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for a moment entertain the idea of permitting him to get his anchor a trip, of wods enw oil

Though the evening passed very pleasantly at Sanderson Mains, Amherst felt considerable impatience to be gone. He took his leave, therefore, as early as he well could, and, with many promises to Cleaver that he would inform him more regularly of his future history and plans, he cordially shook hands with him, and set out on his return to the castle.

The night was delightfully calm, but so dark as to make the earlier part of his walk rather slow and tedious. But as he got down near the shores of the lake, the moon rose in all its splendour. Its image trembled on the scarcely agitated bosom of the water, and its beams rested on the mossy stones, and moist patches of sand on its margin. Amherst was thankful for the light it afforded, for he anticipated the difficulty he should experience after diving into the threefold night of the overgrown avenue, running within the grounds from the old gate. And, indeed, when he arrived there, he found the shadows so deep, that his utmost attention was requisite to enable him

to scramble along among the bushes growing in the middle of the waylı nistrɔins tuomen s zot

He was about to emerge from the thicket upon one of those open glades we had formerly becasion to notice, when he observed two human figures crossing the broad field of moonlight towards the spot where he then was. Amherst had already proved himself to be no coward; but experience having lately taught him that the neighbourhood was infested by lawless ruffians, he deemed it prudent to remain in his present obscurity, until he should gather from circumstances whether he was about to meet with friends or foes. Such was the intensity of the shade, that he had only to step behind the trunk of an aged beech, sheltering a holly-bush beneath its wide-spreading boughs, to insure absolute invisibility, whilst, from the position he occupied, he commanded a full view of the open ground, as well as of the entrance to the avenue, near which he was posted. podu od vo

He soon discovered that the two figures were men, though they were both wrapped up in cloaks, perfectly concealing their persons. They wore broad-brimmed slouched hats, and, from the incon being behind them, their faces were thrown so

much into shadow, that he was prevented from having a sufficient view of their features, to enable him to guess who they might be. They were engaged in earnest dialogue, and when they came within ear-shot of him, he distinguished that their conversation was interlarded with Italian. This circumstance led him to imagine they were two of Lord Eaglesholme's domestics, and he was on the eve of quitting his concealment, when some words reached him, that made him wish to gather a little more of their conversation, before he ventured to expose himself to their view.

"You know very well," said the taller man to his companion, "that I am not over scrupulous about such matters. Yet I don't much like this job, seeing it may spoil my trade on this coast, and, besides that I have been out o' the way of doing such things, the risk is greater here than where we carried it on formerly. But, damn it, I won't refuse this venture neither-what is my life but risk? -hazard all! and perhaps the deeper and more devilish the game, the more suitable will it be for me. But you are a very fiend incarnate.

this matter is mere sport."

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Sport!" cried the other with a hellish laugh,

"Madre di Dio! this is but child's play to the deeds I have done. But I needn't tell you avete veduto voi stesso non recordatevi? Have you forgotten how he begged for mercy, and how his eyes started from their sockets like those of a flayed bullock, as I dragged him with the rope? Augh corpo di San Gennaro! how the foaming waves flashed in the red glare of Vesuvio, like the flaming billows of hell, when I hurled the carrion carcase into the sea!-Avete dimenticato, eh!-ha -ha-ha!"

"Talk not of it now," said the other villain, who seemed to be shocked by the recollections he called up—" It was horrible !-I trust I shall never see such a scene again!"

"Horrible! padre! 'twas but doing our work honestly. Voleste diavolo, that we had disposed of this little bit of goods at Naples―ma non importa, we shall have better price for it here. Maledetto !" exclaimed the villain, as he fell, tripped by a bush growing in his way, after they had entered the dark avenue.

"Cosa c'è?" demanded the other in a tone of alarm, and at the same time drawing a sabre, as Amherst judged from the sound.

"Niente!niente affatto! I have tumbled over a cursed bush, that's all.-Dove siete, amico? -fa bujo come quello dell' grotto della Sibilla!? "Here," said the other," here is my hand." "Dove?" lai di }, shade odt rd pod ng "This way."

"Maledetto !" "{

"Guarda! Guarda!"

And so they went groping, and swearing, and stumbling on through the dark avenue. The sound of their voices, as well as of the crashing of the bushes, reached him at intervals from a distance, long after his ear had ceased to catch the import of their words.

Amherst removed into the open moonlight, from the dark shade where he had concealed himself, still haunted by the murderous expressions he had heard. At one time he had felt an inclination to spring upon the villains, and endeavour to seize them. But a moment's reflection taught him, that such an attempt would not only be rash in itself, but altogether useless if successful. Their conversation, it is true, betrayed the perpetration of some dreadful murder, but it seemed to have been effected in a foreign country. They had also