I rose and took his hand, and assured him of my respect and kind regard. I beseeched him to drive from him every idea of his humiliation being treated with levity by me or any of his friends, and concluded by saying, that I trusted Heaven would mitigate his afflictions.

"In what way can it?" cried he, wildly, " unless I do what your alarm at my bloody hands has put into my head. I am haunted by a fiend, urging me to choke her by the throat."

Mr. Herbert lifted his shuddering hands at this sad confession. I was so stunned, that I reeled from the spot, and had almost fallen on the floor, when a frightful scream, instantly succeeded by shouts and howls, rose in the street, and recalled me to myself. A momentary glance at the Minister told me that the turbulence was caused by his wife, for, at the sound, he had instantaneously crossed his legs, bent his head, and, covering his face with his hands, cramped himself up with a terrific energy into a knot.

'The noise out of doors spread louder and wilder, it became tumultuous, and then there was a long yelling howl, as if the multitude were running in pursuit of something: it suddenly ceased, and cries and piercing shrieks of terror and alarm

arose.

Mr. Herbert at once guessed the cause, and immediately went out; I would have followed, but could not leave Mr. Bell in the fearful state he was in.

"I fear, Sir," said I, "this uproar has something to do with your sorrow."

He took no notice, but crouched himself, if it were possible, into closer concentration, while he trembled all over like the aspen tree.

"Shall I leave you, Mr. Bell, to ascertain what is going on?'' "There's no need, no need, no need," was his hurried and painful answer, without slackening his constraint, or changing his position.

After a considerable pause, I said diffidently, "Perhaps, sir, you might get her home?"

"Ha, fiend!" cried he, starting with the fury and looks of a demon, "tempt me no farther! God, snatch me from this burning ;" and he cast himself violently down, and lay for some time on the floor, panting as if he had escaped from some terrible struggle.

I could give him no assistance, but I stood over him, hoping, as the noise was subsiding, he would gradually also become calmer, when the shrill cries were heard of two children in

distress, passing under the windows. He was startled, he listened, his vehement breathing was suspended, and he attempted to rise.

"They are mine! they are mine!" he exclaimed, with accents of inexpressible anguish, and fell back insensible. In that condition he remained for some time; as he began to recover, the uproar took a new turn; the sound of many feet was heard hurrying in the street, and sudden, short, low, deep mutterings, as of people in horror and great haste.

"What is that?" cried he;" in the name of heaven, what has happened?"

"Oh, my mother!" at the same instant cried his eldest boy, thundering on the door. "My mother has thrown herself into the ferry-boat, and pushed off into the middle of the stream-she will be over the falls--nobody can help her."

The miserable husband leaped up, and was instantly out of the house, followed by his son; I too ran to the river's brink.

THE stream ran so strong at the ferry that the boat was taken across by the force of the current acting on the helm. counteracted by a rope, on which she swung like a pendulum, Close below the ferry, the old bridge was then being constructed from the opposite bank of the river: but the rope was not long enough to allow the boat to reach it, which the infatuated woman had, in her madness, embarked to do. Jumping on board, she pushed into the stream, and not being acquainted with the use of the rudder, was presently in the middle of it, where the boat hung at the end of the rope, a few feet above the bridge.

When we reached the bank of the river, the devoted creature, incapable of returning as of proceeding, and equally so of reaching that portion of the bridge by which she might have attained the opposite shore, was standing triumphing and clapping her hands in the odious foolery of boastful drunkenA great crowd of alarmed and disgusted spectators

ness.

stood in silence on the shore. The peril of her situation had hushed their ribaldry, and they awaited her fate, many expressing their indignant wishes that it might be speedily consummated.

In the mean time, several young men had gone up the river to the Napoleon Ferry, with ropes, to cross to the opposite -side, in order to assist her from the bridge, and they reached the bridge just as we came in sight. They were not long in flinging an end of the rope to her, which they called to her to fasten to the boat-ring; Mr. Herbert entreated them not to be in such haste, for she was in no condition to fasten it properly, and begged and prayed, though the evening was closing, to let her remain as she was, until her reason was in some degree recovered. This advice they heeded not, but took their own way.

After some three or four attempts, she succeeded in catching the rope, but refused to fasten it at all. She then cast the boat's rope loose, and instantly was swung round beyond the end of the finished part of the bridge. The young men called aloud "hold fast," the spectators echoed the cry, but, regardless of them, the wretch shouted "who's afraid?" and dropping the rope, was hurled down the stream. Instantly the crowd was wildly in motion. The great falls were little more than a mile below; the banks, ragged and tusky with fallen trees, were in few places accessible; but, insensible to her danger, she stood erect in the boat, hallooing and rejoicing, while every witness was overwhelmed with horror.

The young men who were on the opposite side of the river, as well as those who were in the crowd on ours, kept pace with the boat, and by a bold effort, one of them flung an end of their rope on board, and it was seized, but only for an instant; for the jerk, in catching, tugged it out of her grasp. At that moment she seemed to be awakened to her fate, for she uttered a wild cry, and sat down, coweringly, in the boat.

All this time her miserable husband, with his hands clasped, and followed by their wailing children, was endeavouring to keep up with the increasing speed of the devoted boat: at last we came in sight of the spray of the falls, and the verge of the cataract. The crowd stood still; the boat shot down the rapids above the falls like an arrow from the bow-between the rapids and the falls was the level part of the stream, the same where we, in our excursion, laid hold of the sunken tree. There was nothing in it then.

For a moment, at the foot of the rapid, the boat seemed to

make a pause, and the victim started up, evidently sobered, and, by her gestures, sensible of her inevitable doom: so we all concluded, for the noise of the cataract drowned her voice. But in that pause there was no hope; a vortex in the eddy swept the boat back into the stream. Mr. Bell grasped my arm—and in an instant she was launched into the cloud of spray, and disappeared for ever.

Before I had half recovered from the shock of this woful spectacle, some one plucked me by the coat tail. I turned quickly round. It was Baillie Waft. "What do you think of that?" said he; "is not that a judgment?" I pushed him indignantly from me, and returned with Mr. Bell into the

town.

It would have been a vain parade to have said one word of condolence to the afflicted Minister, whose agitated and warring feelings were abundantly obvious. But though it was a most tragical catastrophe, no sincere human being could deny it was a gentle, nay, a desirable dispensation.

Between that accident and the period of my departure for Scotland, which was fixed to take place in the February of the following spring, nothing of particular note occurred either to me or to the town, which continued to progress in a most surprising manner.

I made with Mr. Herbert satisfactory arrangements for my absence, which, though I intended it should not exceed six months, I provided, in case of accidents, for a year. For who knows, said I to him, but I may find some buxom widow, For well-hained spinster, willing to come out with me to America? and for that chance it behooved me to have a few spare weeks to come and go upon. Many a true prophecy is uttered in light words: at that time, every idea of marrying again was far from my imagination; indeed, I was, early after my arrival in America, made sensible that a man in a foreign country should choose his wife from among the daughters thereof.

When the time appointed for my departure arrived, I set out in a wagon, as concerted, to take my passage from New-York, attended by the good wishes of all my acquaintance. This was an occasion which Baillie Waft could not miss; he was there in the assembled crowd, and as the wagon drove off, he came shouting after it, crying,

"Mr. Todd, Mr. Todd, mind you dinna forget you."
"What!" cried I, stopping the vehicle.
"To bring a wife with you."

PART VII.

CHAPTER I..

"From the dark blue sea returning-
From far, far lands I come;

Ah, wherefore swells my bosom-
All silent is my home."

I FOUND, on my arrival at New-York, the good ship Fanny, commanded by Capt. Daniel H. Braine, on the eve of sailing for Greenock on the river Clyde. I took my passage in hera cabin passage: what a difference in the equipage of my return home to Scotland, and the caravan of human cattle in which I bade adieu to my native land!

The period of the ship's departure allowed me only two days to spend in the city among my old friends and acquaintances, but I made it a brisk time, for I did not omit to call on a single one: had I been a lord or prince, I could not have been received by them with kinder welcomes. It afforded great pleasure to Mr. Primly to hear that my son Robin was conducting himself so creditably well; and Mr. Ferret likewise expressed himself with a warm regard for the lad, who wanted, as he said, but a steady hand to guide him. I have spent few such days of blithe hospitality as those two in NewYork.

But the time was not altogether given to recreation and pleasure: I had an eye to business and profit also. The fame of our settlements by this time, like that of Childe Moris's father, had waxen wide, and many adventurous mechanics and other sponsible persons, hearing that I, the celebrated Mr. Lawrie Todd, of Judiville, was in town, called to learn the particulars of the encouragement we gave to settlers; and many, in consequence of what I told them--and I made it a point to tell nothing but the dry truth-packed up their ends and their awls, and set out for the land of promise. These, as I