ditch, I cleared all obstacles in my path with the ease of thought. Now climbing the hill-top, then dipping into the vale, and skirting dark, deep woods, I raced with breathless speed. Ever and anon, I glanced behind, and there the shadow dogged me still. Useless as it appeared, I continued on. I could not, dare not stop.

At length, after scouring over a wide heath, on which I heard the sharp bark of the fox and the scream of the night-hawk, and plunging through a quivering morass, my exhausted limbs began to reel and totter. In desperation I turned upon my heel and faced the shadow. There it was, streaked in my wake, and nodding its head as if in triumph. With the courage of a pent-up rat I stood glaring at the dreaded shade, and, growing desperate with my very fears, I began to curse and defy it. My impotent rage, however, produced no other effect than to cause it to increase its mocking gestures.

The moon, which had been sailing in the clear blue firmament with no impediment to her rays, now began to sink behind a bank

of murky clouds; and as she gradually grew paler, the hideous cause of my terror faded with the light, and, at length, no trace was left in the thick and deepening darkness.

Relieved from the presence of the shadow, I tried to collect my wandering and shattered senses, and sought the nearest path homewards. Many a weary mile had to be retraced; and as I came to the door of my once-peaceful home, the crow of a watchful cock announced that the first streak of morn just tinged the east.

CHAPTER VI.

"The fated sky

Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull."

On this night it appeared, that soon after my departure for the appointed place with Mary, the Stranger returned to the inn, and without intimating his intention, left it; neither saying whither he was going, or having told any one from whence he came. The evil change, however, of his having been amongst us did not leave with him. The Chequers now was frequented nightly instead of generally but once in the week, and riot prevailed often from sunset to sunrise. Our daily work was neglected; and many, after repeated warning and cautions, were discharged by their employers, and be

G

came idle, dissolute, and abandoned. Among the most so was myself. The separation from Mary, the fear of the past still besetting me, and the utter hopelessness of the future, all tended to render me hardened and desperate. To drown every thought and feeling of remorse, I sought the coward's remedy in drink, and as soon as its effects were leaving me, drank again.

As may be supposed, from my repeated, and, indeed, constant intemperance, now a fixed habit of my life, Mary rejected every effort on my part to again become reconciled.

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No, Tom," was her constant answer. “I cannot place any faith in your assurances to amend. Prove that you are so, and you shall have my hand-as, notwithstanding all that 's past, you still have my heart. When your reformation has really begun, and you are a better man, seek me, if it be your will. Until then, spare both yourself and me the pang of meeting."

Heaven knows, it was my intention to commence a change for the better, and my resolutions were as honest as ever ex

pressed; but somehow or other there appeared to be an influence over me which prevented their fulfilment, and I still continued in the ring of ruin and misery.

It is seldom, I have been told, that men fall deeply into sin at once. From step to to step they sink; and crimes, at length, are committed, which to contemplate at an earlier stage of their corruption, would fill them with fear and horror.

With several of my companions, I soon became out of work, and devoid of all means of procuring an honest livelihood. No one would give me employment, even for a day; and I wandered idly about, with the feelings of one forsaken alike by God and man.

Whilst leaning against a gate one evening, thinking what could be done to relieve my necessities, daily becoming more pressing and urgent, a thought struck me that to snare a few head of game would be the most ready mode of getting my wants supplied. Not that I then intended to practise poaching, but merely as a temporary resource and assistance. In order to quell the scruples of