had enjoyed, and on going down to breakfast, I found that my friend was out, and myself very much in the way of Peggy and her mistress, whose daily occupations were at a stand-still from my laziness. My hostess had involuntarily caught up a broom that had been left by Peggy, and I plainly saw that she was burning to commence a vigorous campaign against the dust and the spiders. In pity, therefore, to her troubles, I swallowed down my breakfast, without, indeed, the least danger to my throat, and posted off in quest of my friend, the Lieutenant, who, she told me, was at the battery, a name by which they had dignified a large mound of earth with two old guns, that might be said to be on half-pay, for though they retained their place, they were never employed. It was not, however, my fate to reach the battery that morning, for I must needs try to make a short cut to my end, by which, as many wise men have done before me, I lost it altogether. The ground, a large tract of open country, was intersected by dykes; the first of these, having low banks, and not being very wide, I got over easily enough; the next was too much for me, and I therefore bent my course to a narrower part, which again led me into another difficulty, to be avoided by a similar circuit, and so on, till I was completeły entangled. The greater my efforts now, the more they removed me from my object, and, at last, they brought me to a small hollow, partly formed by nature, and partly by the chalk having been originally dug out for the purpose of making lime; three sides of it were perpendicular rocks, with here and there a few broad weeds, not unlike dock-leaves, shooting through the interstices; the fourth sloped roughly down to a depth of ninety feet, or perhaps more, and was covered with briars that twined their long thin arms with the high grass, and made the descent a work of toil, except by one beaten path. In breadth it was about two hundred feet, in length full twice as many. In the bottom was a cottage and garden; as I expected, for I had been used to these artificial glens in Kent, where they are sure to find occu

pants the moment they are deserted by the chalk-miners. A soil is easily and cheaply formed from the sea-weed, while the exclusion of the wind, and the reflection of the sun from the chalk, make a shelter for trees and vegetables, which will thrive there much better than on the open downs, exposed as they are to all the bleakness of the weather, and the influence of the salt sea-air.

Curiosity led me down into the hol low, where I found the door of the cottage open, and the first object that attracted my attention was a young girl, apparently not more than seventeen years of age: even in a drawing-room, amidst lights and crowds, the enemies to all romance, I should yet have r ticed her as something singular: but here, in this wild glen, where the mind was previously prepared by local circumstance for the reception of every fanciful impression, I felt as much startled at her presence as if she had been a shadow from the world of spirits. Her form, though extremely elegant in its proportions, seemed as light and airy as if no earth had entered into its composition; her hair curled in jetblack ringlets about a face that was as pale as marble; her eyes were of a deep blue, with an expression that was something akin to madness; and a dark melancholy sate on her fore-head, that seemed to fling a shadow over the whole face, and deepen its natural paleness. What rendered her still more striking was the utter discordance of her dress and manners with the luxurious poverty about her, in which wealth and want were strangely blended. A deal table, scored and stained, was waited upon by half a dozen mahogany chairs, of as many fashions as there were chairs; two large silver goblets stood in the same row with a party of coarse white plates, flawed and fractured in every direction; and a Brussels carpet was spread on the floor, though the laths of the ceiling showed through the plaster above, like ribs from the thin sides of poverty. On the mantelpiece, which was tolerably well smoked, was a handsome gold time-keeper, flanked by a whole host of tobacco-pipes in every possible stage, from the black

in a single venture to Dunkirk, under the conduct of his son, and his promise to quit the free trade was with express reference to the safe return of his cargo, a sort of compromise that eould not altogether quiet the fears of Nancy. To those who are unacquainted with such scenes it may appear strange that the old man did not rather go out with the boat himself; but the fact is, that in smuggling, as much, if not more, depends on the manage ment by land than by water. Experience has shown these people that they can put very little confidence in each other; the temptations to betray are much too strong for their slender stock of honesty; and the chiefs, therefore, seldom trust more than one of their associates with the secret of the boat's landing-place, which one the rest follow at a moment's warning, through brake and briar, over moor and mountain, like so many wild ducks after their leader. Now, Harry thought, and wisely, that such a secret could be trusted to no one so well as to himself, and he had therefore sent out his son, a stout able young fellow who had been brought up to the business from his cradle, while he himself staid behind to look after the landing of the cargo.

It was now nearly two o'clock, the Lieutenant's dinner hour, and I rose to take my leave, saying, "To-morrow I will be here again.

So saying, I left the glen and return ed to the Lieutenant's; but, notwithstanding my improved knowledge in the geography of these parts, I did not arrive time enough to save my credit with my little fat hostess, whom I found in sad tribulation, fretting and fuming over half-cold fish, fowls done to death, and pudding that was as heavy as lead.

The day passed as might have been expected; my friend, in his capacity of host, toiled like a mill-horse to entertain me, and I, as in duty bound, laboured equally to be entertained, though it was by objects that could have no interest for me whatever. I was dragged successively to see his new cutter, the two old guns, the kennel of his seamen,-I can give it no

better name, and the birth of his Mids, who, according to his idea of things, were lodged like princes. Their principality, however, did not appear to me a subject for much envy; it consisted of two apartments, one of which was a general bed-room, and the other a general parlour. The floor was sanded, and the white-washed walls were ornamented with a variety of long and short heads, and sundry witty inscriptions, such as "Tom Jenkins is a fool," "Sweet Polly Beaver," "Snug's the word," &c. &c. windows, indeed, looked out upon the sea, and close under them was a patch of garden, which the Mids, in the lack of better occupation, had surrounded with a wall, formed of rude chalk blocks loosely piled together without cement; under this shelter a few cabbages contrived to run to seed amidst a luxuriant crop of thistles.

The

Having seen these lions, we returned to tea, and passed the dreary interval between that and supper-time in a water excursion, which only wanted a more congenial companion to have been delightful. I know nothing more annoying to a man of romantic habits than the being linked in with your plain matter-of-fact folks, who have no ideas associated with any subject beyond what are presented to them by the obvious qualities of form and celour. My friend, though an excellent seaman, was precisely one of these; he saw nothing in the ocean but a road for shipping; and as to the sky, I question much whether he ever looked up to it, except to take an observation. Still this water-excursion was not without its use; it had whiled away three hours, and that was something; it had procured me an excellent appetite for supper, and that too was not to be slighted; and lastly, the sea-air had so much influence on me, that, when bedtime came, I dropt fast asleep the very moment I laid my head on my pillow. My sleep, however, was any thing but quiet; I dreamt, and my dreams were full of grotesque images, and all more vivid than any I have ever experienced either before or after. The agony was too great for endurance, and I awoke. To my surprise there stood Frank by

my bed-side, a pair of cutlasses under his arm, and a candle in one hand, while with the other he pulled and tugged at me might and main. He had no doubt been the black dog of my dreams, for his fingers were closed on my arm with the gripe of a blacksmith's vice.

"Why, how now, lad? You ate too much of the pork last night. And with that he gave me another shake as if he meant to shake my arm out of its socket.

"What's the matter? What's the matter?" I exclaimed, for I was not yet quite awake; and black dogs, and Nancies, were making a strange medley of it in my brain.

"There's no time for talking-but clap on your rags as quick as may be." -And I set about dressing myself almost mechanically, while he paced up and down the room, as if he had been walking the quarter-deck, whistling a very popular, but not very elegant tune in all manner of times, now fast, and now slow, according to the rise and fall of his fits of impatience. In a few minutes, the last tie was tied, and the last button buttoned.

"All ready, lad?--Here's your cut lass then, and your barkers. And now we'll clap on all sails and be up with them in a jiffy."

I was by this time fully awake and conscious of our business, for the nightair, that blew on me as we left the cottage, sobered down the fumes of sleep in an instant. The wind was cold and boisterous, rolling the clouds along in dark broken masses over the sky, where neither moon nor stars were shining, but there was a dull grey light that just served to make the darkness visible. Frank was incessantly urging me to speed, though we were going at a brisk rate, and as we went along communicated to me the whole matter, as an additional stimulus to my tardiness. This was precisely what I anticipated; a smuggling boat had long been expected on this very night, according to his information from the other side of the water; and some fishermen, bribed to his purpose, had kept a sharp lookout from their smack, and had thus been able to give him timely warning of their

approach. This story was told with great glee by my friend, but I must honestly confess that, "I had no devotion to the business." While all was dark, and still, and nothing announced that the fray was near, and I had reason to believe that it was at least a mile from us, I only felt anxious and bewildered; but when a sudden shout burst on us, followed by a rapid discharge of firearms, and the turn of the cliff showed us the battle that moment begun and not a hundred yards from us--what a change then came over me-It was not fear, for it had none of the palsy of fear; my hand was firm and my eye was certain; but it was a most intense consciousness of self and of the present moment. I felt I scarce knew how, nor even at this distance of time can ĺ well make out what were my feelings; to be thus suddenly dragged from warm sleep to deal with blows and death on the midnight shingle, was enough to stupify any man of peaceful habits, and such mine had been for many years. At this moment a voice seemed to whisper close to my ear " Mary!" So perfect was the illusion,-if it was illusion, -that I involuntarily echoed, "Mary! and looked up for the speaker. Yet no Mary was there-how, indeed, could she be?-Still it was her voice; I was neither drunk, nor dreaming, nor lunatic, and yet I heard it as clearly as ears could hear it, and at the sound my heart swelled, and I felt that I should dare any thing. In an instant I was in the very midst of the fray, dealing my blows right and left with all the fury of a maniac. As I learnt afterwards, my death had been certain twenty times in the course of the scuffle, if it had not been for Frank, and still more for poor Harry, who was fighting among the smugglers, yet could not forget his young friend, though his hand was against him. Many a blow that was meant for me was parried by their watchfulness; but of all this I knew nothing: when all was over,—and it had scarcely lasted ten minutes,---I had only a confused recollection of having struggled stoutly for life amidst sword-cuts and pistol-shots, and men dropping as if struck by some invisible power. It is difficult to make any body