uge boat-cloak, I issued forth from he cheerful brightness of the cotige parlour into the darkness visile of the wild scene without. Wildmagnificent it was! My path lay Long the shore, against which mouninous waves came rolling in long dges, with a sound like thunder. leet, falling at intervals, mingled ith the sea surf, and both were drien into my face by the south-east last, with a violence that obliged me equently to pause and gasp for breath. arge masses of clouds were hurried sublime disorder across the dim ruggling moon, whose pale light eamed at intervals, with ghastly inistinctness, along the white sands, nd on the frothy summits of the adancing billows. As I pursued my ay, buffetting the conflicting eleents, other sounds, methought, apeared to mingle in their uproar. The eep and shrill intonation of human pices seemed blended with the wailg and sobbing of the storm; the eaking and labouring of planks, the Dlash of oars was distinguishable, I hought, in the pause of the receding aves. I was not deceived. A moaentary gleam of moonlight glanced the white sails of a vessel at some istance from the land, and one of her oats (a black speck on the billows) as discernible, making her way toards the shore. At that moment, nother boat close in shore shot by ith the velocity of lightning, and at he same instant a man rushed quickby me, whose tall remarkable figure recognized for Campbell's, in that Im momentary glance. He darted with the rapidity of an arrow, and mmediately I heard a long shrill whistle --echoed by another and another from me cliffs, from the shore, and from me sea. The moon had alınost with awn her feeble light, and I could longer discern any object but the hite sands under my feet, and the a foam that frothed over them. Fore than two miles of my homeard path was yet before me; and in eir progress I should have to cross 70 gullies furrowed through the sand -land-springs from the adjacent ffs. Intermingled and bedded in ese were several rocky crags, and rtions of the foundered cliff, amongst mich it was easy to pick one's dayght way; but the impenetrable gloom VOL. X. that now enveloped every object, made me pause for a moment to consider how far it might be safe to continue onward in my wave-washed path. A light streaming from one of the windows of Campbell's cottage, a few furlongs up the beach, decided the result of my deliberation, and I turned towards the little dwelling, purposing to apply there for a lantern and a guide, should the younger Campbell chance to be at home. I had no need to tap for admit-. tance at the humble door. It was open, and on the threshold stood the mother of the family. The light from within gleamed across her face and figure, and I could perceive that she was listening with intent breathlessness, and with eyes rivetted, as if they could pierce the darkness, towards the quarter from whence I was approaching. My steps on the loose shingle at length reached the ear, and she darted forward, exclaiming, Oh, Amy! thank God! here's your father." The young woman sprang to the door with a light, and its beams revealed my then unwelcome features, instead of those of the husband and father. "Oh, sir! I thought" - was poor Margaret's eloquentlyunfinished ejaculation, when she discovered her mistake; "but you are kindly welcome," she quickly added, " for this is no night for any Christian soul to be out in, though thoug my husband and son - Oh, sir! they are both, both tossing in one little boat on that dreadful sea; and that is not all, the Ranger's boats are on the look out for the lugger they are gone to meet, and God knows what may happen-I prayed and beseeched them for this night only to stay peaceably at home, such a night of weather as was working up, but all in vain; we had promised my lady, and the cargo was to be landed to-night-Oh, sir !my lady, and the like of she, little think"And the poor woman burst into tears. This was no time for admonition and reproof, or for the consolatory remarks so often addressed to the unhappy, of "I told you it would come to this," or "This would not have happened if you had listened to me," or, "Well, you have brought it all upon yourself." The consequences of their illicit traffic were now brought more forcibly home to the minds of these poor people, by the agonizing suspense they were en 4 L during, than they could have been by any arguments I might have laboured to enforce. I did my best to calin their terrors. To dispel them was impossible, while the tempest raged louder and louder; and independent of that, there were other too reasonable grounds of apprehension. I suggested the probability of Campbell not being in the boat, as he had passed me on the beach so recently; but at all events, he was abroad in a tremendous night, and ⚫ with a desperate gang, expecting and armed against resistance. Forgetting my own purpose of borrowing a lantern to continue my homeward path, I entered the cabin with the distressed females, whose looks thanked me for abiding with them in this their hour of need. A cheerful fire brightened the interior of the little dwelling, where neatness and order still bore testimony that the habits of its inmates had at least been those of peaceful in dustry. The fire-light gleamed ruddy red on the clean brick floor: a carved oak table, and a few clumsy old chairs of the same fashion, were bright with the polish of age and housewifery; and one, distinguished by capacious arms, a high stuffed back, and red cushion, was placed close beside the ingle nook, the accustomed seat of the father of the family. His pipe lay close at hand, on the high mantle shelf, where a pair of brass candlesticks, a few china cups, some long-shanked drinking glasses, and sundry tobacco stoppers, of fantastical figure, were ranged in symmetrical order. The dresser was elabo rately set out with its rows of yellow ware; its mugs of various shape and quaint diversity of motto and device, its japanned tray, and mahogany teachest, proudly conspicuous in the middle. The walls were hung round with nets, baskets, and fishing apparatus, and to the rafter various articles of the same description were appended; but Campbell's duck gun, and his twoclumsy pistols, rested not on the hooks he was wont to call his armoury. An unfinished net was suspended by the chimney corner, at which the youthful widow bad apparently been employed. She resumed her seat and shuttle, but the hand that held it rested idly on her lap, while her eyes were rivetted in mournful solicitude on the anxious countenance of her mother. There was something peculiarly interesting in this young woman; not beauty of feature, for excepting a pair of fine dark eyes, shaded by lashes of unusual length, there was nothing uncommon in her countenance, and her naturally dark and colourless complexion was tinged with the sallow hue of sickness; her lips were whiter than her cheek, and her uncommonly tall figure, slender and fragile as the reed, bowed down with the languor of weakness and sorrow. But when she lifted up those dark eyes, their melancholy light was touchingly expressive, and in unison with the general character of the slight shadowy frame, that seemed almost transparent to the workings of the wounded spirit within. Amy's young heart had neverrecovered the shock of her William's untimely death, and her timid tender nature was weighed down under a perpetual load of conscious self-reproach, that for her sake, and that of her infants, her father and her brother had engaged in the perilous unlawfulness of their present courses. As she sat looking on her mother's face, I could perceive what thoughts were passing in her mind. At last a large tear, that had been some time collecting, swelled over the quivering lid, and trickled slowly down her cheek, and rising suddenly, and letting fall the netting and shuttle, she came and edged herself on the corner of her mother's chair, and clasping one arm round her neck, and hiding her face on her shoulder, sobbed out, "Mother!"-"My Amy! my dear child!" whispered the fond parent. tenderly caressing her, "why should you always reproach yourself so? You who have been a good dutiful child, and a comfort to us ever since you were born. Before your poor father fell into evil company, and listened to their temptations, did we not contrive to maintain ourselves, and you and your dear fatherless babies, by honest industry; and where should you have taken refuge, my precious Amy, but under your parents' roof?" A look of eloquent gratitude and a tender kiss was Amy's reply to these fond assurances. For a few moments this touching intercourse of hearts, beguiled them from the intense anxiousness with which they had been listening to every sound from without; but the redoubled violence of the storm fearfully roused them from that momentary abstraction, and they started and looked in each other's faces, and then in mine, as if beseech 1g comfort, when, alas! I had only ympathy to bestow. The conflict of inds and waves was indeed tremenous, and I felt too forcibly convinced, hat if the poor Campbells were indeed xposed to it, in their little fishing oat, nothing short of a miracle could ave them from a watery grave. There as a chance, however, that the landig of the contraband goods might have een effected by the crew of the luger, without help from shore, and, in hat case, the prolonged absence of he father and son might arise from meir having proceeded with them to me inland place of concealment. The robability of this suggestion was eaerly caught at by the conscious pair, ut the ray of hope gleamed with tranent brightness: A gust of wind, more wful than any which had preceded rushed past with deafening uproar, nd as it died away, low sobs, and hrill moaning lamentations, seemed mingled with its deep bass. We were Il silent, now straining our sight from le cabin door into the murky gloom ithout, - now gathering together ound the late blazing hearth, where he neglected embers emitted only a tful glimmer. The wind rushing rough every chink and cranny, waed to and fro the flame of the small andle, declining in its socket, and at tst the hour of twelve was struck by he old clock that "ticked behind the oor" in its dark heavy case. At that momenta large venerable looking book, hat lay with a few others on a hangig shelf, near the chimney, slipped om the edge on which it rested, and ll with a dull heavy sound at Margaet's feet. It was the Bible that had elonged to her husband's mother, and she stooped to pick it up, and relace it, she perceived that it had fallen penat the leaf, where, twenty-two years ack from that very day, the venerable arent had recorded, with pious gratiide, the birth of her son's first born. Ah, my dear son! my good Mauee!" ejaculated the heartstruck moher; "I was not used to forget the ay God gave thee to me-Thou wert he first to leave me, and now" he was interrupted by the low inarculate murmur of a human voice, hat sounded near us. We all started, ut Amy's ear was familiarized to the one-it was that of one of her little hes talking and moaning in its sleep. The small chamber where they lay opened from that we were in, and the young mother crept softly towards the bed of her sleeping infants. She was still bending over them, when the outer door was suddenly dashed open, and Campbell-Campbell himself, burst into the cottage. Oh! with what a shriek of ecstacy was he welcomed! With what a rapture of inarticulate words, clinging embraces, and tearful smiles! But the joy was transient, and succeeded by a sudden chill of nameless apprehensions; for, disengaging himself almost roughly from the arms of his wife and daughter, he staggered towards his own old chair, and flinging himself back in it, covered his face, with his clasped hands. One only cause for this fearful agitation suggested itself to his trembling wife. "My son! my son!" she shrieked out, grasping her husband's arms, "what have you done with him? He is dead! he is murdered! Oh! I knew it would come to this."-" Peace, woman!" shouted Campbell, in a voice of thunder, uncovering his face as he started up wildly from his chair, with a look of appalling fierceness-"Peace, woman! your son is safe;" then his tone suddenly dropping to a low hoarse murmur, he added, "This is not his blood," and he flung on the table his broad white belt, on which the tokens of a deadly fray were frightfully apparent. "Campbell!" I cried, " un happy man! what have you done? to what have you brought your wretched family? For their sakes, escape, escape for your life, while the darkness favours you." He trembled, and looked irresolute for a moment, but immediately resuming the voice and aspect of des+ perate sternness, replied, "Itis too late -they are at my heels-they tracked they me home;" and while he yet spoke, the trampling of feet, and the shout of loud voices was heard; the door burst open, and several rough looking men, in the garb of sailors, rushed into the cottage. "Ah! we have you, my man," they vociferated-"we have you at last, though the young villain has given us the slip."-" Villain!" shouted Campbell; "who dares call my son a villain?" But checking himself instantaneously, he added, in a subdued quiet tone, " but I am in your power now, you may do what you will;" and once more he seated himself in sullen submissiveness. The women clung weeping round him, his unhappy wife exclaiming, "Oh! what has he done? If there has been mischief, it is not his fault-he would not hurt a flyFor all his rough way, he is as tenderhearted as a child-Richard! Richard! speak to them-tell them 'tis a mistake." He neither spoke nor moved, nor lifted up his eyes from the ground on which they were fixed. No mistake at all, mistress," said one of the men, "he has only shot one of our people, that's all, and we must just fit him with a couple of these new bracelets." And so saying, he began fastening a pair of handcuffs round Campbell's wrists. He offered no resistance, and seemed indeed almost unconscious of what was doing, when the eldest of Amy's children, a pretty little girl of four years old, who having been awakened by the noise, had crept softly from her bed, and made her way unperceived towards her grandfather, burst into a fit of loud sobbing, and climbing up upon his knees, and clasping her little arms about his neck, and laying her soft cheek to his dark rough one, lisped out, "Send away naughty men, grandad-naughty men frighten Amy." The springs of sensibility that seemed frozen up in Campbell's bosom were touched electrically by the loving tones and caresses of his little darling. He hugged her to his bosom, which began to heave with deep convulsive sol sobs, and for a moment the tears of the old man and the child mingled in touching silence. As he clasped her thus, the handcuff that was already fastened to his left wrist, pressed painfully on her tender arms, and as she shrunk from it, he seemed first to perceive the ignominious fetter. His brow was wrung with a sudden convulsion, but its distortion was momentary, and turning to his weeping daughter, er, n he said quietly, "Amy, my dear child! take the poor baby; I little thought, dear lamb! she would ever find hurt or harm in her old grandfather's arms." It was a touching seene-even the rough sailors seemed affected by it, and they were more gently executing their task of fitting on the other manacle, when again steps and voices approached; again the door opened, and a second band appeared at it, a group of sailors likewise, bearing amongst them a ghastly burthen, the lifeless body of the unfortunate young man who had been shot in the execution of his duty, by the rash hand of the wretched culprit before us, whose aim was not the less fatal, for having been almost unconsciously taken in the bustle of a desperate conflict. "We've missed our boat, and we could not let him lie bleeding on the beach," said one of the new comers, in reply to an exelamation of surprise from those who before occupied the cottage. Campbell's agitation was dreadful-He turned, shuddering, from the sight of his victim. The women stood petrified with horror. I alone retaining some selfpossession, advanced to examine if human aid might yet avail to save the poor youth, who was laid (apparently a corpse) on three chairs, near the door. Comprehending my purpose, the humane tenderness of poor Margaret's nature surmounted her agonizing feelings, and she came trembling to assist in the painful examination. The young man's face was turned from us towards the wall, and almost covered by the luxuriant hair, (a sailor's pride) which, escaping from the confining ribbon, had fallen in dark wet masses over his cheek and brow. His right hand hung down from his side, and on taking it into mine, I found that it was already cold as marble, and that no pulse was perceptible in the artery. Margaret had, as expeditiously as her agitation would permit, unclosed his sailor's jacket, and checked shirt; shirt, and though she started and shuddered at the sight of blood thickly congealed over his bosom, she persisted heroically in her trying task. His neck handkerchief had been previously untied, and stuffed down as a temporary pledget into the wounded breast. In removing it, Margaret's finger became entangled by a black string passed round the youth's neck, to which a small locket was sus pended. She was hastily movingitaside, when the light held by one of the sailors fell upon the medallion, (a perforated gold pocket piece) and her eye glancing towards it at the same moment, a half choaked exclamation burst from her lips, and, looking up, I saw her standing motionless, breathless, her hands clasped together with convulsive ener gy, and her eyes almost starting from their sockets, in the stare of indescri bable horror with which they were rivetted on the suspended token. At last, a shriek (such a one as my es never before heard, the recollection of which still curdles the blood in my veins) burst from her lips, and brought her daughter and husband (even the unfortunate man himself) to the spot where she stood absorbed in that fearful contemplation. She looked up towards her husband (on whose brow cold drops of agony were thickly gathering, whose white lips quivered with the workings of a tortured spirit) she gazed up in his face with such a look as I shall never forget. It was one of horrid calmness, more fearful to behold than the wildest expressions of passionate agony, and grasping his fettered hand firmly in one of her's, and with the other pointing to the perforated gold piece, as it lay on the mangled bosom of the dead youth, she said in a slow steady voice, "Look there! what is that? - Who is that, Richard?" His eyes rivetted themselves with a ghastly stare on the object to which she pointed, then wandered wildly over the lifeless form before him; but the tremulous agitation of his frame ceased, the convulsive working of the muscles of his face changed into rigid fixedness, and he stood like one petrified in the very burst of de 66 spair. Once more she repeated, in the same calm deliberate tone, "Who is that, Richard?" and suddenly leaning forward, dashed aside from the face of the corpse the dark locks that had hitherto concealed it. There, there!" she shrieked-" I knew it was my son!" and bursting into a frenzied laugh, she called out, " Amy! Amy! your brother is come home! come home on his birth-day!-Will nobody bid him welcome? Richard, wont you speak to your son, to our dear Maurice! wont you bless him on his birthday?" And snatching her husband's hand, she endeavoured to drag him towards the pale face of the dead. He to whom this heart-rending appeal was addressed, replied only by one deep groan, which seemed to burst up the very fountains of feeling and of life. He staggered back a few paces-his eyes closed-the convulsion of a moment passed over his features, and he fell back as inanimate as the pale corpse that was still clasped with frantic rapture to the heart of the brainstruck mother. NOVEMBER, In Six Sonnets. SLOWLY the glittering morning star declines, In volumed mass, a thin blue vapour broods; No. II. How chill and cheerless is this barren scene! Dance dizzily among the faded bowers ;- C. |