have prowled forth, for the purpose of enriching themselves with such spoils of the dead as even remorseless Ocean had spared from the general wreck.

In the humble hut of Ben Sawyer, the fisherman, reposed, happily unconscious of the horrors of the night, Susanna, the old man's only daughter, indeed, his sole remaining child; for Heaven had, in days past, sorely visited the unhappy father, and, by depriving him of his wife and three promising sons within the brief space of a twelvemonth, cast over his spirit a deadly settled gloom, and filled his breast with implacable enmity towards his fellow-men. Said we, that Heaven by its inflictions did this? Ah, no! such was their effect upon a mind as ill-disposed to receive the dispensations of Providence with resignation, as to regard them in their real beneficent light.

Old Ben resided, when upon terra firma, in the midst of a neighbourhood unimaginably illiterate and vicious.Thieves, smugglers, and murderers, for med, at the period of which we write, the principal portion of the population of St. Mary's; people, whose daylight os

tensible occupations were fishing, pilchard-curing, net-making, boat-building, and prowling about the dangerous precipices of the island, in search of the eggs of sea-fowl; people, whose nightly avocations were of the most illegal nature, and yet, who had the temerity, when afflictions fell heavily upon the head of Ben Sawyer, to ascribe them to the divine wrath for unheard-of cruelties and crimes. Such a view of his calamities, and such language respecting hinself, tended by no means to soften the asperity of Ben's disposition, or to incline him to regard his neighbours with less misanthropy; if he loved any one, it was his gentle daughter, but hard indeed were the proofs of filial affection which he required at her hands-galling to her feelings, at variance with her principles, and injurious to her bodily health. The eyes of Susanna, opened at the near close of this dreadful night by a strong glare of light, fixed themselves, at first in the vague unconsciousness of sudden waking, upon a rough, haggardlocking man, standing beside her humble couch, and holding a lantern to her face,

she checked a faint shriek as her awakening perceptions enabled her to recognize her father. Starting up, she enquired the meaning of his intrusion, with a heart so full of alarm that its beatings were almost audible. "Rise, my girl," said Sawyer-" rise immediately; a merchantman has gone to pieces on our rocks, and we must to the harvest !" -"But, oh father! how dismal is the night!"—"It is indeed: but they, the dogs, are all down to the beach, helping themselves and each other, and who, Susan, think ye, is to aid your old father, if you refuse to do it?" He spoke in a tone of tender reproach; the service was one most revolting to the feelings of a humane young woman; often had Susan entreated to be excused from its performance, often had conscience declared the nefarious nature of the business in which her father so frequently engaged; and often, when her delicate mind had been resistlessly swayed by these whisperings of her better angel, a re-action of thought ensued, which caused her hastily to reject such influences as almost parricidal. She remembered that duty, obedience, and affection, more than all, were due from herself to her father, since he seemed only attached the more firmly and fondly to her, as he disunited himself from every other wordly tie. Per haps the expression of these sentiments was now visible on Susanna's countenance; her parent at least did not misinterpret her intentions, when, throwing towards her his thick boat-cloak, his seacap, and great water-proof boots, he bade her make haste, if she wished for a new gown from the contents of the cargo, assuring her again that the neighbours were already upon the spot, securing to themselves the best of the spoil.

Drearily sounded the howling storm in the ears of the poor girl; she was drowsy and chilled with cold, albeit sad were her feelings from one cause, which she cared not to reveal to a parent whose heart was so deadened to all social interests and affections; and yet, whilst her glowing bosom was agonized for the weal of one individual, she sighed also for the fate of those hapless beings, from whose property her sire was about to derive a guilty advantage. Susanna, has tily equipped, and presenting an appear ance inconceiveably rude and grotesque, (bearing a large osier basket containing ropes, a hatchet, saw, and other implements) followed old Ben, who pushed forward a tumbril, and soon reached the rocks from which their cottage was not far distant. Here was assembled a motley group of all ages and sexes, whose

uncouth costumes and countenances, darkened and furrowed, not more by wea ther and time than by wickedness, were indistinctly beheld by lanterns, torches, and the dull gray light slowly awakening in the east. Handbarrows, wheelbarrows, Yarmouth carts, tumbrils, trucks, baskets of all shapes and sizes, and many a nondescript conveyance, were mingled with the multitude, most of whom, crowding to the very edge of each precipice, wistfully watched the descent of a few bold and hardened wretches, who, by means of ropes and planks, hooks and grappling irons, were letting themselves down amid the wild strife of winds and waters, and who vainly endeavoured to hurl to those above the most portable gleanings from the unfortunate vessel.

Shouts and shrieks, the rushing roar of billows, the loud melancholy moan and whistle of the gale, with the fitful growl of retreating thunder, united in terrific chorus; shouts encouraged the first adventurers, who, braving the fury of the buffeting elements, suffered themselves to be dashed mercilessly against the salient angles of the rocks. Shrieks marked every disastrous incident attending their undertaking, and shouts again, and cheerings, announced the safe receipt of such articles as their repeated, but mostly unavailing, efforts, or the resistless sweep of Ocean, lodged "high and dry" in secure and attainable situations. tide is going out," observed Sawyer, to his shivering and agitated daughter

The

day draws on apace; and a fine one shall we make of it, I'll engage, ere long. There Susan, darling, stand aloft with the other women, and catch what I throw up to you." Then, coiling the ropes around him, and sticking two or three of his tools into the rough belt which they formed, he commenced his perilous descent.

It was now so light, that the rocky beach, strewed with fragments from the unfortunate wreck, was distinctly visible; timbers, cordage, bales, casks, chests, implements, utensils, and clothes of va rious kinds, with the sodden bodies of men, women, children, and animals, were at intervals visible, as each heavy sea recoiled, after its momentary rush, against the steeps that half encircled the cove. Susan watched anxiously the careful but laboured descent of her father, which she was now better enabled to do than before, since the wind had shifted, and though still violent, was less likely to drive her backwards. Ben proceeded cautiously; habit, indeed, rendered him capable of sustaining the fury of battling elements, maintaining a firm footing upon

sharp slippery rocks, and a firm hold of angular and shelving crags, better than many of his neighbours. To him, such situations, such scenes, and such dangers, were far from being novelties; and though now and then a mighty wave actually swept over and hid him from the sight of his anxious and alarmed daughter, yet, when it retired, her affectionate eyes again beheld him fixed firmly as the rock itself to the self-same spot as before. Having reached a place favourable for the commencement of his operations. Sawyer uncoiled part of the rope from around him, and securely attached himself by it to a point of the precipice upon which he stood; then, enabled thus to command any length of rope he pleased, he busily employed himself in collecting the scattered remnants of property within his reach. Most of these were of a nature too ponderous to admit of his doing more at first for securing them than the mere crowding and piling them together; but, as he bereaved the unfortunate dead of their vestments, money, and trinkets, these, rolled up into light bundles, were, by one effort of his practised and nervous arm, hurled aloft to Susan, who consigned them to her

basket.

Nearly was this receptacle filled, when the attention of its owner was attracted by the appearance of a sailor youth, lying upon a ledge of rock at no great distance from her, evidently just cast there by the surges. His right arm still encircled a plank; his left was extended; as if in the act of warding off the blows, to which he was exposed, by collision, amidst the furious waters, with wrecks of the shattered merchantman and portions of her cargo. His fair hair was matted by wet sand and sea-weed; blood was upon his clothes, proceeding from a graze visible on his uncovered bosom; but his pale placid features were, by the unhappy Susan, instantly recognized as those of one but too well known, and loved with all the unspeakable ardour and devotedness of woman's fond heart. She darted to the spot where lay the unconscious object of her tenderness, alike regardless of the dangerous ground over which she must pass to reach him, and the angry astonishment of an unsuspicious father, when he discovered her desertion of the post which he had assigned to her, and the cause of it; nor was the cry which accompanied a recognition, at once so sweet and so mournful, heard amidst the continued clamour of the elements and of the busy interested multitude. Susan seated herself upon a jutting part of the rock, just above the spot

where her lover lay, raised his head upon her knees, breathed into his mouth and nostrils, chafed his cold stiff hands, and, tearing from her neck a linen kerchief, applied it to the wound on his bosom. In so doing she fancied that she perceived a slight warmth and even a faint pulsation about the region of the heart, icy as were the drenched clothes which adhered to it. A thrill of joy shot through her enamoured bosoun-of ineffable, but silent joy, for as yet she dared not exclaim "He lives!" lest so unhoped-for a blessing should prove but the false picturing of an ardent imagination; nevertheless she redoubled her efforts to rekindle the nearly extinct spark of life, and her own gentle breath, the warmth of her own anxious and impassioned bosom, and the stout boat-cloak from her own shoulders, were all employed in revivifying the seemingly inanimate, but cherished being.

Poor Susan! long was she engaged in the performance of these fearfully interesting offices, but, during this time, the service on which she had quitted her home, her father, the whole world, and all its paltry concerns, were entirely forgotten, and, with an intensity of delight, only to be imagined, for described it cannot be, she beheld her cares rewarded! Slowly, but surely, the heart now throbbed beneath her hand, and every throb became stronger and more distinct; the warmth of life began gradually to diffuse itself throughout the relaxing frame, and the pale blue lips and cheeks now became perceptibly less rigid, and assumed a less death-like hue. Susanna murmured, with unspeakable delight,"O gracious God! I thank thee!-He lives-he lives!" and, with the reverence of pure and holy love-a reverence only to be comprehended by those with whom affection is indeed a sacred senti ment-the enamoured girl fervently kissed those reddening lips, secure that they could now neither return, nor after a while reproach her, perhaps, for bestowing this pledge of true and holiest tenderness.

Upon raising her head, the countenance of her father, burning with the anger which he found it impossible to vent in words, met the affrighted eyes of the gentle girl. "O father! father!" exclaimed she, in a piteous and deprecating toue, "the gallant Syren was the vessel wrecked! Know you not poor Frederic-Frederic Fergusson? See ! he is alive!-Yes! yes, father! he lives, thank God, he lives!" The aspect of Sawyer was, at this moment, that of an absolute dæmon; beneath this basilisk-glance his daughter cowered, and