He was ascending the ladder with weak steps to see what was passing above, and, if he could, to render his Captain assistance, when the latter came down hastily.

"I am glad, Toby, to see you on your legs again," said he, "especially as I want to send you ashore instantly. Hark you, go up, say not a word to any of the men if you can avoid it, put yourself as quietly as possible in the boat which is on the water, and, as soon as this young stranger now in my cabin is by your side, push off, and move as quickly as you like to Toronto beach."

The old man did not stay to speak a word, but made all haste to fulfil his Captain's request.

The cabin door was unlocked; the Pirate entered, still with assumed composure. His countenance, however, was flushed and dark, and there was a slumbering vengeance in his eye, which augered ill, at some future nour, for those who had chafed, and humbled, and disturbed him.

"Nicholas," said he, with a smile, "I must cut short our conference. Much that I had intended to say to you must be left unsaid until a more favourable opportunity. Embrace your sister, and part from her at once, the boat waits for you. Her heart will be with you while you are absent from her; for to be affectionate to the relatives God has given her, is part of her religion, as it was of her mother's."

Now Jane was alternately pressed to the heart of her father and her brother. "These days of terror!" she exclaimed; "would to God they were passed!"

cr

"They will only pass, I fear, with my life," said the Pirate, gloom suddenly overshadowing his whole aspect;

and, after a few brief sentences more, Clinton left the cabin. As he was about to spring into the boat, he was detained by one of the men who had endeavoured to excite a mutiny.

"You must not go, young gentleman," said he, "until you have signed yourself as one of us; so that if we should be trussed on a gibbet for the entertainment of the good folks in Toronto, you may keep us company."

Seeing several ruffianly individuals standing by the speaker, armed, Clinton, after an unavailing remonstrance, deemed it only prudent to comply with the unpleasant demand. After he had placed his name at the bottom of the list of pirates, he was allowed to enter the boat, and Haverstraw, who was already in it, instantly rowed off. They had not gone many yards before a shot came whistling by the head of Clinton, and dropped harmlessly in the lake. This made Toby hasten the progress of the little bark, which soon floated in safety at the edge of the fine, clean, limestone beach of gravel.

CHAPTER XII.

"Farewell again! and yet

Must it indeed be 30-and on this shore

Shall you and I no more

Together see the sun of the summer set."-Barry Cornwall.

THE afternoon had been extremely hot and bright, though the winter was close at hand. The evening came on soft and mellow in its more sober colourings. The blue-winged duck flew over the tranquil waters of the lake, beneath a sky so splendid that it would outvie the gaudiest pageant of man's invention. Yellow clouds were sprinkled over the wide blue ether, becoming, toward the west, gorgeous with other brilliant colours; and there was the mighty sun himself, his enlarged disk just ready to dip beneath the water, that burned with a golden glory, streaming out far across the lucid tide toward the beach.

After Haverstraw returned to the ship, Clinton walked by the lake, endeavouring to calm the fever of his mind by the tranquillising influences of nature, which he of all men was fitted to understand and feel. But there were at least two spirits in his breast which the most potent spells of nature could not exorcise-conscience and

passion. New ties were now entwined around him, with new sorrows, new pains, new anxieties. His father he had been prepared to love, even before he met him, and he now did love him—yes, love him even for his errors' sake. But his sister, she was a character so excellent in her unobtrusiveness, in her purity, in her gentleness, in her piety, and in her devotedness to her parent, that he shrank back from himself with abhorrence when he thought of her. It had been with inward shame that he had sat in her presence-remembering all that had passed in the Pastor's settlement-knowing that she was a mourner for Lucy, whose death he justly charged himself with having caused—and feeling satisfied that she, at least, had suspected latterly the truth of his statements regarding the son of the backwoodsman.

There was no relief under heaven for him from the burden of his conscience. He now learned that a loaded conscience is an awful thing, and will permit no peace to its possessor, unless it be the peace which stupid indifference yields and Clinton was not moulded for that.

Once, after a fit of deep, remorseful melancholy, he stopped abruptly in his walk, raised his eyes from the gravel, and, while a light suddenly flashed in them, and while his cheek burned, the name of "Lady Hester," broke audibly from his lips, in an accent of lively passion. All other feelings-ties-remembrances-obligations were cast in an instant from his mind. She, and she alone, was now the object of his heated thoughts. He recalled, with dangerous minuteness, every word which he had overheard her say to the Governor's ladyher sobs, her vehement utterance, and her expressions of hatred against her husband. He dwelt upon them

entirely absorbed, until his train of thought was interrupted by the passing by of many persons. He then found that he had unconsciously walked with very rapid steps to the most frequented part of the beach, and that his look of abstraction had already drawn upon him the notice of several individuals.

Rather confused by this discovery he stood still, and affected to be engaged in observing the motions of half a dozen men who were conveying stores into a strong steam vessel, upon which the eyes of many curious gossips, male and female, were assiduously bent. From the flying small talk which was alive among them, he learned that this was the vessel appointed to "hunt the Pirate," and that forty picked men were paid to man it.

How miraculously had a few hours altered his feelings with regard to that Pirate; he could not look upon the vessel without a sick shudder; his right hand closed on the air tightly, so that the nails pierced the palm, as if some instrument of death were in it for that Pirate's defence.

As he was anxious to escape the crowd of loiterers of the lower orders, which the closing of the hours of trade, and the calmness of the evening, had drawn forth from the streets of Toronto, he ascended the nearest cliffs, on whose white sides the amber flood of the sunlight rested with beautiful effect.

He proceeded with unwearied steps along the head of the line of cliffs, meeting few persons, and choosing the wildest tracks in order that he might meet with fewer. At length, he sat down to rest near the edge of the precipice, on a spot which was well known for the prospect it afforded-perhaps the finest of the fine ones for which