tenfold. Had he shown a tinge of emotion when they met,as they did all at once, face to face,-Henry Winston might have felt it as a rebuke to the violent passion that agitated him; but there was not the slightest change in his Lordship's face, except a faint and somewhat lofty expression of surprise.

"Ha! Winston!" exclaimed Lord Charles, "how d'ye do? What has become of you all this time? How d'ye do, Forrester -how d'ye do?"

"I have looked eagerly for this meeting, Lord Charles Eton," cried Winston; "things have happened since we met last that have altered our positions towards each other."

"Things are happening every day, my dear Winston," returned Lord Charles, "that alter everybody's position. Very true, as you say"-here his Lordship nodded, with a most gracious smile, to a lady on the grand tier,-"I don't think I have seen you since my-marriage."

"No-it was a subject upon which you were not very likely to wish to see me."

"And why not? Still as sentimental as ever? My dear Winston, you must be more a man of the world. You shall positively come and see us."

"My lord!" exclaimed Winston, "I'm not in a humour to be jested with. I have sought you, Lord Charles Eton, and my purpose is with you in private. Let us retire from this place."

"Retire, Winston? Quite impossible. Lady Charles is up stairs-there, go and talk to her; and if you wish for a private scene with me, you shall have it whenever you please to honour me with a visit. Lady Charles will be delighted to see you, and I promise you I shan't be jealous in the least."

At this moment Lord Charles had got into a crush of people he knew, and in the pressure Henry Winston was separated from him. He was bewildered by the indifference and frankness of his Lordship's accomplished manner; and the open invitation to visit Lady Charles took him by surprise and directed the current of his thoughts into a new channel. The temptation was too great to be resisted. Whatever reception he might meet from Margaret, he could, at all events, plead her husband's sanction for intruding upon her, and he would gain the opportunity, for which his wayward love had long panted, of speaking to her, and getting some explanation of the mystery in the darkness of which they had been so strangely sundered. This was sweeter to him than vengeance-which, after all, it only postponed, perhaps to heighten and refine its zest.

He was not very well acquainted with the lobbies of the house, but love is a keen guide through the most difficult labyrinths. Arrived at the door of the box, he hesitated for a moment, and when the box-keeper came to his help and opened it, he felt himself trembling violently. Lady Charles was the first to speak. She did not recognise him till he came near the front.

"Mr. Winston!"-there was a slight convulsion in her voice,

but she controlled it, and drawing herself quietly up, waited for *an explanation.

"You are surprised to see me," said Henry; "but not more surprised than I am to find myself here."

"I am sorry Lord Charles is not here to receive you.”

"It was Lord Charles who desired me to come. I should not otherwise have ventured to intrude upon you. I feel, Lady Charles, that I have no right to ask a few minutes' conversation -perhaps I ought not-but there is something due to past memories-to present suffering-I intreat you to forgive me if I say one word which I ought not to utter in the altered circumstances under which we meet."

"I cannot believe, Mr. Winston, that you could say anything I ought not to hear."

"When we last parted, there were pledges between us—” "Upon that subject I cannot-will not-hear you."

"Well-I will only speak of it as a matter gone by, in which neither of us have any further interest than to clear up doubts that, so far as I am concerned, render my life miserable. I could not have sustained myself up to this hour, only in the hope that some day I should have from your own lips an explanation-"

"You amaze me. Explanation ?"

"I beg it from you as the one solitary favour I shall ever have to seek in this world from her, who-" his voice faltered.

"This is unreasonable-unjust; it is wrong, Mr. Winston, I cannot suffer it," said Margaret.

"Do not fear," returned Henry; "I know what is due to your position, and will not compromise it. When we partedI ask you this to ease me of a load of wretchedness that presses upon me day and night- a few words, and it will all be overwe had promised each other-no matter! you remember all that -I will hasten to the end-your father insisted upon this marriage-well, I wrote to you-I believed then that your heart was mine-"

"To what end is this?" cried Margaret.

"I proposed the only alternative open to us-that you should fly with me-I sent that letter by your sister."

Margaret looked confused, as if she did not quite understand

him.

"What letter?'

"Two days after your father desired you to receive Lord Charles Eton."

"No-no-you are mistaken-you forget-you never sent me such a letter-no-no-"

"Try to recollect-you are agitated. I mentioned that I should wait for you in the Park. You remember?"

"No-you are confounding things. I never heard of such a letter. Sent to me by Clara ? "

"Endeavour to recall the circumstance.

I waited at the ap

pointed spot. It will be clear to you, if you can remember the morning when you drove out with your father and Lord Charles. You recollect?"

"Let me think. Yes-I do remember that morning-but nothing about you."

"I entreat you to look back and think-did you not see me? Waiting with a carriage? Think-think-what horrible mystery is this?"

"Never-I never saw you-never heard of such a letter."

"What fiend has done this? I saw you as plainly as I see you now-and I believed you came to mock and humiliate me. And it was not so?"

"It was not so," returned Margaret, in a voice almost inarticulate; "no-I heard nothing from you-I was led to believe that you had left the country- I heard other things - but I believed in nothing but your silence. That was enough, and it closed all between us. We must speak no more on this subject; and I should not have said so much, but that I would not have you think me capable of doing a wrong to you or others. Be satisfied and leave me."

"Great God!" exclaimed Henry, "could your sister have suppressed the letter? She had it, and knew its contents-and knew the misery I was enduring-slight to what I have endured since, and to the horrors of the future. And this marriage followed, without bringing you happiness, while it consigns me to despair!"

"I cannot listen to such language. Happiness! Happiness! We must seek for happiness in the discharge of our duties. You have the explanation you desired-resignation and hope must be sought elsewhere-not here- not in conversations like these-and now leave me leave me. Lord Charles is in the pit-he is looking up-had you not better rejoin him?"

"I will,” cried Henry Winston; "if I have given you pain, forgive me-Margaret! There, it is the last time. If you should ever think of me after this night-think kindly of me. God! my heart will break!" and he rushed out of the box.

As ill fortune would have it, he met Lord Charles in one of the passages. The wild expression of his face startled his lordship, who rarely suffered himself to be betrayed into astonishment at anything.

66

Why, my dear Winston," exclaimed his Lordship, "what is the matter?"

"Come this way, Lord Charles Eton," retorted the other, "and I will tell you."

"Why can't you tell me here?"

"We shall be more private this way," cried Winston, drawing him towards the extremity of the passage, where it was comparatively dark and retired.

"I told you," he continued, "that I sought this interview with you."

"Well, I am here. What is your object?"

"To tell you that you have availed yourself of your rank, your station, your influence to undermine your friend, and blast his prospects. To tell you that your conduct to me has been base, and treacherous; and to demand from you that satisfaction which, as a gentleman, I have a right to seek at your hands for the wrong you have done me."

"Come-come," returned Lord Charles, "this is sheer idiocy, Mr. Winston. I beg you will explain what you mean?"

"Explain? It ought to be explicit enough. I brand you, Lord Charles Eton, with falsehood and treachery. You have done me a wrong that cries out for atonement, and must be satisfied. It is useless to shift and equivocate. I know your subtle and devilish nature well-but you shall not escape me. Give me an answer, if you would not provoke me to extremities."

"Give way, sir, and let me pass. If you have any demand to make upon me, seek a proper opportunity."

"Coward!" exclaimed Winston, wrought upon to a height of ungovernable rage, "will nothing move your stagnant blood!" then drawing his hand violently, he struck him on the face, at the same moment flinging his card upon the ground.

The incident caused a slight commotion amongst a few gentlemen who witnessed the latter part of the rencontre. One of them stepped forward, and, picking up the card, handed it to Lord Charles Eton. In the meanwhile, Henry Winston had passed rapidly out into the street.

STATELY ship, with silken sails,
Bearing down my humble boat,
Sound of song and lute ne'er fails
Thy gay crew, as on they float!
I must sing my song alone,
While stormy winds around me moan,

Stately ship when night's dark realm

Closes round thee, grey and pale,

Stands a stranger at the helm,

While the loud blast rends thy sail.

Angry waves are rolling high,

But they daunt not his fix'd eye.

Equal wind and equal wave,

Stately ship and humble boat,
On the same sea round ye rave,
Rich and poor alike afloat.
On the same dark reef ye break,
For DEATH the pilotage doth take!

ETA.

JOHN CAMPBELL, THE HOMICIDE.

BY W. H. MAXWELL, ESQ.

"

AUTHOR OF STORIES OF WATERLOO," ETC.

A HARDER matter to accomplish in the land of Cockayne could not be propounded to a London house-agent, than to find some solvent citizen who, suadente diabolo, not the auctioneer, would become an occupying tenant of the domicile to which I had just removed, with all my establishment, biped and quadruped. I was thirty miles' distance from the next post-town, and the journey, moreover, was one by land and by water, unless it were accomplished at spring-tides, when the sands at lowest ebb, were for a brief space only left perfectly uncovered, and firm as a garden walk.

The community inhabiting this wild corner of the earth seemed properly assimilated to their climate. They were rude and turbulentno sticklers themselves for exploded doctrines touching meum and tuum, and ready, from fellow feeling, to extend their sympathies to any offender who sought them for "the nonce." Hence, smugglers, deserters, and felons, might evade justice in Ballicroy, so long as their cases should require an asylum there; provided always, by foul means or by fair, their treasury was solvent.

On my arrival in this new locality, I found that the stella minores in crime had been extinguished by the comet-like superiority of a malefactor, in mercantile parlance "recently imported." recently imported." He was a homicide for the third time. Through fear or affection the peasantry harboured him, and it was officially notified to me that his expulsion or apprehension were pleasant pieces of magisterial work expected at my hands.

It may be easily imagined, therefore, that for several months after I had taken up my residence at the lodge of Aughniss, the relations existing between me and Mr. Campbell (as this wholesale homicide was called), were everything but amicable. I thought it beneath the dignity of a poor esquire of the King, to allow an unmistakeable malefactor to remain in my immediate vicinity; and hence I denounced pains and penalties, if he the delinquent did not forthwith vanish from my bailiwick. The decree went forth, and in a few posts after it was received, I was favoured with a prompt reply. Mr. Campbell acknowledged the intimation which I had officially conveyed to him; but added, that as his health was excellent, he could discover no necessity whatever for change of air. In return for the polite communication which he had the honour of receiving, he took the liberty to hint, that the sooner I ordered a coffin, and arranged my worldly affairs, it would be all the better. I, as in duty bound, indignantly anathematized the sinner, and declared him altogether "past praying for." By the next mail-bag, Mr. Campbell responded by an enigmatical quære-though, faith! I guessed the import readily;-it went to ask whether I considered my skin impervious to a musketball?" and in this pleasant position matters continued between us until the following autumn had come round.

In the interim, from what I felt myself and heard of my homicidal correspondent, neither of us appeared to be exactly on a bed of roses.

VOL. XXVIII.

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