is no fiction; here and there some local deviations are introduced, for reasons sufficiently obvious, but the main facts are as true as that the sun is in the heavens.

It was in the autumn of 1820 that my friend, Lieutenant E-, invited me to pass a few weeks with him on the coast where he was stationed on the preventive service, an invitation that had been too often repeated to be again slighted without offence to honest Frank, whose heart was much better ballasted than his head. Accordingly I set out a little before sun-rise, and by six o'clock at night I reached my friend's house. This was a snug cottage, about a hundred yards from a long bed of shingle, which had originally been thrown up there by the sea, and which now served as a defence against its encroachments. As it was impossible to drive the chaise up to the door, I was obliged to get out, and, having paid the post-boy, shouldered my portmanteau, and strode forward lustily to the cottage, where the first thing I heard was the voice of my friend, the Lieutenant, loud in anger on some half dozen subjects, which he contrived to twist together like the different plies of a cable, and of which my absence seemed to be the principal.

"Confound all landlubbers!-Peg, you jade, hand us up the supperKit not cleaned my barkers yet! If I don't give that fellow monkey's allowance-Betsy-What a dd fool the captain must be to let them smugglers get off-Betsy-Well, well, George-Betsy-D-n it, you're as stupid as the girl. Hand over that bundle of cigars-I tell you what, George,

"

"Well, what will you tell me?" said I, breaking in upon his medley soliloquy.

"George!-glad to see you with all my heart and soul, boy. You're just in time."

"Yes, I smell the supper." "You shall smell gunpowder, my boy, before you are two days older. A cargo from Dunkirk-red sterntwelve men and a boy-white gunnel -know all about her-figured on the other side," he added with a knowing wink, at the same time jingling some loose silver in his pocket. "Dn

it all, I was afraid you'd be too late for the fun, but here you are, and in good time."

"I can't say I see the fun." "But you shall, boy; you shall go with us; they fight like devils ; no sneakers among them."

I fancy my face testified no great symptoms of delight at the proposed amusement, for the Lieutenant, though not much given to observation, exclaimed quickly, "You're not afraid, lad?”

Still, I rather think, I should have declined this favour,-for Frank really meant it as a favour,—if his wife had not come in at the critical moment: no man would even seem to be a coward in the presence of a woman, and, before I well knew what I was about, my word was pledged to the business, to the infinite delight of Frank, who thereupon showed me, with great glee, a brace of barkers, as he called them, that Kit was to scour for my especial service. As to any danger I might run, that never once entered into Frank's calculation; he looked ou these smuggling frays much as a foxhunter looks on the chase, in which bruises and broken heads are necessary contingencies, not to be talked of for a moment, and which by no means take away from the pleasure of the pursuit.

Supper over, and the regular allowance of pipes and grog being duly despatched, I was suffered to retire, with a promise from Frank of calling me if there was any stir among the smugglers; a promise that, it may be easily supposed, was altogether unsolicited on my part; indeed, I could have willingly dispensed with his punctuality on this point, but I knew him too well to doubt his keeping his word, and it was now over late to draw back; to bed therefore I went, in all that ferment of the spirits, which men of sedentary habits never fail to experience after a day of travel.

It was ten o'clock before I rose from my morning sleep,-the only sleep I had enjoyed,-and on going down to breakfast, I found that my friend was out, and myself very much in the way of Peggy and her mistress, whose daily occupations were at a stand-still from my laziness.

My

hostess had involuntarily caught up a broom that had been left by Peggy, and I plainly saw that she was burning to commence a vigorous campaign against the dust and the spiders. In pity, therefore, to her troubles, I swallowed down my breakfast, without, indeed, the least danger to my throat, and posted off in quest of my friend, the Lieutenant, who, she told me, was at the battery, a name by which they had dignified a large mound of earth with two old guns, that might be said to be on half-pay, for though they re tained their place, they were never employed. It was not, however, my fate to reach the battery that morning, for I must needs try to make a short cut to my end, by which, as many wise men have done before me, I lost it altogether. The ground, a large tract of open country, was intersected by dykes; the first of these, having low banks, and not being very wide, I got over easily enough; the next was too much for me, and I therefore bent my course to a narrower part, which again led me into another difficulty, to be avoided by a similar circuit, and so on, till I was completely entangled. The greater my efforts now, the more they removed me from my object, and, at last, they brought me to a small hollow, partly formed by nature, and partly by the chalk having been originally dug out for the purpose of making lime; three sides of it were perpendicular rocks, with here and there a few broad weeds, not unlike dock-leaves, shooting through the interstices; the fourth sloped roughly down to a depth of ninety feet, or perhaps more, and was covered with briars that twined their long thin arms with the high grass, and made the descent a work of toil, except by one beaten path. In breadth it was about two hundred feet, in length full twice as many. In the bottom was a cottage and garden, as I expected, for I had been used to these artificial glens in Kent, where they are sure to find occupants the moment they are deserted by the chalkminers. A soil is easily and cheaply formed from the sea-weed, while the exclusion of the wind, and the reflection of the sun from the chalk, make a shelter for trees and vege

tables, which will thrive there much better than on the open downs, exposed as they are to all the bleakness of the weather, and the influence of the salt sea-air.

Curiosity led me down into the hollow, where I found the door of the cottage open, and the first object that attracted my attention was a young girl, apparently not more than seventeen years of age: even in a drawing-room, amidst lights and crowds, the enemies to all romance, I should yet have noticed her as something singular; but here, in this wild glen, where the mind was previously prepared by local circumstance for the reception of every fanciful impression, I felt as much startled at her presence as if she had been a shadow from the world of spirits. Her form, though extremely elegant in its proportions, seemed as light and airy as if no earth had entered into its composition; her hair curled in jet-black ringlets about a face that was as pale as marble; her eyes were of a deep blue, with an expression that was something akin to madness; and a dark melancholy sate on her forehead, that seemed to fling a shadow over the whole face, and deepen its natural paleness. What rendered her still more striking was the utter discordance of her dress and manners with the luxurious poverty about her, in which wealth and want were strangely blended. A deal table, scored and stained, was waited upon by half a dozen mahogany chairs, of as many fashions as there were chairs; two large silver goblets stood in the same row with a party of coarse white plates, flawed and fractured in every direction; and a Brussels carpet was spread on the floor, though the laths of the ceiling showed through the plaster above, like ribs from the thin sides of poverty. On the mantel-piece, which was tolerably well smoked, was a handsome gold time-keeper, flanked by a whole host of tobacco-pipes in every possible stage, from the black stump to the immaculate whiteness of the perfect tube. Higher up, guns, pistols, and cutlasses were ranged in formidable order, and with the same love of variety no one weapon had its fellow. I had been too much used to such dwellings in my boyhood 100

precious instance of parents educating their children above the situation they are to fill in life,-refining them into misery." Something of the same kind was evidently passing through Nancy's mind, for her eyes were suffused with tears, to the sore annoyance of the smuggler, who was dotingly fond of her notwithstanding his apparent apathy, and who was loved by her in return with no less sincerity.

"What's the matter with you, Nance?-Squalls again? Is there any thing I can do for you?"

There was a beseeching look in Nancy's eyes, the meaning of which I did not then understand, but which was perfectly intelligible to Harry, for he added, though in his usual even tone,-"That is, any thing but the old story. Is it a gown you want? Silk?-Brussels lace? Only say the word, and it's yours; for not to tell you a lie, Nance, if you wished for all the shells that lie between here and Dunkirk, you should have them or I'd drown for it-Sink the customs!"

And all this he said without the least correspondence of tone, or, indeed, any symptom of feeling, except that he laid one of his huge iron paws on the girl's right shoulder, and gently patted her. Nancy made no answer but by leaning her head on her father's brawny bosom. Follow ing up my first idea of the unfituess of such a situation to a girl of her habits, I referred her grief to that cause; and under the idea of pleasing her, I ventured to suggest that she would do better by seeking her fortune in the world, and even proffered my assistance. She cut short this proposal, however, with a tone of energy and decision that completely silenced me.

"I shall go no where, Sir, without my father. Where he is, there his daughter must and shall be."

There was a moment's pause; I was too much confounded by the manner of this address to make any reply: Harry kept on smoking his pipe as if we had been talking of matters that in no wise concerned him, and in a language that he did not understand, while the girl herself seemed to be struggling with some internal resolution. For a few mo

ments she fixed her wild flashing eyes on me with a gaze so keen that it made the blood start up into my cheeks, till at last, as if satisfied with the inquiry, she repeated in a milder tone, "I will not leave my fatherIs this a time to leave him?" And she pointed to his grey hairs-“ Is this a place? I will not leave him. But oh, Sir, if you are his friend, persuade him to quit this life, which must sooner or later end by the waves, or the sword, or the gallows. Persuade him, Sir;-'tis a better deed than giving ten alms to the poor, for in that you save the body only, but here you save both soul and body. Persuade him, Sir; he shall not want-indeed he shall not-I will work for him, beg for him, steal for him--"

The poor creature burst into tears, exclaiming, "O father! father!"

"Hey for Dunkirk! No soft-water, Nance; you know I can't abide it. So, hark ye in your ear."

He drew his daughter aside, whispered a few words with his usual imperturbability, and finished by exclaiming aloud, "I will! sink the customs!"

"But will you indeed?"

"There's my hand to it-smuggler's faith -Will you believe me now?"

Nancy only answered with a kiss; but there was still a restless expression about her eyes and lips that showed she was far from being satisfied; at the time I attributed it to some lurking distrust of her father's sincerity, for I had no doubt that he had promised her to give up smuggling; shrewd, however, as this guess was, it did not happen to be quite correct, and it was only by combining one fact with another that I afterwards got at the whole truth. It seems that Harry had risked all he possessed, nearly four hundred pounds, in a single venture to Dunkirk, under the conduct of his son, and his promise to quit the free trade was with express reference to the safe return of his cargo,-a sort of compromise that could not altogether quiet the fears of Nancy. To those who are unacquainted with such scenes it may appear strange that the old man did not rather go out with the boat himself; but the fact is, that in

smuggling, as much, if not more, depends on the management by land than by water. Experience has shown these people that they can put very little confidence in each other; the temptations to betray are much too strong for their slender stock of honesty; and the chiefs, therefore, seldom trust more than one of their associates with the secret of the boat's landing-place, which one the rest follow at a moment's warning, through brake and briar, over moor and mountain, like so many wild ducks after their leader. Now, Harry thought, and wisely, that such a secret could be trusted to no one so well as to himself, and he had therefore sent out his son, a stout able young fellow who had been brought up to the business from his cradle, while he himself staid behind to look after the landing of the cargo.

It was now nearly two o'clock, the Lieutenant's dinner hour, and I rose to take my leave, saying, "To-morrow I will be here again."

So saying, I left the glen and returned to the Lieutenant's; but, notwithstanding my improved knowledge in the geography of these parts, I did not arrive time enough to save my credit with my little fat hostess, whom I found in sad tribulation, fretting and fuming over half-cold fish, fowls done to death, and pudding that was as heavy as lead.

The day passed as might have been expected; my friend, in his capacity of host, toiled like a mill-horse to entertain me, and I, as in duty bound, laboured equally to be entertained, though it was by objects that could have no interest for me whatever. I was dragged successively to see his new cutter, the two old guns, the kennel of his seamen,-I can give it no better name,-and the birth of his Mids, who, according to his idea of things, were lodged like princes. Their principality, however, did not appear to me a subject for much envy; it consisted of two apartments, one of which was a general bed room, and the other a general parlour. The floor was sanded, and the white-washed walls were ornamented with a variety of long and short heads, and sundry witty inscriptions, such as "Tom Jenkins is a fool," "Sweet Polly Beaver," "Snug's the

word," &c. &c. The windows, indeed, looked out upon the sea, and close under them was a patch of garden, which the Mids, in the lack of better occupation, had surrounded with a wall, formed of rude chalk blocks loosely piled together without cement; under this shelter a few cabbages contrived to run to seed amidst a luxuriant crop of thistles.

Having seen these lions, we returned to tea, and passed the dreary interval between that and suppertime in a water excursion, which only wanted a more congenial companion to have been delightful. I know nothing more annoying to a man of romantic habits than the being linked in with your plain matter-of-fact folks, who have no ideas associated with any subject beyond what are presented to them by the obvious qualities of form and colour. My friend, though an excellent seaman, was precisely one of these; he saw nothing in the ocean but a road for shipping; and as to the sky, I question much whether he ever looked up to it, except to take an observation. Still this water-excursion was not without its use; it had whiled away three hours, and that was something; it had procured me an excellent appetite for supper, and that too was not to be slighted; and lastly, the sea-air had so much influence on me, that, when bed-time came, I dropt fast asleep the very moment I laid my head on my pillow. My sleep, however, was any thing but quiet; I dreamt, and my dreams were full of grotesque images, and all more vivid than any I have ever experienced either before or after. The agony was too great for endurance, and I

awoke. To my surprise there stood Frank by my bed-side, a pair of cutlasses under his arm, and a candle in one hand, while with the other he pulled and tugged at me might and main. He had no doubt been the black dog of my dreams, for his fingers were closed on my arm with the gripe of a blacksmith's vice.

"Why, how now, lad? You ate too much of the pork last night." And with that he gave me another shake as if he meant to shake my arm out of its socket.

"What's the matter? What's the matter?" I exclaimed, for I was not