"What! the blood of the Delassaux's to match with the worm !"—Then seeing herself restrained from making a personal attack upon him by the people of his party, who placed themselves before her, she burst into tears, and, turning to the Count, who, with her aunt, Antonio, and the servants, had been brought to the landing place by the noise,

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Signore," said she, in an upbraiding tone, "will you permit me to be insulted by such a wretch, at the very moment when I am about to become your wife. Suffer him not to remain an

instant in the house!"

But the Count seemed chained to the spot, as if by some strange and unknown enchantment. Meanwhile, Hawkins drew a paper from his pocket-book, and putting it into the hands of the bailiffs,

"Arrest him instantly," said he, "for the sum of fifty pounds, lent to him three weeks ago on promise of immediate payment, but which I have now no chance of recovering. Instantly seize his person, I tell you!" He had no sooner said this, than the bailiffs rushed in a body upon the broad steps to lay hands on the Count. But, with an

alertness that perfectly confounded every one, he made a somerset clear over all their heads, with the perfection of a harlequin of the very first qualifications, and, lighting on his feet on the landing place at the bottom, he darted off by a back-door, and was lost in a moment.

"As I shall answer, Tummas," said one of the bailiffs," that be the very fellow as jumped over seven horses, and seven men with fixed bagonets, in the show at Canterbury fair, summer was three years agone! I thought as how I knowed him again. My gomms, what a jump and a whirl!-Why, he spun in the air like a cockchaffer!"

Sangue del Diavolo !" exclaimed Antonio, lifting up a chair, "what hinders us from ridding the house of these vermin ?-down with the damned sharks!" and setting his teeth together, he whirled the chair over his head, and was in the act of bringing it down with so much force upon Hawkins and the group about him, that half a dozen skulls might have been cracked at once, like so many nut-shells, had not one of the bailiffs interfered in the most intrepid manner, and warding off the descending ruin with a well managed turn

of his pole, bestowed the weight of it with so much alacrity on the right temple of Antonio, before he could recover his arm, that he rolled down the steps to all appearance lifeless.

Miss Delassaux shrieked, and ran up stairs to her apartment; but Lady Deborah, with an eagerness no one could account for, rushed forwards, and bent over his inanimate body. The bailiffs also hastened to examine him, from anxiety to know his real state; so revolting is it even for such men to put a fellow-creature to death, though, (as in the present instance,) in the discharge of their duty. But Lady Deborah scanned his face with increased earnestness. She gazed in his distorted features and fixed eyes, and stooping down, laid her ear close to his mouth, to listen if she heard him breathe; then uttering a loud nervous laugh, she sank down upthe steps, exclaiming wildly,-" He is dead! he is dead! then all is safe!"

"Dead! Lady," cried the bailiff who had given him the blow," I hopes not! I never killed a human soul in all my life afore, and I should not like to have the blood of this here un on my conscience; though, for the matter of that, had I

not brought un down, Master Hawkins's skull, and some others, might have been split. But stay, methinks he breathes-lift him up a bit.” "Aye, aye," said the other man, “ no fear o` un-he's only in a swound after all. beginning to come round already!

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See-he's Lord, such

a queer twist that was un gave with un's mouth, -he'll soon gather un's legs again, no fear o

un."

"Is he not dead then ?" said Lady Deborah, and bending anxiously forwards to look again in the countenance of Antonio, now beginning to display the horrible nervous contortions frequently accompanying returning life; " is not the wretch dead then ?"

"Dead!" cried the Italian, gnashing his teeth in frenzy, as his consciousness came back to him, and flashing a lightning glance towards Lady Deborah,-" Who thinks me dead? Hah! was it you who spoke? Give me a knife"

As he said so, with the countenance and voice of a maniac, he made a desperate effort to rise; but Lady Deborah, in terror, rushed up stairs to her apartment; and the men, throwing themselves together upon the culprit, soon bound

him, and after some consultation, dragged him towards a vaulted cellar, where, as a matter of precaution, they locked him in; and Mr Hawkins, after recovering from the alarm he had experienced, began to go on with his inventory undisturbed.

Whilst matters were in this state below, and the servants were running about full of curiosity, peeping every where, and putting many an unsuccessful query to Mr Hawkins and his assistants, Lady Deborah, who had bolted the door of her apartment, happened accidentally to cast her eyes out of the very window, from which she had looked a few mornings before, when she had descried Antonio, and witnessed the death of the horse that carried him. Evening was now approaching, but the landscape was not yet so much obscured as to prevent her observing a body of men, some on foot and others on horseback, who seemed to be cautiously approaching the house from the same direction whence we formerly described Antonio to have come. Such a sight being altogether unusual, she was led to watch their motions. They advanced at a slow pace, the riders seeming to wait for the pedestrians, when just as they came opposite the thicket