travel, by listening to such a chicken-hearted animalaccio!"

"By Heaven! Antonio, you give your tongue too much licence.-Like a brute as you are, you have forgotten all that I have done for you in this matter you would fain shift off that blame upon me which belongs to your own carelessness!"

"Siete buggiardo!" retorted Antonio, with bitterness. She might have been dead and safely packed in a box by this time, had it not been for you."

"Liar!" exclaimed Brandywyn, " by Heavens you shall pay for that word-draw, rascal, and defend your life."

66 Hold, you fool, I meant no harm," said the other, more coolly; "but see what fire is that smouldering yonder amongst the bushes! Let's tie our horses to this tree, and examine the spot."

Both the men were overheard advancing as fast as the darkness of the night would permit towards the overhanging rock, within twenty paces of which Amherst and Miss Malcolm were concealed.

"Per Dio!" exclaimed the Italian, " some one has been here!”

Aye, and lately too," said the other.

"Corpo di Padre !" cried Antonio, "there's a handkerchief-let me see it nearer the light-E. M:-By heavens, it is her's-she cannot be far off -Dannazion dell anima mia!-presto! presto!-bisogna cercare!-Let's try every bush. -Hah!—if we had her but again—by heaven and hell, I would make sure of her."

The two ruffians now began a most active search, smashing the bushes, and poking their swords everywhere around them. From the noise he made, Antonio seemed to be forcing his way through the underwood, in the direction of the very spot where Eliza was concealed. A deadly fear came over her. Amherst cocked his pistols, and stood resolved within himself to blow out the brains of the Italian, as soon as he should be sufficiently close to ensure his destruction. Enough of light came at intervals from the expiring faggots under the rock, to make his form visible, as he advanced in an irregular track through the opposing branches. He came nearer and nearer, trying the copse from right to left, as if resolved that no part

of it should escape him. The fatal tubes were more than once lifted to their object; and Antonio's death would have been sealed, had not Amherst felt reluctance to shed even a villain's blood, in a manner in itself so revolting to a generous mind. But he still came on-two or three random steps brought him to one side of the holly. He struck the branches with his sword. A faint scream burst involuntarily from the lady. It was hardly audible amidst the crashing noise made by Antonio; yet was it sufficient to arrest his attention. He stopped to listen. He was now in shadow, and a thick bough, rising from the ground, so hid his person, as to prevent the possibility of Amherst firing at him with any hope of success, from the spot where he stood. He, therefore, prepared to move forward a single step, to obtain a better aim, when another and a more distinct scream arose a few yards from the place of their conceal

'ment.

"Hah-corpo del diavolo!-She is there!" cried Antonio, darting into the obscurity of the thicket. "She is here!-She is here!-qui camerata!-camerata !-qui !-qui !"

The crashing amidst the bushes increased both

before and behind Amherst, who, in his fears that Miss Malcolm might have moved from her place of concealment, became bewildered. Brandywyn came rushing past within a few feet of where he stood, carrying blazing brands of fir.

"This way! this way!" cried Antonio; "this corner of the thicket is not wide, and she must be between us and the rocks. She cannot escape us.-Fire the copse !"

No sooner had Brandywyn passed, than Amherst moved under the bush, and put down his hand to ascertain whether Miss Malcolm had actually quitted it as he feared. His wrist was grasped by the Carline, and, to his infinite joy, he received from her iron fingers the soft hand of Eliza. They silently raised her, and their mysterious conductor led them up a narrow winding path, assisting Miss Malcolm from time to time, in the more difficult parts, with a power of arm almost supernatural.

In an instant the dry copse was in a blaze, illuminating the shaggy steeps around.

"Furie d'inferno! there are figures escaping yonder!" cried Antonio.

"Where?-where ?" exclaimed his companion.

1

Di là, di là !-presto! presto!Danna od to garbauld sch

zione!"

1

This way

way !here is is a path bobusmot 2.1 "Accidente!-Maledetto !b muto 9th "Hell and furies hemottuno od: 197 wroups The Carline redoubled her exertions, and dragged Eliza up the steep with both hands. Emerging from the brushwood, and reaching the open glade, they found O'Gollochar already on horseback. As they mounted in breathless haste, the shouts of the ruffians pressed hard upon them. The Carline again leaped on before O'Gollochar, darted off, and bade Amherst follow. Led by their wizard guide, they flew up the remainder of the grassy and partially wooded banks, and, as they fled, the flames, and the black clouds of smoke, bearing myriads of burning fragments on their murky bosom, came rolling up from below.

N

Their way along the precipitous banks of the river, dangerous at all times, was now rendered fearfully so, by so, by the darkness, and by the desperate fury of the Carline's flight. Fortunately for Miss Malcolm, she knew not always where she was riding. But Amherst, though he felt not for himself, was too anxious about the precious