"Infatuated cutty!" said Norman, "let the jaud e'en drink o' her own brewst. What business has a cockleshell like her in a sea whare the very deevil himsel seems to be churning salt butter?" But while he grumbled, he was not the less actively employed in trimming our vessel for the blast, so as to ensure the utmost speed consistent with any thing like safety; and I saw a shade of deep and painful anxiety settle upon his manly features as he gazed after the cutter.

I have since thought that our pursuit, although we had no other object than of acting as a life-boat in case of need, was perhaps the cause of the fool-hardiness of the amateurs. Persons who have a slight knowledge, and only a slight knowledge of the sea, are of all others the most jealous of their reputation for seamanship. The cutter had been caught in a blunder, and was determined therefore to show that she was in reality a master and not a tyro; and finding herself followed to sea by an open wherry, in something not very distantly resembling a gale of wind, resolved to give the pursuers a fair breathing for their impudence.

The shades of evening, falling suddenly on the sea, began, by this time, to add to its horrors. The disk of the sun had already disappeared, leaving a dark, dull red, like the colour of clotted blood, in the western heavens. Every where else, masses of black clouds were rolling across the sky, emulating the waves below in the rapidity of their motion, the irregularity of their form, and the violence of their collision. The surface of the vast deep was now a desert, where only the cutter and our frail wherry crept shuddering through the waste. Around us, the precipitous gulfs, into which we plunged head foremost, till our bowsprit buried itself in the water, were as black as night; while the ridges, to which we rose and hung for an instant,

High on the broken wave, were a mass of boiling and bursting foam, as white as snow-drift,

As the eye gradually wandered into

the distance, this contrast of light and darkness became less apparent. Here and there, indeed, an enormous wave rose like an Alp, snow-crowned and broke in an avalanche; but, in general, the colour of the waste was a dull deathly gray. On the very edge of the sea horizon, scarcely distinguishable from the undulating masses of foam, in which her thin mast waved like a wand, we saw the cutter, almost wholly stripped of her gay apparel. We thought for a moment that she meant to come about, and the bowsprit, rigged with a small storm-jib, seemed to swing round; but this was, in all probability, the effect of a sea, for in an instant she righted, or appeared to do so; and then becoming gradually more filmy and indistinct, completely disappeared.

The evening was now fast turning into night, and after a few minutes more of anguish and irresolution, thick darkness came down upon the sea. To follow further would have been madness; and with heavy hearts, we at length performed the operation so difficult in such circumstances, of putting about. The coast of Arran was undistinguishable; but we knew our route by the lighthouses on the mainland, and had some hopes-provided we did not fill and go down by the way of being able to reach a certain creek, which is the only safe harbour on this side of the island when it blows hard off the main shore.

It would be no exaggeration to say that we succeeded by a miracle; for, to this day, I cannot imagine how it was possible, in the ordinary course of things, for a vessel like ours to live in such a sea. Having secured our wherry, Norman proceeded to a farm-house in the neighbourhood, to endeavour to make arrangements for supper; while I, throwing myself down in the lee of a rock, turned my eyes upon the dark sea, and began, as usual, to ponder and to dream.

Of all the ideas that rushed through my brain, like the hurrying rack above me, or the tumultuous waves at my feet, an impression of fate-of dark, inscrutable, inevitable destiny-was the most

distinct. I traced, one by one, the links of connexion which bound me to that fair being whose face I had never seen, and the sequence seemed complete. I felt that she had not perished, simply because I had escaped myself; and, absurd as it may seem, I waited on that spot, in the perfect confidence of seeing her before the night was at an end.

Such faith, vain and baseless as it may be, sometimes works, like the predictions of false prophets, towards its own accomplishment. I started suddenly up, as a new idea struck me; and flying to the farm-house, obtained a light, with which I kindled a beacon of turf and dry wood, on the promontory of rock overhanging the little harbour. There I took my stand, without hat or jacket, which had been thrown off in the exigence of our danger at sea; and with my hair streaming in the blast, my bare neck and shoulders, and dripping garments, I must have looked, in the red light of the beacon fire, like an apparition of the drowned.

Nor did I wait in vain. Among the breakers that burst in thunder near the shore, my practised eye at last discovered, through the darkness, an object which was neither foam nor water. A bowsprit, with a rag of sail, then appeared emerging from the deep; and then the shattered hull of the cutter, unrigged and dismasted, rolled like a wreck upon the wave. The two females were still in the stern, lying prone upon the deck, and clinging to the bulwarks, with the sea breaking over them; while the gallant but inexperienced crew hung upon the bows, to look out upon the new and still more appalling danger they were about to dare, and give directions to their comrade at the helm.

Their eager voices, rising together amidst the howling of the storm, confused the steersman, and he committed a dangerous error.

"Larboard!" shouted I. "Larboard, for your lives!" And I flung down a blazing log into the opening of the creek in order to point their way; but at that moment, a sea struck the rudder and tore it from its bed; the vessel pitched, and then dived till she was wholly submerged; and when I saw her again, she was hopelessly fixed upon a ridge of rock, many yards from the shore.

In an instant I was at the bottom of

the cliffs, and following, half swimming, half running, in the wake of the retreating surge.

"Save me!" cried one of the females, as I reached the cutter. It was the Voice. I caught her in my arms; I felt her arms twine round me; I felt her face press into my neck, as if for surer protection ;-I plunged with her into the howling deep.

All this was done in an instant, and yet I was too late. Dreadful was the roar we heard behind us, as the sea returned like a famished lion to reclaim its prey. We were lifted to a height, at which the brain reels and the heart faints, and then swallowed up in the bowels of the waves. And yet I did not lose my hold of my precious-precious burden; and yet I still felt her arms twined round my waist, and her eyes and lips buried in my neck. We were thrown upon a cliff, with a shock that seemed the separation of soul and body; but it was I who suffered: her delicate frame did not touch the rock; not a drop of her pure blood was spiltyes, it was I who suffered-thank God for that!

Torn, bruised, and faint, I had yet strength to rise once more; and I succeeded in placing her beyond the reach of the waves. Öh, what moments were these, when, in the darkness of that wild night, I hung over her insensible form, by turns trembling with hope and fainting with fear, yet my brain reeling, and my heart bursting with unspeakable joy!

She did not awake from her swoon, or trance, or lethargy, whatever it might be, and, in increasing alarm, I mustered the little strength I had left, and again took her up. The cotter's hut, although at some distance from the creek, was nearer this spot than the farm-house; and, aware that heat and shelter were all that could be expected from either, I bore her as quickly as my present state of exhaustion would allow, to the former.

The only inhabitant was an old woman who did not understand English-but I wanted no assistance. I laid down the apparently dead girl upon a bench by the fire, and chafed her hands and feet. She did not move; and, in an agony of alarm, almost amounting to phrenzy, I called on her unconscious spirit by every term of endearment and adjuration I

could think of; I pressed her in my arms, rained showers of tears on her cold cheeks, and covered her frozen lips with the kisses of my despair.

Never had I beheld a face so divinely fair. Her skin was like polished marble, and so strangely contrasted with the wreaths of jet-black hair, which hung over her shoulders, as to give a character of the unearthly to her beauty. At length she moved. Her bosom rose convulsively; a strong shudder ran through her frame, and her eyes opened slowly. She threw a bewildered look round the apartment, but seemed presently to comprehend her situation.

"Are the rest saved?" she muttered faintly.

"Yes," said I, at a venture. “Why did you risk your life for a stranger? ?" and tears rose into her eyes. "It was not for a stranger."

66

Where, then, have we met?" "In a former state of existence! Some days ago I heard you singing on the rocks, and the sound entered my soul like a memory. I haunted your path all this day on these stormy seas, but till now I never saw your face." While I was making this strange, but characteristic avowal, I saw her dart at me one of those brief, almost instantaneous glances, by which the quick eye of woman gathers in volumes of intelligence. She was apparently satisfied, for, without showing the smallest surprise at what I had said, she replied

"The song was sung on purpose for your ear. I caught one glimpse of your boat when it was little more than an oar's length from the rocks. I knew you did not see them, and played the part of a Siren, not to betray, but to draw you from a situation which seemed to me to involve some peril."

"The song, then, saved your own life!"

"Even that was only a link. The notes would have been forgotten as soon as heard, had they not fallen into a heart where there existed, by nature, a congenial echo!"

While she was speaking, I found my eyes grow dim, and the apartment swim round. My fatigue and anxiety, together with the severe contusions I had suffered on the rocks, took effect. Her last words, however-precious words to one whose heart felt, like mine, the

yearnings that Plato dreamt of!-fell distinctly on my ear, and, with a thrill of delight, mingled with the sensation of faintness, I pressed my lips to her hand, and sunk lifeless at her feet.

The next morning Norman and I left the island of Arran. The whole party were safe at the house of Colonel ; but I did not see his daughter before my departure, as she, as well as her sister, was confined to bed from the effects of their sufferings, both in body and mind, on the preceding day. I went away, however, with a light heart, Norman and I being invited to spend the following week with the family, as the first of a series of visits intended to continue throughout the season.

It may be supposed-but no, it cannot be supposed-what effect this adventure had on an imagination like mine. In the first place, the preternatural concurrence of events filled me with a kind of spiritual pride, and strengthened the fantastic feelings of which my bosom was the prey. Let any one conjecture what would have been the consequence had deformity and stupidity revealed themselves in the person of my unseen mistress, rather than the enthusiasm which my self-love called genius, and the unearthly beauty which made her look like a spirit! But my wild and mysterious impression had not merely been realized, even in this extraordinary manner (which philosophy, perhaps, would have termed a coincidence), but there appeared to me to be in our minds, and in the current of our thoughts, a congeniality which was nothing less than miraculous!

Hitherto I had found no companion -no one who could understand meno one whom I understood. O, the curse of the cold eye, the rigid lip, and the sealed heart! How my soul had yearned for that imaginary friend, in whose bosom I could pour out my feelings, without dread either of scorn or ridicule, or, even worse, of the stare of unconscious surprise! Had I not found the object of my longings? Had not a "beauty of the earth" realized

The nympholepsy of my fond despair? I was giddy with delight; my brain burned; a flush, resembling that of fever, sat on my cheek; and an unnatural fire blazed in my eye.

Visions of nineteen descend again into my soul!—I see the majestic and beloved river roll palpably before me; I strike my heel upon this carpeted floor, and the shore rattles at the sound; I see the great deep below, and the great heaven above, and the forest glades, and far-vista'd glens around me; the song of the lark, and the plaintive cry of the plover are in my ear; I gaze upon that face of mortal beauty, etherealized by immortal love; I twine my arms around the phantom, and rain wild kisses on her lips and eyes! Visions of nineteen, ye alone are dim, and far, and impalpable to my soul !

I would fain recal them, but I cannot, for I am changed. They come back to my heart like returning doves, but will not alight. They hover mournfully for a moment above the ruin that once was their home, and then take wing and disappear.

One day elapsed beyond the time specified for my visit-for I was not entirely master of my own actions. It was but a small space of time, although it seemed an age to me; but, on the ninth day, I received the following note from Norman, dated at Arran :

***

"What can be the matter with you? Why do you not come? She is ill-she caught cold on that infernal night. "P.S.-I think the cold has struck to her heart.-Come quickly.”

If you can imagine that spirit of immortal pride, sung by our Milton, hurled in a moment of fancied triumph from the very highest heaven to the very lowest hell, you may form some idea of my situation. But, although I started, and shrunk, and shivered to the very centre, I did not, like him, despair. The thought of her death was too monstrous to be entertained. What, she die !-my newly-found treasure-the Egeria of my lonely heart! she-who glided before me, like a star, in the wilderness of life! she-that

Young Aurora of the air,

whom my soul had already undeified into woman, and clung to as my true friend, my fond and faithful wife, my lovely and adored mistress!

I was once more on the shores of Arran. How cold the air felt!-my limbs were marble, and my heart ice. The knocker was tied up; two servants

were listening, pale, trembling, and in tears, at the door of an apartment. I went in. Some figures, like spectres, were in the silent room. I glided through them, and approached the bed.

"I knew he would come!" said a faint voice, which I hear, even now, in the very depths of my being; and she endeavoured to raise herself on her elbow.

"You preserved my life," continued she, with the smile of a spirit, "from the fierce and stormy deep-but now my Father in heaven demands it! Our wild, fantastic dream is over, before it is well begun. Do not weep: think of me, when I go hence, as of a phantom of the mind: yet sometimes look at this, the last legacy of one who would-who would-who- and as she put her portrait into my hand, her voice was choked, and her eyes filled with tears.

I sank upon my knees by the bedside, and pressed the cold, fair hand to my tearless eyes. The world seemed departing from me, like a scroll; I felt my heart rending within me; my bosom was convulsed with sobs, that shook my frame to the centre. I attempted to speak.

"Live! live!" was all I could utter. "Live!" continued I, with maniac fervour "in the name of the most high God, do not leave me!" The mourners attempted to draw me away: and, when I could no longer resist, I besought them with the most moving entreaties to allow me to remain.

"I will be calm," I said-" I will be silent-only suffer me to look upon her to the last !"

"Let my dear friend remain," said the dying girl, still more faintly; and I felt her press my hand with one of hers, while she made a sign with the other. All sank upon their knees; and I heard the minister, in a low, deep voice, begin one of those touching prayers, that are drawn extempore from the heart by the spirit of devotion. My soul grew calm, as he went on; the convulsions of my body subsided; and showers of tears fell from my eyes.

On a sudden, she pressed my hand strongly, and the minister, at the same moment, paused. I looked up in her face: it was the image only that lay before me the soul which had hallowed it was in heaven!