crisis. of difficulty and danger, the before uncertain and paralyzed crowd, now aroused by the startling and authoritative tones of the speaker, began to move with alacrity to do his bidding. While the fire-engine, soon adjusted for the purpose, was pouring its torrents upon the space of flames immediately required to be held in check, the tall ladder was hurled into the air, and carefully lowered, till its upper end was brought on to the roof, almost at the feet of the perilled maiden,

"Now, young lady," shouted Bunker, in a voice that rose distinct above the noise of the multitude and the roaring of the flames, "if you have a head and hand steady enough, come down; for you have not a moment to lose!"

Evidently understanding the words that had been thus addressed her, the agitated girl instantly advanced, and stepping over the verge of the dizzy pinnacle, placed her foot upon one of the first rounds of the ladder when, at the sensation which appeared to come over her, as she glanced down from the fearful height to the earth, partially disclosed to her recoiling senses in the disrupturing clouds of smoke and flame that were seething and raging beneath her, she suddenly stopped, put her hand to her head, and, with a shudder, sunk back unnerved and prostrate upon the roof.

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May the Lord have mercy on her!" cried Bunker, in tones of distress. "She has not the nerve to do it, poor thing! And this ladder may give way under the weight of two. But I cannot stand and see her die so. No, it must be tried," he added, turning to those around him, and prepar◄