fellow creatures full in the face, and whose hand is as ready as his tongue. I have generally found the eye that was good at Latin was dull at a compass, or in a night-squall: and yet, Grif is a seaman; though I have heard him even read the testament in Greek! Thank God, I had the wisdom to run away from school the second day they undertook to teach me a strange tongue, and I believe I am the more honest man, and the better seaman, for my ignorance !"

"There is no telling what you might have been, Barnstable, under other circumstances," retorted his mistress, with a playfulness of manner that she could not always repress, though it was indulged at the expense of him she most loved; "I doubt not but, under proper training, you would have made a reasonably good priest.

"If you talk of priests, Katherine, I shall remind you that we carry one in the ship. But listen to my plan; we may talk further of that when an opportunity may offer."

Barnstable then proceeded to lay before his mistress a project he had formed for surprising the Abbey that night, which was so feasible, that Katherine, notwithstanding her recent suspicions of Borroughcliffe's designs, came gradually to believe it would succeed. The young seaman answered her objections with the readiness of an ardent mind, bent on executing its purposes, and with a fertility of resources that proved he was no contemptible enemy, in matters that required spirited action. Of Merry's remaining firm and faithful he had no doubt, and, although he acknowledged the escape of the pedler boy, he urged that the lad had seen no other of his party besides himself, whom he mistook for a common marauder.

As the disclosure of these plans was frequently interrupted by little digressions, connected with the peculiar emotions of the lovers, more than an hour flew by in the interview, before they separated. But Katherine, at length, reminded him how swiftly the time was passing, and how much remained to be done, when he reluctantly consented to see her once more enter the wicket, where they parted.

Miss Plowden adopted the same precaution in returning to the house, she had used on leaving it; and she was congratulating herself on its success, when her eye caught a glimpse of the figure of a man, who was apparently following at some little distance, in her footsteps, and dogging her motions. As the obscure form, however, paused also when she stopped to give it an alarmed, though inquiring look, and then slowly retired towards the boundary of the paddock, Katherine believing it to be Barnstable watching over her safety, entered the Abbey, with every idea of alarm entirely lost in the pleasing reflection of her lover's solicitude.

THE sharp sounds of the supper-bell were ringing along the gallery, as Miss Plowden gained the gloomy passage; and she quickened her steps to join the ladies, in order that no further suspicions might be excited by her absence.— Alice Dunscombe was already proceeding to the dining parlour, as Katherine passed through the door of the drawing room, but Miss Howard had loitered behind, and was met by her cousin alone.

"You have then been so daring as to venture, Katherine ?" exclaimed Cecilia.

"I have," returned the other, throwing herself into a chair, to recover her agitation-"I have, Cecilia; and I have met Barnstable, who will soon be in the Abbey, and its master."

The blood, which had rushed to the face of Cecilia on first seeing her cousin, now retreated to her heart, leaving every part of her fine countenance of the whiteness of her polished temples, as she said

"And we are to have a night of blood !"

"We are to have a night of freedom, Miss Howard; freedom to you, and to me; to Andrew Merry, to Griffith, and to his companion!"

"What freedom more than we now enjoy, Katherine, is needed by two young women? Think you I can remain silent, and see my uncle betrayed before my eyes? his life perhaps endangered ?"

"Your own life and person will not be held more sacred, Cecilia Howard, than that of your uncle. If you will condemn Griffith to a prison, and perhaps to a gibbet, betray Barnstable, as you have threatened-an opportunity will not be wanting at the supper table, whither I shall lead the way, since the mistress of the house appears to forget her duty."

Katherine arose, and, with a firm step, and proud eye, she moved along the gallery, to the room where their presence was expected by the rest of the family. Cecilia followed, in silence, and the whole party immediately took their several places at the board.

The first few minutes were passed in the usual attentions of the gentlemen to the ladies, and the ordinary civilities of the table; during which, Katherine had so far regained the equanimity of her feelings, as to commence a watchful scrutiny of the manners and looks of her guardian and Borroughcliffe, in which she determined to persevere until the eventful hour when she was to expect Barnstable should arrive, Col. Howard had, however, so far got the command of himself, as no longer to betray the same abstraction as before. In its place Katherine fancied, at moments, that she could discover a settled look of conscious security, mingled a little with an expression of severe determination; such as, in her earlier days, she had learned to

dread as sure indications of the indignant, but upright justice of an honourable mind. Borroughcliffe, on the other hand, was cool, polite, and as attentive to the viands as usual, with the alarming exception of discovering much less devotion to the Pride of the Vineyards, than he commonly manifested on such occasions. In this manner the meal passed by, and the cloth was removed, though the ladies appeared willing to retain their places longer than was customary. Col. Howard, filling up the glasses of Alice Dunscombe, and himself, passed the bottle to the recruiting officer, and, with a sort of effort that was intended to rouse the dormant cheerfulness of his guests, cried—

"Come, Borroughcliffe, the ruby lips of your neighbours would be still more beautiful, were they moistened with this rich cordial, and that too, accompanied by some loyal sentiment. Miss Alice. is ever ready to express her fealty to her Sovereign; in her name, I can give the health of His Most Sacred Majesty, with defeat and death to all traitors!"

"If the prayers of a humble subject, and one of a sex that has but little need to mingle in the turmoil of the world, and that has less right to pretend to understand the subtilties of statesmen, can much avail a High and Mighty Prince, like him who sits on the throne, then will he never know temporal evil," returned Alice, meekly; "but I cannot wish death to any one, not even to my enemies, if any I have, and much less to a people who are the children of the same family with myself."

"Children of the same family!" the Colonel repeated, slowly, and with a bitterness of manner that did not fail to attract the painful interest of Katherine; "children of the same family! Ay! even as Absalom was the child of David, or as