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character, I had as yet refrained from coming to any thing approaching to a rupture with him. We debated, for some time, as to the most fitting time to make to him our disagreeable overture, but we soon found that this procrastination was useless. Latterly he had never been perfectly sober. So, at noon, we quietly walked into the cabin, and told him what was expected of him. His rage was ungovernable. He heaped upon us the most unlimited abuse, and accused Gavel of being the primary cause of all our disasters; and, finally, he shouted for the steward to bring his pistols, swearing that he would shoot us on the spot, as we were in the act of open mutiny.

Before we entered upon this conference, I made Gavel swear to me that he would command his temper. This he did, if preserving a sullen and ferocious silence can be called so; but who was to control mine? It was now Ardent Troughton who spoke. I hurled at him my impassioned vituperations, my ineffable scorn-I placed his character before him; I dwelt upon his drunkenness, his bestiality, his incapacity, his cowardice-I was carried away by the torrent of my fury. He first of all sate aghast, gazing at me with a drunken stupidity, but his eye began gradually to illumine, the muscles of his face to assume a stern rigidity, his countenance a demoniac expression, but he sat perfectly still, with the exception that he began to handle one of his pistols with his right hand, as if unintentionally and mechanically.

The steward, a venerable and respectable grey-headed man, alarmed by the appalling look of Tomkins, crept cautiously behind me, ever and anon peering over my shoulder at his baited and deadly-looking master. But I had not yet brought my philippic to a climax, and transported with indignation, and stamping violently on the deck, I thus concluded “Degraded brute as you are, in the scale of creation, infinitely beneath the noble dog upon deck, if we did our duty to ourselves and to the crew, we ought to dispossess you immediately of the command, and thrust and lash you in the animal's kennel, that I tell you you would pollute-handle your pistol, coward! I scorn it and you-and then feed you with the offal of the meanest in the ship; and as sure as there is a God in heaven, if you do not henceforward do your duty-if you do not share with us your hoarded stock of delicacies-if you do not keep yourself sober-I speak in the name of the crew, in the name of the owner, that has foolishly entrusted you with his rich merchandize-I speak in the name of my father, this thing we will do."

"You will, young mutineer!" was his quick reply. He lifted his pistol, and discharged it. I had my eye upon him, and leaped aside, and the ball entered the breast of the old man behind me. Ere Tomkins could reach the other weapon, Gavel and I flung ourselves upon him, threw him to the ground, and instantly bound him hand and foot.

"This is the murderer, then," said the mate to me, in a husky whisper; we must give him the fate of Jonah, and thus save all our precious lives."

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(To be continued.)

A PEDESTRIAN TOUR OF 1347 MILES THROUGH WALES AND ENGLAND; PERFORMED IN THE SUMMER OF 1833.1

BY PEDESTRES, AND SIR CLAVILENO WOODENPEG, KNIGht, of

SNOWDON.

CHAPTER VIII.

" 'Tis the most dreadful night-piece I ever saw !"

"He composed himself with great tranquillity for half an hour, and was just falling asleep, when he started on a sudden."

"This threw him into so great a ferment, that he jumped out of his bed." THE DEVIL UPON TWO STICKS.

"LET us,” said Pedestres, turning to Clavileno, "let us take one peep at the cathedral, ere our growing eagerness to pace the rugged land of Taffy attract our knight-errantry to the mountains. What say you, sir, of the Woodenpeg?"

Clavileno made no answer: that was nothing: for, as "silence gives consent," Pedestres very well perceived in which course Clavileno's penchant lay. So, without another word, they both went to the cathedral.

The dark and venerable western front, studded with statues, stood over them in grave and frowning majesty as they entered. The lofty and groined roof within curled over their heads like the stately branches of the beech that sweep across from opposite sides of an aged avenue, and mutually, in 'the middle, mingle their lengthened arms in indistinguishable intricacy. There is something solemn in entering a cathedral: Pedestres felt it to-day. Their foot-steps echoed as they walked down the nave; and the spacious building multiplied the few sounds to such a degree, that it was difficult to imagine otherwise than that hundreds were pacing around them, although invisible. The clustered columns springing from the pavement, shot through a darkened atmosphere to a misty and greytinted elevation. The grotesque figures that adorned the capitals so far above them, seemed to gnash their teeth, and roll their huge eyeballs upon the worldly intruders below, in token of rage and impatience; whilst a solitary sunbeam found entrance through an upper painted window, and shooting across the gloom in a vivid streak, gilded up the elaborate tracery of the oaken screen. The effect was heightened past description, when the full-bodied and melodious tones of the organ suddenly broke forth, and were allowed to wander at liberty through the many aisles and recesses of the spacious fabric. The high and rapid notes of the treble warbled like the nightingale when she addresses the moon; and a pensive listener would have willingly fancied the similitude stronger, by the circumstance of the dim twi

1 Continued from vol. xv. page 419.

light that surrounded him, as he eagerly caught every sound. The deep bass, rumbling in the sweetest accord with the more shrill twittering of the upper octaves, seemed to possess the substance of a cloud of harmony, and to roll in globules from one vaulted ceiling to another through arch succeeding arch-until it gradually died away exhausted, like the receding hollow sounds of a distant peel of thunder, or a discharge of large artillery. It was sweet indeed.

"That man had sixteen wives, sir," said the guide, 'pointing with a staff to a monument in the south transept.

"Pish!" exclaimed Pedestres hastily; his reverie, which had arisen from the feature of solemnity that reigned on all sides of him, being suddenly broken by the presence of sixteen wives. "How this calls one home to humanity," he thought within himself.

"And he who lies there, sir, had none at all," continued the guide. "Bah! man, dost thou not hear the organ pouring forth again?" "Would you like to listen?" inquired the man with an astonished air: "and this is the tomb of Leofricus, the first and very famous Bishop of Exeter; who was translated from Crediton, by Edward the Con-"

"A heavenly chord that!" exclaimed Pedestres in a rapture. "fessor, sir," continued the man, nothing interrupted. "That Prince Edward was the most scrupulous and holy man that, I suppose, every carried a sceptre over his shoulder like a cudgel. Why, sir,' he said, drawing nearer, and lowering his voice mysteriously, "he married a very beautiful wife, and do you know he never

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"Hish!" again exclaimed Pedestres, very well aware of what was coming. Perhaps, amid all your knowledge touching this cathedral, you may be able-let us walk down this aisle-you may be able to tell me who laid the first stone of this edifice ?"

"Neither I, nor any man can auswer you that question, sir," replied the cicerone; "the precise date of its foundation is buried in the grave of antiquity. And no mattock or crow-bar, such as I would employ to delve into any of the tombs that lie scattered around us, would dig up even the bones of the true answer that you require."

Pedestres had accidentally wound up his guide, by inadvertently touching the key to the history of the building they were in: so that, like a piece of clock-work, he set off through a systematic routine of historical events, until he was run down. 66 King Athelstan," he therefore continued, " erected a house of Benedictine Monks on, or near, the site of the Virgin Mary's Chapel: but this must have been destroyed at the total subversion of the city by Sweyn the Dane. It is most probable the present structure was begun soon after the removal of the episcopal chair, from Crediton to Exeter, by Edward the Confessor, the holy prince of whom I was going to speak to your honour just now, but you wouldn't let me. When he installed"The sweetest organ I ever heard!" interrupting him.

"When, sir, he installed Leofricus in this see, he pronounced these ancient words-very ancient words, sir

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("I suppose they were not words of the nineteenth century,” said Pedestres, in a parenthesis.)

"These ancient words, sir:- I, kynge Edward, takynge Leofrike bye the ryghte haunde, and Edythe, my queene, bye the lefte; doe installe hym the fyrste and moste famous byshoppe of Exon, wythe a greate desyre of aboundance of blessynge to all such as shall furder and encrease the same; but wythe a fearful and execrable curse on all such as shalle diminishe, or take any thynge from it.' But, sir, this cathedral was not, as it has been learnedly expressed-opus unius seculi. (Pedestres looked at the man.) No, sir, we are told by Mr. Isaac, that it was 437 years in building.”

"Its varied architecture," said Pedestres, and Clavileno did not deny it," is an incontestible proof that it is not the offspring of one century—or half o' dozen."

"True, sir, true," replied the other; "but the greater part of what we now look on, emanated from the bounty of Peter Quivill, about the year of our blessed Lord 1288, with the exception of the two great towers. They, we are told, are the only remains of the fabric, that, before Quivill's time, was built by Bishop Warlewest. John Grandison, the seventeenth bishop, completed the choir, and rebuilt the nave and when your youthful honour, and your honour's walking-stick, came in at the west doorway-(Clavileno stamped on the pavement at this)-you passed a small chapel on your right, which goes by the name of Bishop Grandison's Chapel:' and which, in 1369, became his last resting place."

"This recess we are near," said Pedestres, taking up the conversation, "should be the corner, that, like a conservatory, has contained that evergreen-that never-fading blossom-that blooming flower of a century ?”

"You may well say, 'should be the corner;' for her radiance no longer brightens the surrounding walls."

"Ah! what?" exclaimed Pedestres in astonishment; "how is this? let me look closer?"

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"Your honour may go into the corner, but you will find nothing— she is gone-she is covered with the dust from whence she came.' "Good heavens !" rejoined Pedestres in great agitation; why who-why how-which-where-when-what have they done with her? Tell me, I entreat-I command you!"

The guide smiled.

"The lady has returned to the dust from whence she came, as I told you."

"What sacrilegious hand hath been here then? What discourteous knight hath violated and assaulted the sex he is bound to defend and protect by all the oaths, the most sacred and most obligatory that it is possible for a man to enrol himself under? Religion— word-honour-chivalry-Oh! great are the wrongs ye have suf

fered!"

"Your honour may as well spare yourself the trouble of apostrophizing."

"Tell me who did it-and how it was done-and when it was done -and

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"Her wasn't no use, sir," said the man drily.

"No use! no use! yes, every thing is of use !"

"So far she was of use, sir-she might have brought one or two

visitors in the year to see the cathedral; but many there are who come here, would rather turn the other way, than look into a coffin standing up-on-end."

"You know nothing about it, man," said Pedestres warmly; "you are no true knight

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"I was here one night, sir, standing by her coffin about midnight— I never shall forget it-I fancy I hear the bones of the skeleton creaking and dangling against the hollow sides of the upright coffin at this minute-'twas so dismal. I had forgotten to shut yonder window after evening service, and went home to my bed, leaving it in that state. But, as the great bell struck twelve, I started out of my sleep, and thought on the window I had left open. I couldn't restI couldn't sleep-I couldn't lie in my bed, till I had come here to shut it, and see that it was safe. I threw a cloak over me, without taking off my nightcap; and hastened through the south aisle to the window, dressed in that fashion-but 'twas no matter what I had on at that time o'night, I trow. When I got to Saint Gabriel's Chapel, where we now stand, I thought I heard somebody close behind me'twas enough to try the stoutest man-my heart jumped into my mouth, sir

"Did you swallow it again ?" inquired Pedestres, feelingly.

"I don't know, sir, I was in such a fluster-I trembled like a sinner

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"Happy simily!"

"But I think the best man in the varsel world would have wished himself elsewhere at such a moment. The farthing candle that I held in my hand seemed to light only those monuments that I passed close to, as I hurried across the cold pavement; and the figures carved on the tombs that were a few yards off appeared to follow me through the obscurity with their eyes. A man feels ready to take everything for a ghost when he walks among the dead at midnight; and there are many tales going, about spectres and phantoms that haunt the old walls, and stalk along the battlements on the roof when all welldisposed folks ought to be a-bed. Well, sir, when I got here, I thought I heard somebody so close to my heels, that I expected to be either knocked down by a being of this world, or griped round the waist by a spirit o' some other. But, sir," he added with an air of self-satisfaction, "when I think of it I am sometimes astonished at my own courage and presence of mind, that I displayed, when it was the thing I so much needed. I stood still, and after about three seconds and not before-I was able to turn round and look back. There was nothing to be seen; I listened-there was nothing to be heard of living man. It was a boisterous night towards the latter end of November; and the tempest howled through the loop-holes in the southern staircase, and that rusty iron chain you may see hanging from the roof, swung to and fro, and grated like a screech-owl. Perhaps,' thought I, it is that dismal sound that I heard just now,'— and the lattice of the casement I had come to shut flapped in the raging storm. It was awful, sir.-Whilst I stood on this spot, close to the coffin containing the old skeleton of the woman who murdered her infant, a gust of wind swept across the aisle from the window, and whisked round in the corner like a whirlwind. The lid of the

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