fun. But no sooner had we landed, than the captain turned to him, and said peremptorily, 'Now, Sir, you watch the boat till we return.' Poor fellow, he knew his duty, though he felt the mean revenge; and folding his arms, he turned quickly round with his face from us, which was burning with anger, and began to hum a tune. After we had pursued our amusement for some hours in the woods, we returned to the boat, and were surprised to find that the mate was not beside it. We saw him, however, about a hundred yards off (for he had probably been allured from his charge by seeing some game not far away), hasting towards us. The captain, trembling with malignant eagerness, ordered us all into the boat in a moment, and made us pull away as fast as possible from the poor young fellow, who, loudly demanding not to be left in such a wild place, dashed into the sea, and swam after us. Be sure all of us used our oars with as little effect as possible, to let him make his leeway. This he soon did, and took hold of the edge of the boat; but the cruel captain drew his hanger, and cut through his fingers, and he fell back into the sea. 'You disobeyed my orders, Sir, in not staying beside the boat,' cried the heartless savage, whom every soul of us would gladly have tossed overboard, though the instinct of discipline kept us quiet. The poor mate cast a bitter and reproachful glance at the boat, folded his arms, and diving down into the waters, was never more How could the ship, that bore us with the monster, be blessed after such doings? She was beat to pieces on the coast of Sicily, and the captain and I alone escaped. He used me very scurvily thereafter, and I am not ashamed to tell his misdeeds. But it was a pity for the good ship, the Arrow.' 'O God! hold fast my head!' exclaimed my father, on hearing the name of the vessel-‘ If—if— but tell me the captain's name.' 'Romelli.' 'And the mate's?' 'Hugo Marli-a blithe sailor!' 'My Hugo ! my own boy!' cried my father, and the old man's head sunk down upon his breast. Never shall I forget the wild strange manner in which our sailor-guest at this caught hold of the liquor that was standing on the table,

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drunk it all out of the bottle, and then fled from the house, leaving me alone, a little boy, to raise and comfort my father. In a few days the old man died of a broken heart, and I was left alone with my twin-sister Charlotte. Day and night I thought of Hugo, the gay and gallant sailor-boy that all the maids of Italy loved; my father's pride; who brought presents for Charlotte from far lands; and taught me to fish for minnows in the brook, and to pipe upon the jointed stems of the green wheat: And all this was at an end for ever, and my father's heart was broken! Therefore the desire of revenge grew up, and widened with my soul from day to day. I found a medium through which I traced all Romelli's movements: After the wreck of his own ship, the Arrow, he had joined the French service. When I learned that he was a prisoner in this country, I determined to pay him a visit. My father had left a small sum of money; but now it was nearly expended, having supported Charlotte and myself scarcely a year in the house of our maternal uncle, and we were likely soon to be entirely dependent upon him. On expressing my determination to go to England with my sister, I saw that he was very willing to get quit of us; and to make sure of our removal, he bought me a harp, and paid our passage to this country."

"Allow me to ask," interrupted Hume-" Did Charlotte know this wild purpose of yours?"

"No; she was staying with our aunt for a while when the above scene with the sailor took place, and my father was dead ere she knew of his illness. The thoughts of revenge which had already occurred to me made me conceal the true cause of my father's death; or, perhaps, to speak more strictly, although it was well known that his having heard of his son Hugo's fate struck the old man to the grave, yet I took care not to reveal through what channel the news had come, or the cruel mode of my brother's death. Had Charlotte known what was within me, she would have tried incessantly to break my purpose; but she could not possibly know it, and, as my will was her law in such matters, she readily followed me to this country.

No sooner had we landed, than I made her vow never to reveal our true name or distinct place of abode till I gave her leave: And, in the meantime, we assumed our mother's name of Cardo. I led the way to Scotland, gradually drawing near my victim, whose place of stay I had taken care to ascertain in Italy through the same means by which I had hitherto watched his movements. To make my soundings, I got into Romelli's house under a feigned sickness. When you saw me first, I had in truth no complaint, save that the nearness of my man had made my heart palpitate so deeply that a degree of irritable fever came over me. The fair Julia was too kind and tender: I fell madly in love with her: I almost forgot my stern duty of revenge. You cannot guess the choking struggles between my two master passions. Yielding so far to the softer one, I compromised my pride in another point, and consented to be a dependent of Mrs Mather. By Heaven! I was not born with a soul to wait at palace doors: I would have rejoiced, under other circumstances, to live with my sister free as the pretty little finches that hunt the bearded seeds of autumn; but love and revenge, mingled or separately, imposed it upon me to accede to your charity and Mrs Mather's, that I might be near the two Romellis. In her playful mood, perhaps, Julia one evening prophesied that I should become a murderer. You cannot conceive the impression this made upon me. I had begun to flag in my first great purpose, but now again I thought myself decreed to be an avenger; and, to avoid stabbing Romelli that very night in your house, I had to keep myself literally away from him. Now, judge me, my friend, Was it not by him that I was shut up in a Madhouse? Yet, for your sake, and Mrs Mather's, and Charlotte's, and Julia's, and perhaps mine own (for I have been too weak), again I refrained from slaying him in your house; nay, I left the place and neighbourhood altogether, and went to London. I engaged to sing and play in an opera-house, and made enough of money. My heart again grew up dangerous and revengeful. I returned to Scotland to pay Mrs Mather for having kept us, to

send Charlotte to a sea-port, whence a ship was to sail for the Continent on a given day, then to call Romelli to account, and thereafter to join my sister a few hours before the vessel sailed. On my arrival in your neighbourhood, to make preliminary inquiries, I called at the house of a young woman, who was Mrs Mather's servant when I first came to the Cottage; but who about a year afterwards went home to take care of her mother, a blind old woman. So, then, Charlotte was dead! My sister Charlotte! My young Charlotte Marli! And all in my most precious absence! I learned it all, and your own noble generosity: But nothing of Julia's marriage with Stewart, which my informant, in her remote dwelling, had doubtless not yet heard of. All this might change my line of politics. In the first place, I imposed secrecy as to my arrival on my young hostess, who readily promised to observe it, in virtue of having loved me for my music. I had now to concert not only how best to strike Romelli, but, at the same time, how to prevent for ever your marriage with Julia. You know my double scheme in one. The brother of my hostess had, in former years, been an organist; and one day I took his instrument, which the affectionate lass had carefully kept for his sake, and went to the remote church-yard to play a dirge over Charlotte's grave. You were there, and I found it an excellent opportunity of forwarding my scheme, by making you promise to meet me afterwards in the aisle; which you did, when Signor Romelli happened to be there. Ha! ha! how came he there, the foolish man? Before naming to you the precise night of our threefold meeting, I had been prudent enough to find out that the excellent Signor had just come home from some jaunt, and in all probability would not again, for at least a few days, leave his house. To make sure, however, I instantly forwarded to him my letter of invitation. How expressed? how signed? I remembered well (for nothing of that dreadful night will ever pass from my mind) the sailor's name whose story broke my father's heart. So, under his name, I scrawled

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a letter to Romelli, stating, that if the Signor would know the immediate danger in which he stood in consequence of certain things which once happened in a boat in the South Seas, when he was captain of the Arrow, and if he would not have these points now brought publicly to light, he must meet the writer alone, at the door of the given aisle, on Saturday night, precisely at eleven o'clock. I was much afraid that he would guess the true writer of the letter, and so would not come. However, about ten o'clock on the appointed night, I crouched me down, with a dark-lantern in my pocket, beneath Charlotte's tombstone, upon which, I may here mention, I had got a mason from the Village, for a large bribe, to put a slight inscription relative to my brother, which he secretly executed between Friday evening and the dawn of Saturday. Almost contrary to my expectations, Romelli came, but, I think, somewhat after the hour appointed, with a darklantern in his hand; and, finding the door of the aisle open, he advanced into the interior, and began, I suppose, to read the inscription, which, to heighten the effect of my revenge, as already stated, I had caused to be written the preceding night. In a moment I started up, and ordered him to fall down on his knees, and confess his crimes; but, instead of obeying me, no sooner did he see who I was than he drew a pistol and shot at me, missing me, however. My turn was next, and I missed not him. He fell: I locked the aisle door that you might see through the grating, but not interfere. I had him now beneath my will and power. You know the rest. Hugo Marli is avenged-and I am willing to die."

Such were the prisoner Marli's explanations, partly won by the cross-examinations of Hume, but in general given continuously, and of his own accord.

"And now, Frederick Hume," continued Antonio, after a long pause of mutual silence, "you alone, of all the human race, are dear to me; will you promise to lay my head in the grave, notwithstanding all the ill Charlotte and I have done you?"