boat-house, which was nothing more than a rude shed, pitched and tarred, and covered with dry seaweed, as a sort of shelter for the nets and skiffs when not employed. Hither I went with the rest, and looked upon a scene that I shall not easily forget; the poor creature was lying on the ground, pale and dripping with blood; his neckcloth had been taken off, and his clothes were torn to tatters. As the torches glared on his eyes, they seemed blue and glassy, and as if fixed in their sockets; he was evidently dying, and though I had often looked on death in hospitals, I could not stand this sight. The visitations of nature may be even more painful to the sufferer, but there is something soothing in the idea that they are visitations of nature; the sick one is struck by the hand of the Deity himself; he is only undergoing the common doom: but a violent death is always connected with the idea of crime or of unusual suffering; it is an end that might have been avoided; and as I gazed on this poor creature, my very heart was sick; every thing was beginning to swim before me, when I rushed out into the open air, and even there I was forced to lean a few moments for support against the shed.

As I began to breathe more freely in the night-wind, my attention was caught by the sound of voices, and on looking round, I saw on the shingles below, on the other side of the dyke, where the fight had first taken place, a young girl, supporting a wounded smuggler in her arms; it was too dark to distinguish their faces with any degree of precision, but their voices soon betrayed them to me. My blood ran cold as I list ened to the following short dialogue, for I was in the shadow and could not be seen by the speakers.

"Sink the customs! It's of no use, Nance; I'm fairly a-ground, and you ha'n't strength enough to shove me off again. So here I must lie, old rotten hull as I am, till they find me, and then I swing for it."

"But try, father; only try; lean

on me."

Again she endeavoured to drag or rather support the old man forwards, and her efforts were really wonderful for a creature so slim and lightly.

formed. She actually succeeded in dragging him up a low bank, and even a few yards beyond it, but there her strength failed; she could go no farther, and it was only by an almost superhuman exertion that she held him from falling.

"It won't do, Nance; this shot in the thigh wont let me move an inch farther-so here I must be caught, and I suppose they'll hang me for being found in arms against the King's officers. Sink the customs! They sha'nt tie a noose about my neck, however. We'll blow up the ship sooner than she shall fall into the hands of the enemy. So give us a kiss, my girl-God bless you. And now-hey for Dunkirk !"

And I saw him hold a pistol to his breast, which Nancy seized with a suppressed scream. Poor thing! her gestures at that moment would have wrung pity from a heart of stone.

"For God's sake, father-for your poor Nancy's sake-there is yet hope. Some of our friends may return before the king's-men leave the boathouse."

"Not much likelihoods of that, Nance: they'll hardly slip their own necks into a halter to save mine."

And I stood listening to all this, like a fool! I must have been bewildered — stunned by what had passed. But I was now awake again, and, cursing my own dullness that could waste so many precious moments, I dashed down into the dyke, waded knee-deep through the mud and water, and with infinite difficulty clambered up the opposite bank, where I was instantly observed by the old smuggler.

"Sink the customs! They are here, Nance."

In another moment I was at his side, but in that moment the pistol was discharged, and he dropped into my arms mortally wounded, exclaiming:

Sink the customs! You are too late to hang me, messmate. Nance, my girl, they cannot say your father was hung; you're a wife now for any man,-the best in the land, let him be who he will.-Sink the customs!"

""Tis I, Harry - your friend, George Seymour."

"What, the Master!-Give us your hand-d-n you !—You're a

brave lad, Master-fought better than any six of the King's blue jackets, thof it was against myself.-But, Master,"

He tried to go on, but could not, and was evidently bleeding apace in ternally, though one little drop of blood upon his lips was the only outward sign of injury.

"Master-you'll think of "— Again the words were as if stifled in his breast as he pointed with a shivering hand to Nancy. But I replied to the sign, for I understood it well-too well.

"She shall not want a home, Harry, while I have one.”

"God bless you, Master. Nancy, my girl, where are you?-The night grows so dark-or something is coming over my eyes-kiss me, Ñance."

And Nancy moved towards him with a calmness that was truly frightful. As she stooped to kiss him, something like a smile passed over her blue lips.-May I never see such a smile again!-In the same moment Harry was slightly convulsed, and with a groan that was scarcely audible he expired in my arms.

By this time, the Lieutenant and his party, who had been alarmed by the report of the pistol, came up to us, and explanations were asked and given in less time than it has taken me to write or my readers to peruse them. Frank carefully minuted down every thing in his pocket-book, and, having given the dead body in charge to a party of his seamen, attempted in his rude way to comfort Nancy. The poor girl, however, was not in a state to need, or listen to, comfort; the blow had stunned her into insensibility, and there she stood a thing of life, but without its functions. After many fruitless attempts at consolation, he exclaimed in a tone that under any other circumstances had been ludicrous,

"By G-d! the poor thing has gone mad or stupid! I tell you what, George, we'll have her home with us, and put her in Bet's hands; she's a better doctor than half our old women in the navy."

This was no sooner said than done, and without either thanks or opposition from Nancy, who seemed to have lost all powers of volition. The Lieutenant's wife, however, feel

The

ing that such a case was something beyond the usual range of her prac tice, begged the ship-surgeon might be sent for, and willingly sank into the subordinate situation of nurse, to the sore displeasure of Frank, who hated the very sight of a doctor. Yet neither the skill of the one, nor the more than sisterly attention of the other, availed any thing. morning came, and she was evidently mad; a second, and a third day followed, and still she was no better; the idea that her father lived, and was to be hung, had got firm hold of her mind, and nothing could root it out. All we could say was in vain ; she brooded on this one thought with a sullen silence, much worse than any violence of frenzy could have been; and I now began to feel myself placed in a most awkward situation by my promise, so unwittingly given, to the father. It could not be expected that Frank would trouble himself many days longer with a maniac, and what was I to do with her? One moment I wished the poor thing might die, and in the next was angry with myself for my selfishness: - then again, I cursed the hour that brought me on such an unlucky visit; when, as if all this was not enough, I was summoned to the coroner's inquest, sitting on the body of Henry Woodriff. I was not a little surprised at such a call, but it seems I might have spared my wonder; for however the smugglers may perish, this ceremony is never omitted, and the inquest had already sate on the others who were found dead near the beach.

Internally vowing to leave this abominable place within the next four-and-twenty hours-never to return,-I set off in obedience to the summons of the law, and found the inquest assembled in the parlour of a little public-house, divided only by a field from the village. Here too was Frank, with a party of his sailors, either as witnesses or accessories. The foreman of the inquest was a short stout man, with a round face, and a short nose turned up as if in scorn of the two thick lips that opened beneath it, and a pair of yellow, flaring eyes, though destitute of all expression. He looked full of the dignity of his office, and, as I

entered, was in the high tide of discussion with a stout young smuggler, who by his tone and manner seemed to care very little for any body present. This proved to be the son of poor Harry; and he spoke out his mind as plainly as his father would have done, though not quite so coolly. "Then, I'll be d-d if you do. Gentlemen, as you call yourselves, there's ne'er a Crowner of you all shall drive a stake through the old man's corpse, while there's a hand to this body."

66 Respect the dignity of the court, young man. Your father, being compos, did make away with himself. I take it, gentlemen, the evidence is sufficient to that effect; but we'll presently examine Mr. Sey

mour

"My name is Seymour."

"Pray be seated, Mr. Seymour; I'll speak to you directly.Your father, I say, being compos, did make away with himself, and the law, in that case made and provided, says,-"

"Damn the law. I say, whoever runs a stake through my father's body, I'll send a bullet through his head. So now you all know my mind, and let him try it who likes it."

With this he burst out of the court, to the great dismay of the foreman, who, when he recovered from his surprise, said in a tone of grave importance :

"This is contempt of the court, and must be punished."

The Lieutenant, however, put in his veto; for with all his roughness he did not want for feeling, and the gallantry of the young smuggler had evidently won his heart.

"Psha! the poor fellow only speaks up for his father, and he has a right to do so."

Yes, but with your leave, Lieutenant E--,"

"Come, come, Master Denton, I know you are too kind-hearted to hurt the lad for such a trifle."

"Trifle! Do you call it a trifle to damn the court."

"Well, call it what you will, but let the poor fellow go scot-free. He has enough of it already, I think; his goods have been taken, his father killed, and his sister is run mad."

"Why, as you say, Lieutenant E-, I am not hard-hearted, and— Oh, Mr. Seymour, I beg your pardon for detaining you. We want your evidence as to this business, merely as a matter of form. You were present when Harry Woodriff shot himself.-Administer the oath to Mr. Seymour."

The oath was accordingly administered in due form, and I was reluctantly compelled to tell the whole business, which still farther authorized the little foreman in his darling scheme of burying a man in the meeting of four roads, and driving a stake through his body. I do not believe he was really of a bad disposition, but this ceremony flattered his importance, besides that it gratified the appetite for horror so common to all vulgar minds. To have been present at such a sight, under any circumstances, would have delighted him, merely as a spectator; but to have it take place under his own immediate auspices, was too great a treat to be given up for any consideration that Frank or myself could offer. In addition to the mere pleasure of the thing itself, his persistency gave him in his own eyes all the dignity of a man resolute in the performance of his duty, however unpleasant, and in spite of the most powerful solicitations. We were, therefore, obliged to yield the point, and leave the field to the little foreman, who instantly selected half a dozen stout peasants to keep watch over the body.

In coming out we saw a knot of smugglers in earnest conversation at the end of the street, about fifty yards from us. Among them was young Woodriff, whose gestures spoke pretty plainly that the council was not a peaceful one, and the Lieutenant was not slow in guessing their purpose.

"Do you see them, George? Just as I thought:-they'll have a haul now at the old smuggler's body before night is over, and I'll not stand in their way for any coroner's quest of them all--not I. It's no seaman's duty to look after corpses."

As he said this, we came close upon the little party, who were suddenly silent, eyeing us with looks of scorn and sullen hatred, that made

me expect a second fray; Frank, however, was too brave to be quarrelsome.

"You need not scowl so, lads; I have only done my duty, and mayhap I may be sorry to have it to do, but still it was my duty, and I did it, and will do it again, if the same thing happens again. But that's neither here nor there. All I meant to say was, that I shall keep a sharp look-out on the water tonight for any boat that may be coming over; and, in case of the worst, I shall have all hands aboard. So, good bye to you."

"The Lieutenant's a brave fellow after all," said one, as we walked

off.

"I never thought worse of him," replied young Harry; "but if I find out the scoundrel who first shot my father, bt my soul, but he's as dead a man as any that lies in the church-yard."

"Come on, George," cried the Lieutenant; "if I seem to hear what these fellows say, I must notice it, and I don't wish that, if I can help it-poor devils!"

It may be easily supposed, that the day did not pass very pleasantly, with me at least, who was not used to the trade of murder, though on Frank the whole business made very little impression; he was too much accustomed to such things to be much affected by them,-for a sailor's life is one of occurrences, while that of a studious man flows on so equally, that a simple thunder-storm is to him a matter of excitement. My brain seemed to reel again, and I was heartily glad when eleven o'clock gave me an excuse for retiring, for I was wearied out-mind and body, and wished for nothing so much as to be alone.

It was a dark and stormy night, though as yet no rain fell; the thunder too rolled fearfully, and the lightning leapt along the waters, that were almost as black as the clouds above them. I was too weary for sleep, and feeling no inclination to toss about for hours in bed, placed myself at the window to enjoy the sublimity of the tempest. At any other time this splendid scene would have been delightful to me, but now it awoke none of its usual sympa,

thies: it was in vain that I tried to give myself up to it-my mind was out of tune for such things. Still I sate there, gazing on the sea,-when my attention was diverted by a gentle tap at the door, and ere I could well answer, it swung slowly back on its hinges, and Nancy stood before me, with a lamp in one hand, and a large case-knife in the other. I thought she was asleep, for her eyes, though wide open, were fixed; and her voice, when she spoke, was subdued and broken, exactly like one who talks in his slumbers. Something, however, may be attributed to the excited state of my fancy.

"I must pass through your window, it opens upon the lawn-for the front door is locked and the key taken away by the Lieutenant, who is out at sea to-night on the watch for smugglers."

As she muttered this indistinctly, she glided across the room to the window, and, undoing the button that held it, walked slowly out. Still impressed with the idea of her being asleep, I made no opposition, fearing that she might be seriously affected in health or mind by any sudden attempt to wake her. At the same time I resolved not to lose sight of her lest she should come into peril from the cliffs or the dykes, and accordingly I followed her steps at a short distance till we came to the publichouse. Late as the hour was, the people had not yet gone to bed, for lights were shining through the kitchen-window, and from the room immediately over it came the glimmer of a solitary lamp that stood on a table by the casement. Hitherto Nancy had gone on without taking the least notice of my presence, which had served to confirm me in the idea that she walked in her sleep,-but now she turned round upon me-

"The Lieutenant's wife told me truly; he is here; but not a word; follow me softly, as though you feared to wake the dead."

I saw now that she was really awake, and my first impulse was either by force or persuasion to take her back. And yet to what purpose ? If her madness should grow violent I could always overpower her, and at any rate we were going to, and not from, assistance. I did therefore