leading Amherst's horse by the bridle, she conducted him down some steep, sloping, birchcovered banks, and brought them to a little holm, surrounded on three sides by a beautiful curve of the river, here running broad and deep.

This lovely spot, now under the most beautiful effect of moonlight, was sheltered on all sides by wooded banks. Its tender pasture was most grateful to poor Brisk and his companion, who by this time scarcely required a tether.

Under a steep tufted with trees, and natural shrubbery, in a nook most perfectly concealed, the Carline showed them a place of shelter bcneath the projecting granite rock. Having withdrawn the charge from one of the pistols, they easily produced a light, by snapping it under some dry brushwood, and a fire was soon kindled. The provisions which had been put up for Amherst at Lochandhu were now produced, and even the delicate Miss Malcolm did not disdain to do considerable justice to them. A couch of dry moss was prepared for her, and Amherst immediately proposed to leave the place, that she might indulge in a short repose. But this she declined; for, although she was considerably fa

tigued, her mind was too much agitated to per

mit her to sleep.

Amherst entreated her to satisfy his anxious curiosity as to her captivity, and she readily complied with his request. But the reader being already acquainted with the manner in which the Lady was carried off, we shall take up her story at that part where the troop of horsemen were last seen, when they swept past Cleaver on the Downs near Sanderson Mains.

Their plans being completely frustrated by the unlooked-for attack on the Charming Sally, and seeing the certainty of her capture, the leaders galloped straight to the retreat in Moatmallard, then only tenanted by the old man, Davy Stronach, who, though he had a cottage in the neighbourhood, and kept up the appearance of being a creel, or rude basketmaker, was, in reality, their storekeeper, and was generally to be found at his post in their vault after dark. Reflecting that the very reasons which had induced them to fly thither, would probably lead others to search for them there, they determined to make every thing secure, by leaving the place immediately, and carrying their captive into the Highlands, where Brandywyn knew

that they were sure of protection and assistance from Lochandhu's gang.

Having reached their neighbourhood, Brandywyn found out Alexander Macgillivray, by whose advice they crossed the Spey, and carried Miss Malcolm to a lonely house, situated far up among the wilds of the forest, near the foot of the Cairngorum. This house was tenanted by one of the gang, and to the wife of this man was the care of the prisoner confided, whilst Antonio and Brandywyn occupied one of the outhouses, and the rest of the party found quarters in the vicinity. There they resolved to wait, until they should receive intelligence of the arrival of the vessel they expected.

Whilst Miss Malcolm remained at this cottage, she was permitted to take exercise, by walking in the neighbourhood. But resolute as her mind naturally was, every hope of escape was cut off, owing to the circumstance of her being invariably attended and watched by the woman.

It so happened, that Amherst, in one of his shooting expeditions, had accidentally passed very near the place of Miss Malcolm's confinement; and this having been discovered by Antonio, he took the precaution of removing her to the

fortalice in the islet, where she had remained for several days.

On the night immediately previous to that of her escape, Eliza was lying on her pallet-bed, ruminating on her sorrows. It was past midnight, and all was silent around her, save the dull sound of the wave, as it lapped against the stones of the bulwark, or the prolonged and melancholy notes of the owl, that, perched upon a broken part of the ruins, replied to the echoes of its own hootings. The reflected moon-beam found its way through the loop-hole, and fell faintly upon the pavement of her cell. Her eyes were vacantly fixed upon it, in the listless dream of hopeless sadness. On a sudden the miserable apartment was obscured, by the approach of some object from without, and, turning her eyes towards the aperture, to ascertain the cause, she, to her great terror, beheld a dwarfish figure, in the act of squeezing itself through the opening, though it appeared to be hardly more than sufficient to admit a cat. She remembered the apparition of the cha pel, and she screamed with affright. But it fortunately happened that her guards were at too great a distance at the time to hear her shrieks.

In an instant the Carline stood upon the floor by her bed-side, and seizing her arm with a powerful gripe, she said, in a deep and hollow voice, that chilled her heart, and overpowered even the violent effects of her alarm,

"Utter not another sound, or you are lost for ever! I come to save you !"-Then, all at once assuming a tender tone,-" Eliza, fear me not. This haggard, forbidding-aspect, bodes any thing but evil to you. When you were yet a child, this ghastly visage terrified your infant heart, and you fled from my embrace. Ah! little did you know of whom you were afraid. But I forgave you; and, conscious of my own deformity, I vanished from your sight, that I might not shock your young eyes with this hideous form in which God has been pleased to imprison my soul.. Nor have I ever dared again to cross your path. But I am your guardian angel;-and now the dreadful fate that hangs over you compels me to appear, and imperiously demands that you should dismiss the fears of childhood. Summon up your resolution then, and bear to look and listen to one who comes to deliver you from this dungeon, and to whom,