booming in my ears, and the weight of the whole ocean on my head; and when I came to the top again I could see the row of wild faces just above the lights which the men were swinging over the side, and I shouted for a line and a lantern on it, and out it flew, and I caught it just as I was washing by, and contrived to get it fast under my arms, and give the word to baul me in. And then, as they were pulling hand over hand, there came a hitch, a grasp slipped in the confusion-for everybody had a different order to give the boat pitched, and Morris lost his footing on the wet planks; and I felt myself going, and called to them again, and then I was sucked under and under; and when they laid me on the deck at last there was no more life in me than in a log."

"Oh, Bert!" I cried, starting up, and quite forgetting for the instant that it was all over now, at any rate.

"There! lie right down again and keep still, or I'll let you guess the rest. Don't you see I'm alive?" said he, laughing. "For they lugged me down below, and worked away on me with hot blankets and rum and hartshorn and the like, and still I lay as dead as a pelt, to all appearance, and they were just giving meup, when one of them dropped the hartshorn and spilled it up my nostrils; and suddenly, with a start and a shudder, and saying over and over, 'It's a boy, it's a boy,' I opened my eyes, and presently was all right, and brought that schooner up to town after all, though I can't rightly say that I've got over the tingle of that hartshorn yet. And I was just as well aware, Sady, of having been in your mother's house-that time while they were working over my body-of having hunted for you at home, of having found you here, of having seen my child, as I am of the same at this moment. And I swear I don't understand it!" said Bert, getting up and setting down the gruel I hadn't touched, and coming back again. "It's been buzzing about my brain, the puzzle of it, all the morning. What is a drop of brandy, a sniff of vinegar, a touch of hot flannel, that they should breathe the breath of life into my nostrils? When my soul had left my body, how did hartshorn, even that whole battery of it that Ben opened at once, call it back again? Suppose I hadn't smelled it-then dead as a pelt I should have remained; and what difference does a little camphor and vinegar make to my immortal spirit, I should like to know? And I'd ask, if they can make souls out of salts, why they don't sell them over the druggists' counters-by George I would!-if it wasn't that mine crossed the water and came out here

and up into this very room, and saw you, and heard you, and kissed you, Sady!"

"Bert," said mother, with great dignity, having a feeling that this was talk Deacon Kemp would have pronounced unsafe, "you are enough to drive Sady into a delirium, if you're not in one yourself—”

"Oh, Bert, I'm so glad," I said, without waiting for the rest, "to think that when your soul was free it travelled straight to me! And I'll promise, oh, I'll promise to try and be a good wife after this-"

"You are now," said he, "the best of wives." "Oh, I will be, Bert, as long as I live!" "And afterward," whispered Bert, over my head, "when we're ghosts together?" 'Always, Bert.

66

For ever and ever."

A LOVER'S CHRONICLE.

BY ABRAHAM COWLEY.

Margarita first possess'd,
If I remember well, my breast,
Margarita first of all;

But when awhile the wanton maid
With my restless heart had play'd,
Martha took the flying ball.

Martha soon did it resign
To the beauteous Catherine.

Beauteous Catherine gave place
(Though loath and angry she to part
With the possession of my heart)
To Eliza's conquering face.

Eliza till this hour might reign,
Had she not evil counsels ta'en.

Fundamental law she broke,
And still new favourites she chose,
Till up in arms my passions rose,

And cast away her yoke.

Mary then, and gentle Anne,
Both to reign at once began;

Alternately they sway'd;

And sometimes Mary was the fair,
And sometimes Anne the crown did wear,
And sometimes both I obey'd.

Another Mary then arose,
And did rigorous laws impose;
A mighty tyrant she!
Long, alas! should I have been
Under that iron-sceptred queen,

Had not Rebecca set me free.

When fair Rebecca set me free,
'Twas then a golden time with me:
But soon these pleasures fled;
For the gracious princess died,
In her youth and beauty's pride,

And Judith reigned in her stead.

One month, three days, and half-an-hour, Judith held the sovereign power:

Wondrous beautiful her face! But so weak and small her wit, That she to govern was unfit,

And so Susanna took her place.

But when Isabella came,
Arm'd with a resistless flame,

And th' artillery of her eye;
Whilst she proudly march'd about,
Greater conquests to find out,

She beat out Susan by-the-by.

But in her place I then obey'd
Black-eyed Bess, her viceroy-maid;
To whom ensued a vacancy:
Thousand worse passions then possess'd
The interregnum of my breast;

Bless me from such an anarchy!

Gentle Henrietta then,
And a third Mary, next began;
Then Joan, and Jane, and Andria;
And then a pretty Thomasine,
And then another Catherine,
And then a long et cetera.

But should I now to you relate
The strength and riches of their state;
The powder, patches, and the pins,
The ribbons, jewels, and the rings,
The lace, the paint, and warlike things,
That made up all their magazines;

If I should tell the politic arts
To take and keep men's hearts;

The letters, embassies, and spies,
The frowns, and smiles, and flatteries,
The quarrels, tears, and perjuries

(Numberless, nameless, mysteries!)

And all the little lime-twigs laid,
By Machiavel the waiting-maid;

I more voluminous should grow
(Chiefly if I like them should tell
All change of weathers that befell)
Than Holinshed or Stow.

But I will briefer with them be,
Since few of them were long with me.
An higher and a nobler strain
My present empress does claim,
Heleonora, first o' th' name;

Whom God grant long to reign!

THE DREAM CONFIRMED.

BY JAMES HOGG.

Not very long ago, one William Laidlaw, a sturdy Borderer, went on an excursion to a remote district in the Highlands of Scotland. He was a tall and very athletic man, remarkably active, and matchless at cudgel-playing, running, wrestling, and other exercises, for which the Borderers have been noted from time immemorial. To his other accomplishments he added an excellent temper, was full of good-humour, and a most capital bottlecompanion. Most of our modern travellers would have performed the greater part of the journey he undertook in a steam-boat, a stagecoach, or some such convenience; but he preferred going on foot, without any companion excepting an old oaken cudgel, which had been handed down to him from several generations, and which, by way of fancy, had been christened Knock-him-down.' • With this trusty friend in his hand, and fifty pounds sterling in his pocket, he found himself, by the fourth day, in one of the most dismal glens of the Highlands. It was by this time nightfall, and both William's appetite and limbs told him it was high time to look about for a place of repose, having, since six in the morning, walked nearly fifty English miles.

Now, the question which employed his cogitations at this moment was, whether he should proceed, at the risk of losing his way among the bogs and morasses for which this district is famed, or remain till daybreak where he was? Both expedients were unpleasant, and it is difficult to say which he would have adopted, when, about a mile to the left, a glimmering among the darkness attracted his notice. It might have been a "Will-o'-wisp," or the light of some evil spirit at its midnight orgies; but whatever the cause might be, it decided Mr. Laidlaw as to his further operations. He did not reflect a moment upon the matter, but exercising "Knock-him-down" in its usual capacity of walking assistant, he found himself in a few minutes alongside the spot from which the light proceeded. It was a highland cottage, built after the usual fashion, partly of stone and partly of turf; but without examining too minutely the exterior of the building, he applied the stick to the door with such a degree of force as he conceived necessary to arouse the inmates.

"Wha's there?" cried a shrill voice, like that of an old woman; "what want ye at this hour of the night?"

“I want lodging, honest woman, if such a thing is to be got."

"Na, na," replied the inmate, "you can get nae lodging here. Neither gentle nor simple shall enter my house this night. Gang on your ways, you're no aboon five miles frae the clachan of Ballacher."

"Five deevils!" exclaimed the Borderer; "I tell you I have walked fifty miles already, and could as soon find out Johnny Groat's as the elachan.

"Walk fifty more, then," cried the obstinate portress; "but here you downa enter, while I can keep you out."

blazed a large fire of peat. There was no grate, and for chimney, a hole in the roof sufficed, through which the smoke ascended in large volumes. Here he saw the company mentioned by the sybil. It consisted of three men, of the most fierce and savage aspect. Two of them were dressed as sailors, the third in a sort of Highland garb. He had never seen any persons who had so completely the air of desperadoes. The two first were dark in their complexions, their black bushy beards apparently unshorn for many weeks. Their expressions were dark and ominous, and bespoke spirits within which had been trained up in crime. Nor were the red locks of the third, and his fiery countenance, and sharp, cruel eyes, less appalling, and less indicative of evil.

So near an intercourse with such people, and under these circumstances, would have thrown a chill over most hearts; but William Laidlaw was naturally a stranger to fear, and, at any rate, his great strength gave him a confid

The door was slowly opened. The person who performed this unwilling act was a woman apparently above seventy, haggard, and bent by an accumulation of infirmity and years. Her face was pale, malignant, and wrinkled, and her little sharp peering eyes seemed like those of the adder to shoot forth evil upon whom soever she gazed. As William entered, he encountered this aged sybil, her natural hideousness exposed full to his gaze by the little rush-light she held up above her head, the better to view the tall Borderer.

"You want a night's lodging, say you? Ay, nae doubt, like many others frae the south, come to trouble honest folks."

"There's nae need to talk about troubling," said Laidlaw. "If you have trouble, you shall be paid for it; and since you are pleased, my auld lady, to talk about the south, let me say a word of the north. I have got money in my pouch to pay my way wherever I go, and this is mair than some of your bonnie Highland lairds can say. Here it lies, my lady!" and he struck with the palm of his hand the large and well-replenished pocket-book, which bulged out from his side.

"I want nane of your money," said the old crone, her eyes nevertheless sparkling with a malicious joy; "walk in; you will have the company of strangers for the night."

He followed her advice, and went to the end of the cottage, near which, upon the floor,

VOL. IV.

besides, a most unbounded confidence in scientific cudgel-playing, and in the virtues of "Knock-him-down."

These three men were seated around the fire; and when our traveller came alongside of them, and saluted them, not one returned his salutation. Each sat in dogged silence. If they deigned to recognize him, it was by looks of ferocious sternness, and these looks were momentary, for they instantly relapsed into their former state of sullen apathy.

William was at this time beset by two most unfortunate inclinations. He had an incorrigible desire, first, to speak, and secondly, to eat; and never had any propensities come upon a man so malapropos. He sat for a few minutes absolutely nonplussed about the method of gratifying them. At length, after revolving the matter deeply in his mind, he contrived to get out with the following words :

"I have been thinking, gudewife, that something to eat is very agreeable when a body is hungry." No answer.

"I have been thinking, mistress, that when a man is hungry he is the better of something to eat. No answer.

"Did you hear what I was saying, mistress?"

"Perfectly weel."

"And what is your opinion of the matter?" "My opinion is, that a hungry man is the better of being fed." Such was the old dame's reply; and he thought he could perceive a smile of bitter ridicule curl up the savage lips of his three neighbours.

75

"Mistress," continued he, "I see you will not tak' hints. I maun then tell you plainly that I am the next door to starvation, and that I will thank you for something to eat."

This produced the desired effect, for she instantly got up from her wheel, went to a cupboard, and produced a plentiful supply of cold venison, bread and cheese, together with a large bottle full of the finest whisky.

William now felt quite at his ease. Putting "Knock-him-down" beside him, and planting himself at the table, he commenced operations in a style that would have done honour to Friar Tuck himself. Venison, bread and cheese, disappeared like magic. So intently did he keep to his occupation, that he neither thought nor cared about any other object.

Everything which came under the denomination of eatable having disappeared from the table, he proceeded to discuss the contents of the black bottle which stood by. He probably indulged rather freely in this respect, for shortly after commencing he became very talkative, and seemed resolved, at all risks, to extract conversation from his mute companions.

"You will be in the smuggling trade, frien'?" said he, slapping the shoulder of one of his dark-complexioned neighbours. The fellow started from his seat, and looked upon the Borderer with an expression of anger and menace, but he was suddenly quieted by one of his companions, who whispered into his ear, "Hush, Roderick; never mind him; the time is not yet come.

"I was saying, frien'," reiterated Laidlaw, without perceiving this interruption, "that you will be in the smuggling trade?"

How long he remained in this state cannot be known. Certain it is, he was rather suddenly awakened from it by a hand working its way cautiously and gently into his bosom. At first he did not know what to make of this. his ideas were as yet unrallied, and by a sort of instinct he merely pressed his left hand against the spot by way of resistance. The same force continuing, however, to operate as formerly, he opened his eyes, and saw himself surrounded by the three strangers. The redhaired ruffian was the person who had aroused him the two others, one of them armed with a cutlass, stood by. William was so astonished at this scene, that he could form no opinion on the subject. His brain still rung with the strange visions that had crossed it, and with the influence of intoxication.

I am thinking, honest man, that you are stealing my pocket-book," was the first ejacu lation he got out with, gazing at the same time with a bewildered look on the plunderer.

"Down with the villain!" thundered one of these worthies at the same instant; and you, sir," brandishing his cutlass over the Borderer's head, "resist, and I will cleave you to the collar."

This exclamation acted like magic upon Laidlaw; it seemed to sober him in an instant. and point out his perilous situation.

The trio had rushed upon him, and attempted to hold him down. Now or never was the period to put his immense strength to the trial. Collecting all his energies, he bounded from their grasp, and his herculean fist falling like a sledge-hammer upon the forehead of him who carried the cutlass, the ruffian tumbled

"Humph."

"Humph!" cried the Borderer; "that is one way of answering questions-humph, ay humph, very good: ha, ha, your health, Mr. Humph!" and he straightway swallowed another glass of the potent spirit.

These three personages, during the whole of his various harangues, preserved the same unchanged silence, replying to his broken and unconnected questions by nods and monosyllables. They even held no verbal communi

stood in the centre of the cottage, whirling "Knock-him-down" around his head in the attitude of defiance. Such was now his ap pearance of determined courage and strength that the two ruffians opposed to him, although powerful men, and armed with bludgeons, did not dare to advance, but recoiled several paces from their single opponent. He had escaped thus far, but his situation was still very haz ardous, for the men, though baffled, kept their eyes intently fixed upon him, and seemed only to wait an opportunity when they could rush

on with most advantage. Besides, the one he had floored had just got up, and with his cutlass joined the others. If they had made an attack upon him, his great skill and vigour would in all probability have brought one of them to the ground, but then he would, have been assailed by the two others; and the issue of such a contest, armed as one of them was, could not but be highly dangerous.

Meanwhile the men, although none of them ventured to rush singly upon the Borderer, began to advance in a body, as if for the purpose of getting behind him. Now," thought William, “if I can but keep you quiet till I get opposite the door, I may show you a trick that will astonish you." So planning his scheme, he continued retreating before his assailants, and holding up his cudgel in the true scientific position till he came within a foot of the door; most fortunately it stood wide open. One step aside, and the threshold was gained -another, and it was passed. In the twinkling of an eye, swift like a thunderbolt, fell, "Knock-him-down" upon the head of the most forward opponent, and in another out bolted William Laidlaw from the cottage. The whole was the work of an instant. He who received the blow fell stunned and bleeding to the ground, and his companions were so confounded that they stood mute and gazing at each other for several seconds. Their resolution was soon taken, and in a mood between shame and revenge, they sallied out after the fugitive. Their speed was, however, employed in vain against the fleetest runner of the Cheviots, and they were afraid to separate, lest each might encounter singly this formidable adversary, who perhaps might have dealt with them in the same manner as Horatius did with the Curiatii of old. The pursuit continued but a short way, as the yeoman more than double distanced his pursuers in the first two minutes, and left them no chance of coming up with him.

It was by this time three in the morning. The intense darkness of midnight had worn away, and though the sun was yet beneath the horizon, a sort of reflected light so far prevailed as to render near objects visible. In the course of an hour the hill tops became exposed above the misty wreaths which hung heavily upon their sides, and which began to dissolve away and float slowly down the glen in pale columns. In a short time a hue like that of twilight rendered distinctly visible the mountain boundaries of the vale. William walked onward with his usual speed. Such at last was his prodigious rapidity of movement, that he utterly lost the use of his senses. He appeared

to himself to fly rather than walk over the earth; his head became giddy, and it is difficult to say where his flight might have ended, when "Knock-him-down" was suddenly swept from his hand. This in a moment arrested his speed, for such was his sympathy with this companion that he could not possibly get on, or even live without it. "Knock-him-down, whare are ye?" was his first exclamation at the departure of his favourite. "I say, Knockhim-down-whare are ye?" Here honest William sat down upon the heath to bemoan his misfortune. Now for the first time in his life he parted with all recollection. A strange, mysterious, indescribable ringing took place in his ears-the hills reeled his head nodded once, twice, and again-and in a few seconds he dropped into a profound sleep.

This may be considered an epoch in the yeoman's life, for here he, for the first time, according to his own account, was visited by a dream. Out of the pale mist of the glen he imagined he saw approach him the very person to whose house he was bound. The aspect of this man was melancholy—his face deadly pale

and as he stood opposite to the Borderer, and said, "William Laidlaw," the latter felt his flesh creep with an unutterable dread.

"William Laidlaw," continued he, "you are going to my house, but you will not find me at home. I have gone to a far country-Neil M'Kinnon and his two cousins sent me there. You will find my body in the pit near the Cairn of Dalgulish. The money you are bringing to me give to my poor family, and may God bless you!" Having pronounced these words the figure vanished, nor had the Borderer the power to recal it. He did not, however, awake, but lay in the same restless state till the sun, shining in all the splendour of an August morning, burst upon him.

William awoke a sober man. The morning was indeed beautiful. The sun shone in his strength, lighting up the vale with a flood of radiance. On the summits of the hills not a cloud rested-all was clear and lucid as crystal, and the untainted sky hung like a vault of pure sapphire over the thousand rocks and glens beneath. The object which first arrested our friend's attention was "Knock-him-down" stuck up in the middle of a whin bush, and his immediate impulse was to relieve it from this inglorious situation. Having done this, stretched his limbs, and examined his pocketbook, which he found "tight and well," he proceeded on his journey. He was naturally the reverse of superstitious, but somehow or other a train of unpleasant thoughts came over