THE STORY-TELLER. ENGLISH SMUGGLERS, HARRY WOOdriff. THE sinugglers are the only race of people in this country who have not been at all acted upon by the improvements of society. Everywhere else civilization has been hard at work; scouring through the land with the speed of a twopenny postman,-building schools, breeching Highlanders, and grubbing up the spirit of adventure from the very bosom of rocks and mountains. It has made a smart attack too on the gipsies, but with only a sort of piebald success, robbing the gallows to augment the population of Botany Bay; taking off the edge of their daring, yet by no means lessening their indolence, or their love of petty larceny. But the smuggler,-the sturdy smuggler, is still the same creature he was fifty years ago, and even allowing him to be a villain,-villain is a hard word,-there is yet something noble in his doings and his sufferings. In fact, the good people of this city know as little about him as they do of Prester John, or the Cham of Tartary. I have some right to speak on the subject, for one part of my early days was spent on the sea-coast, when-to my shame be it spoken I preferred the smugglers to my books; and, from many wild pranks, became a favourite among them. There was one outlaw in particular, Harry Woodriff, or Woodrieve, who was much attached to the Master, as they called me, partly, I believe, from the eagerness with which I listened to his tales of himself and his associates, and not a little because he mistook my romantic feelings for courage. Our acquaintance, or rather our intimacy, commenced by my going out with him in a storm, to the relief of a distressed collier, when the chances were twenty to one against our ever returning; but with me it certainly was not courage; there was an exaltation of the spirits more like the effect of wine, as we swept along the waves, that at one moment rose like a mountain, and in the next opened almost to the very sands. I feared no danger, for I felt no danger, and there can hardly be courage without the consciousness of peril. But Harry was not the man to look so nicely into things; I had shown no symptoms of fear, and that was enough for him, who held that a stout spirit included all the cardinal virtues: ever after he loved me as a son, and many a tale did I gather from the sturdy amuggler, as he paced up and down the cliff with his glass in his hand, on the look out for what the sea was next to bring him. It was not, however, of Harry's early stories that I would speak at present, though a time may come for them too, but of our meeting two years ago, when we least expected it, and for an end that thrilled my blood with horror. Remember this is no fiction; here and there some local deviations are introduced, for reasons sufficiently obvious, but the main facts are as true as that the sun is in the heavens. It was in the autumn of 1820 that my friend, Lieutenant E, invited me to pass a few weeks with him on the coast where he was stationed on the preventive service, an invitation that had been too often repeated to be again slighted without offence to honest Frank, whose heart was much better ballasted than his head. Accordingly I set out a little before sunrise, and by six o'clock at night I reached my friend's house. This was a snug cottage, about a hundred yards from a long bed of shingle, which had originally been thrown up there by the sea, and which how served as a defence against its encroachments. As it was impossible to drive the chaise up to the door, I was obliged to get out, and, having paid the post-boy, shouldered my portmanteau, and strode forward lustily to the cottage, here the first thing I heard was the voice of my friend, The Lieutenant, loud in anger on some half dozen subjects, which he contrived to twist together like the different plies of a cable, and of which my absence seemed to be the printipal "Confound all landlubbers-Peg, you jade, hand us up the supper-Kit not cleaned my barkers yet! If I don't give that fellow monkey's allowance-Betsy-What a d-d fool the captain must be to let them smugglers get off-Betsy-Well, well, George-Betsy-D-n it, you're as stupid as the girl. Hand over that bundle of cigars-I tell you what, George,” "Well, what will you tell me?" said I, breaking in upon his medley soliloquy. "George!-glad to see you with all my heart and soul, boy. You're just in time." "Yes, I smell the supper." "You shall smell gunpowder, my boy, before you are two day's older. A cargo from Dunkirk-red stern-twelve men and a boy-white gunnell-know all about her-figured on the other side," he added with a knowing wink, at the same time jingling some loose silver in his pocket. “D—n it all, I was afraid you'd be too late for the fun, but here you are, and in good time." "I can't say I see the fun." "But you shall, boy; you shall go with us; they fight like devils; no sneakers among them." I fancy my face testified no great symptoms of delight at the proposed amusement, for the Lieutenant, though not much given to observation, exclaimed quickly, "You're not afraid, lad ?” Still, I rather think, I should have declined this favour, for Frank really meant it as a favour-if his wife had not come in at the critical moment: no man would even seem to be a coward in the presence of a woman, and, before I well knew what I was about, my word was pledged to the business, to the infinite delight of Frank, who thereupon showed me, with great glee, a brace of barkers, as he called them, that Kit was to scour for my especial service. As to any danger I might run, that never once entered into Frank's calculation; he looked on these smuggling frays much as a fox-hunter looks on the chase, in which bruises and broken heads are necessary contingencies, not to be talked of for a moment, and which by no means take away from the pleasure of the pursuit. Supper over, and the regular allowance of pipes and grog being duly despatched, I was suffered to retire, with a promise from Frank of calling me if there was any stir among the smugglers; a promise that, it may be easily supposed, was altogether unsolicited on my part; indeed, I could have willingly dispensed with his punctuality on this point, but I knew him too well to doubt his keeping his word, and it was now over late to draw back; to bed, therefore, I went, in all that ferment of the spirits, which men of sedentary habits never fail to experience after a day of travel. It was ten o'clock before I rose from my morning sleepthe only sleep I 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 completely 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, of perhaps more, and was covered with briers 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 occupants 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 reflexion 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 hollow, 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 noticed her as something singular; but here, in this wild glen, where the mind was previously prepared, by local circumstances, 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 her composition: her hair curled in jet-black 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 forehead, 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 on 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 plaister above, like ribs from the thin sides of poverty. On the mantel-piece, 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 stump to the immaculate whiteness of the perfect tube. Higher up, guns, pistols, and cutlasses were ranged in formidable order, and with the same love of variety, no one weapon had its fellow. I had been too much used to such dwellings in my boyhood not to guess pretty well upon what company I had stumbled, and when a man came out of the inner room, I was prepared to see a smuggler, but not to see Harry Woodriff. It was Harry, however! the identical Harry! -and though full fifteen years had elapsed since we last were an anker of brandy-Nance, girl,"-turning to his daughter, who had hitherto looked on our meeting with silent curiosity," Fetch us a drop of the right stuff, and s clean pipe-though, stay, there's plenty of pipes here." "I don't smoke, Harry, and as to drinking,""You don't drink neither?" "Not at this hour." "Why Lunnon has clean spoilt you, Master-you could smoke, and drink, too, for that matter, and without asking whether it was morn or midnight. But you're another You had better have staid in guess sort of chap, now. Kent, Master." "Why did you leave it ?" "Wouldn't do; grew hot as h-l1-sink the customs!" "I doubt whether you have much mended the matter by coming here." "Ay, ay; hard times, master, when a poor man can't eat his bread and cheese without fighting for it first.-Not that I much mind that either, if things were a little more on the square, but 'tis d-d hard to fight with a rope round one's neck. It was all fair enough when they looked after the cargo and let the man alone: if they could seize the goods, that was their luck; if we got off, that was ours; and all friends afterwards. But now if they catch you, they haul you off to jail, and if you fight for it, they hang you up as though you were a pirate.-Sink the customs! "Better take to some other business!" "Why look ye, lad; I'm hard on sixty, and that's over late to go on a new tack. But here comes Nance with the grog-What's that bottle, girl?" "Some of the claret that you brought over last week for the innkeeper of .” "Avast heaving, Nance-Not that I think the Master would tell tales, but,-draw the cork." This was more easily said than done, a corkscrew form. ing no part of Harry's domestic economy, and for a long time Nancy worked at it with a broken fork to very little purpose. "Hand it over," said Harry, and he gravely knocked off the neck of the bottle. "There; I've done it-Brave liquor it is too, so help yourself, Master.-Sink the customs! Do you call that helping yourself? Here's a change! You could put your beak deep enough into a pint pot when you were a youn ker." "Let me help you, sir," said Nancy; and she filled up my glass with a grace that certainly did not belong to a smuggler's cottage. I could not keep my eyes off her, and the old man must have read my thoughts; for he spoke as i in answer to them. "She did not learn it of me, you may be sure, Master; it was all got at Miss Trott's boarding school." "So, so," thought I" Another precious instance of parents educating their children above the situation they are to fill in life, refining them into misery." Something walked together on the cliffs of Kent, I knew him that in- of the same kind was evidently passing through Nancy's stant; it was impossible to mistake that peculiar face; the mind, for her eyes were suffused with tears, to the sore all features were too strongly cast originally to be much af-noyance of the smuggler, who was dotingly fond of her, notfected by time, which, indeed, had only hardened the mould withstanding his apparent apathy, and who was loved by her in return with no less sincerity. against successive years, and not altered it. His name burst from my lips involuntarily "Harry Woodriff !" "What's the matter with you, Nance Squalls again? "Ay, ay," exclaimed the old man, without the least-Is there any thing I can do for you?" symptom of recognition,-"What cheer now, messmate ?" "Don't you know me, Harry? Don't you remember your old friend George, and our going off to the brig Sophy?" What! the Master?-Sink the customs! you can't be he George was a little rosy-faced chap, no higher than this table." "That was fifteen years ago, Harry; and fifteen years will make a difference on your little rosy-faced chaps, no higher than the table." There was a beseeching look in Nancy's eyes, the measing of which I did not then understand, but which was perfectly intelligible to Harry; for he added, though in his usual even tone," That is, any thing but the old story. Is it a gown you want? Silk? Brussels lace? Only say the word, and it's yours; for not to tell you a lie, Nance," Dunkirk, you should have them or I'd drown for it-k you wished for all the shells that lie between here and the customs !" And all this he said without the least correspondence of Right, messmate Sink the customs! and so you are the tone, or, indeed, any symptom of feeling, except that he Master?_D—n you!”—And he grasped me with his iron laid one of his huge iron paws on the girl's right should hand, till my bones cracked again, though without the slight- and gently patted her. Nancy made no answer but est change of feature on his part, or any symptoms of emo-leaning her head on her father's brawny bosom. Follow tion in his voice." Am as glad to see you as though you ing up my first idea of the unfitness of such a situation to a girl of her habits, I referred her grief to that cause; and under the idea of pleasing her, I ventured to suggest that she would do better by seeking her fortune in the world, and even proferred my assistance. She cut short this proposal, however, with a tone of energy and decision that completely silenced me. "I shall go nowhere, sir, without my father. Where he is, there his daughter must and shall be." There was a moment's pause; I was too much confounded by the manner of this address to make any reply: Harry kept on smoking his pipe as if we had been talking of matters that in nowise concerned him, and in a langunge that he did not understand, while the girl herself seemed to be struggling with some internal resolution. For a few moments she fixed her wild flashing eyes on me with a gaze so keen that it made the blood start up into my cheeks, till at last, as if satisfied with the inquiry, she repeated in a milder tone, "I will not leave my father-Is this a time to leave him?" And she pointed to his grey hars" Is this a place? I will not leave him. But oh, siz, if you are his friend, persuade him to quit this life, which must sooner or later end by the waves, or the sword, or the gallows. Persuade him, sir;-'tis a better deed than giving ten alms to the poor, for in that you save the body only, but here you save both soul and body. Persuade him, sir; he shall not want; indeed he shall not: I will work for him, beg for him, steal for him-!" The poor creature burst into tears, exclaiming, "O father, father!" "Hey for Dunkirk! No soft water, Nance; you know I can't abide it. So, hark ye in your ear." He drew his daughter aside, whispered a few words with his usual imperturbability, and finished by exclaiming aloud, "I will! sink the customs!" "But will you, indeed ?" "There's my hand to it-smuggler's faith! Will you believe me, now ?" ces. 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 berth of his Mids, who, according to his idea of things, were lodged like PrinTheir 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. The 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. 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 colour. 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 slight ed; and lastly, the sea-air had so much influence on me, that, when bed-time 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. Nancy only answered with a kiss; but there was still a restless expression about her eyes and lips that showed she was far from being satisfied; at the time I attributed it to some lurking distrust of her father's sincerity, for I had no doubt that he had promised her to give up smuggling; shrewd, however, as this guess was, it did not happen to be quite correct, and it was only by combining one fact with another, that I afterwards got at the whole truth. It seems Chat Harry had risked all he possessed, nearly four hundred pounds, 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, "Why, how now, lad? You ate too much of the pork -a sort of compromise that could not altogether quiet the last night." And with that he gave me another shake, fears of Nancy. To those who are unacquainted with such as if he meant to shake my arm out of its socket. enes it may appear strange that the old man did not ra- "What's the matter? what's the matter?" I exclaimed, ther go out with the boat himself: but the fact is, that in for I was not yet quite awake! and black dogs, and Nansmuggling, as much, if not more, depends on the manage-cies, were making a strange medley of it in my brain. ment by land than by water. Experience has shewn 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 brier, 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 dinnerhour, and I rose to take my leave, saying, "To-morrow I will be here again." So saying, I left the glen, and returned to the Lieutenant's; but, notwithstanding my improved knowledge in the Geography of these parts, I did not arrive time enough to ave my credit with my little fat hostess, whom I found in ad tribulation, fretting and fuming over half-cold fish, owls done to death, and pudding that was as heavy as lead. "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 cutlass, 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 bu siness, for the night air, that blew on me as I 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, ac ing round, I saw on the shingles below, on the other side of the dyke, where the fight had first taken place, a young girl, supporting a wounded smuggler in her arms; it was too dark to distinguish their faces with any degree of pre cision, but their voices soon betrayed them to me. My blood ran cold as I listened to the following short dialogue, for I was in the shadow and could not be seen by the speakers. "Sink the customs! It's of no use, Nance; I'm fairly a-ground, and you ha'n't strength enough to shove me of again. So here I must lie, old rotten hull as I am, till they find me, and then I swing for it." "But try, father, only try; lean on me." Again she endeavoured to drag or rather support the old man forwards, and her efforts were really wonderful for a creature so slim and lightly formed. She actually suc ceeded in dragging him up a low bank, and even a few yards beyond it, but there her strength failed; she could go no farther, and it was only by an almost superhuman exertion that she held him from falling. cording to his information, from the other side of the wa- The fray ended by the seizure of all the goods, the death of five smugglers, and the capture of two, who afterwards contrived to get away. As to the rest, they all escaped, as I then imagined, by favour of the dykes, and their better knowledge of the country, with the exception of one poor wretch, who was desperately wounded; him they bore into a near boat-house, which was nothing more than a rude shed, pitched and tarred, and covered with dry seaweed, as a sort of shelter for the nets and skiffs when not employed. Hither I went with the rest, and looked upon a scene that I shall not easily forget; the poor creature was "It won't do, Nance; this shot in the thigh wont let me move an inch farther-so here I must be caught, and suppose they'll hang me for being found in arms against the King's officers. Sink the customs! They sha'n't tie a noose about my neck, however. We'll blow up the ship sooner than she shall fall into the hands of the enemy. So give us a kiss, my girl—God bless you. And now—hey for Dunkirk !” And I saw him hold a pistol to his breast, which Nancy seized with a suppressed scream. Poor thing! her gestures at that moment would have wrung pity from a heart of stone, "For God's sake, father-for your poor Nancy's sakethere is yet hope. Some of our friends may return before the king's-men leave the boat-house." "Not much likelihoods of that, Nance: they'll hardly And I stood listening to all this, like a fool! I m have been bewildered-stunned by what had passed. But I was now awake again, and cursing my own dulness that could waste so many precious moments, I dashed down into the dyke, waded knee-deep through mud and water, and with infinite difficulty clambered up the opposite bank, where I was instantly observed by the old smuggler. "Sink the customs! They are here, Nance." In another moment I was at his side, but in that mo ment the pistol was discharged, and he dropped into my arms mortally wounded, exclaiming - "Sink the customs! You are too late to hang me, mess. mate. Nance, my girl, they cannot say your father was hung; you're a wife now for any man, the best in the land, let him be who he will.-Sink the customs!" "Tis I, Harry,--your friend, George Seymour," "What, the Master 1-Give us your hand, d-n you! -You're a brave lad, Master-fought better than any of the King's blue jackets, thof it was against myselfBut, Master," He tried to go on, but could not, and was evidently lying on the ground, pale and dripping with blood; his bleeding apace internally, though one little drop of blood upon his lips was the only outward sign of injury. "Master, you'll think of❞— neckcloth had been taken off, and his clothes were torn to tatters. As the torches glared on his eyes, they seemed blue and glassy, and as if fixed in their sockets; he was evidently dying, and though I had often looked on death in hospitals, I could not stand this sight. The visitations of nature may be even more painful to the sufferer, but there is something soothing in the idea that they are visitations of nature; the sick one is struck by the hand of the Deity himself; he is only undergoing the common doom: but a violent death is always connected with the idea of crime or of unusual suffering; it is an end that might have been avoided; and as I gazed on this poor creature, my very heart was sick; every thing was beginning to swim before me, when I rushed out into the open air, and even there I was forced to lean a few moments for support against the shed. Again the words were as if stifled in his breast as he pointed with a shivering hand to Ndney. But I repla to the sign, for I understood it well-too well. "She shall not want a home, Harry, while I have one." you? "God bless you, Master. Nancy, my girl, where are The night grows so dark, or something is com over my eyes. Kiss me, Nance.' And Nancy moved towards him with a calmness that was truly frightful. As she stooped to kiss him, something like a smile passed over her blue lips. May I never see such a smile again! In the same moment Harry was slightly convulsed, and with a groan that was scarcely au dible he expired in my arms. › As I began to breathe more freely in the night-wind, my By this time, the Lieutenant and his party, who had bea attention was caught by the sound of voices, and on look-alarmed by the report of the pistol, came up to us, and ( planations were asked and given in less time than it has taken me to write or my readers to peruse them. Frank arefully minuted down every thing in his pocketbook, and, having given the dead body in charge to a party of his seamen, attempted in his rude way to comfort Nancy. The poor girl, however, was not in a state to need, or listen o, comfort; the blow had stunned her into insensibility, and there she stood a thing of life, but without its funcE.ons. After many fruitless attempts at consolation, he exlaimed in a tone that under any other circumstances had Deen ludicrous,→→ "By G-d! the poor thing has gone mad or stupid! I tell you what, George, we'll have her home with us, and at her in Bet's hands; she's a better doctor than half our d women in the navy." This was no sooner said than done, and without either anks or opposition from Nancy, who seemed to have lost il powers of volition, The Lieutenant's wife, however, eeling that such a case was something beyond the usual ange of her practice, begged the ship-surgeon might be ent for, and willingly sank into the subordinate situation of nurse, to the sore displeasure of Frank, who hated the ery sight of a doctor. Yet neither the skill of the one, nor be more than sisterly attention of the other, availed any hing. The morning came, and she was evidently mad; a econd, and a third followed, and still she was no better; he idea that her father lived, and was to be hung, had got irm hold of her mind, and nothing could root it out. All re could say was in vain; she brooded on this one thought ith a sullen silence, much worse than any violence of enzy could have been; and I now began to feel myself leced in a most awkward situation by my promise, so unFittingly given, to the father. It could not be expected at Frank would trouble himself many days longer with a aniac, and what was I to do with her? One moment I ished the poor thing might die, and in the next was angry 7th myself for my selfishness :-then again, I cursed the our that brought me on such an unlucky visit; when, as all this was not enough, I was summoned to the coroner's 1quest, sitting on the body of Henry Woodriff. I was not irprised at such a call, but it seems I might have spared ay wonder; for however the smugglers may perish, this eremony is never omitted, and the inquest had already sate n the others who were found dead near the beach. Internally vowing to leave this abominable place within he next four-and-twenty hours, never to return, I set off a obedience to the summons of the law, and found the inBest assembled in the parlour of a little public house, dided only by a field from the village. Here, too, was Frank, with a party of his sailors, either as witnesses, or C-saories. The foreman of the inquest was a short, stout can, with a round face, and a short nose turned up as if scorn of the two thick lips that opened beneath it, and pair of yellow, flaring eyes, though destitute of all exression. He looked full of the dignity of his office, and ■ I entered, was in the high tide of discussion with a stout sung smuggler, who, by his tone and manner, seemed to re very little for any body present. And he spoke out a mind as plainly as his father would have done, though r quite so cooly. "Then I'll be d-d if you do. Gentlemen, as you call mrselves, there's ne'er a Crowner of you all shall drive a ake through the old man's corpse, while there's a hand to is body." "Respect the dignity of the court, young man. Your ther being compos, did make away with himself. I take gentlemen, the evidence is sufficient to that effect; but 'll presently examine Mr. Seymour—” "My name is Seymour." "Pray be seated, Mr. Seymour; I'll speak to you directYour father, I say, being compos, did make away ith himself, and the law, in that case made and provided, 1 “D-n the law. I say, whoever runs a stake through y father's body, I'll send a bullet through his head. So you all know my mind, and let him try it who likes With this he burst out of the court, to the great dismay of the foreman, who, when he recovered from his surprise, said in a tone of grave importance: "This is contempt of the court, and must be punished." The Lieutenant, however, put in his veto; for with all his roughness, he did not want for feeling, and the gal lantry of the young smuggler had evidently won his heart. "Psha! the poor fellow only speaks up for his father, and he has a right to do so." "Yes, but with your leave, Lieutenant E," "Come, come, Mr. Denton, I know you are too kindhearted to hurt the lad for such a trifle." "Trifle! do you call it a trifle to damn the court ?" "Well, call it what you will, but let the poor fellow go scot-free. He has enough of it already, I think; his goods have been taken, his father killed, and his sister is run mad." "Why, as you say, Lieutenant E, I am not hardhearted, and—Oh, Mr. Seymour, I beg your pardon for detaining you. We want your evidence as to this business, merely as a matter of form. You were present when Harry Woodriff shot himself. Administer the oath to Mr. Sey mour. The oath was accordingly administered in due form, and I was reluctantly compelled to tell the whole business, which still farther authorized the little foreman in his darling scheme of burying a man in the meeting of four roads, and driving a stake through his body. I do not believe he was really of a bad disposition, but this ceremony flattered his importance, besides that it gratified the appetite for horror, so common to all vulgar minds. To have been present at such a sight, under any circumstances, would have delighted him, merely as a spectator; but to have it take place under his own auspices, was too great a treat to be given up for any consideration that Frank or myself could offer. In addition to the mere pleasure of the thing itself, his persistency gave him, in his own eyes, all the dignity of a man resolute in the performance of his duty, however unpleasant, and in spite of the most powerful solicitations. We were, therefore, obliged to yield the point, and leave the field to the little foreman, who instantly selected half a dozen stout peasants to keep watch over the body. In coming out we saw a knot of smugglers in earnest conversation at the end of the street, about fifty yards from as. Among them was young Woodriff, whose gestures spoke pretty plainly that the council was not a peaceful one, and the Lieutenant was not slow in guessing their pur pose. "Do you see them, George? Just as I thought: they'll have a haul now at the old smuggler's body before night is over, and I'll not stand in their way for any coroner's quest of them all-not I. It's no seaman's duty to look after corpses." As he said this, we came close upon the little party, who were suddenly silent, eyeing us with looks of scorn and sullen hatred, that made me expect a second fray; Frank, however, was too brave to be quarrelsome. "You need not scowl so, lads; I have only done my duty, and mayhap I may be sorry to have it to do, but still it was my duty, and I did it, and will do it again, if the same thing happens again. But that's neither here nor there. All I meant to say was, that I shall keep a sharp look-out on the water to-night for any boat that may be coming over, and, in case of the worst, I shall have all hands aboard. So, good-by to you." "The lieutenant's a brave fellow after all," said one, as we walked off. "I never thought worse of him," replied young Harry; "but if I find out the scoundrel who first shot my father, bt my soul, but he's as dead a man as any that lies in the churchyard." "Come on, George," cried the lieutenant; " if I seem to hear what these fellows say, I must notice it, and I don't wish that, if I can help it-poor devils." It may be easily supposed, that the day did not pass very pleasantly, with me at least, who was not used to the trade |