women of New England, sought her hand, and the day of marriage was fixed. They were not married, and the breaking of the engagement affords a striking illustration of his character. His biographer thus relates the circumstances connected with it :

"Poe said to a female acquaintance in New York, who congratulated him upon the prospect of his union with a person of so much genius, and so many virtues, 'It is a mistake, I am not going to be married.' 'Why, Mr. Poe, I understand that the banns have been published!' 'I cannot help what you have heard, my dear madam, but, mark me, I shall not marry her!' He left town the same evening, and the next day was reeling through the streets of the city, which was the lady's home; and in the evening that should have been the evening before the bridal,

means

in his drunkenness he committed at her house such outrages as made necessary a summons of the police." He pursued a course of reckless dissipation for some time, after which he went to Virginia, on raised from the charity of his few remaining friends. He delivered some lectures there; then he joined a temperance society, and professed a determination to reform his evil habits. But it was too late; his bad genius prevailed over all his better resolutions. Again he contracted an engagement to marry a lady whom he had known in his youth, and returned to New York to fulfil a literary engagement, and prepare for his marriage. In a tavern he casually met some of his old acquaintances, who invited him to drink; he drank until he was deplorably drunk: he was afterwards found in the streets, insane and dying, and was carried to the public hospital, in which he expired, on the 7th of October, 1849, in his thirty-eighth year.

Thus miserably perished another of the most gifted of earth's sons. What a torn record of a life it is! more sorrowful by far than that of our own Otway or Chatterton. Alternately a seraph and a brute,-an inspired poet and a grovelling sensualist, a prophet and a drunkard,―his biography unfolds a tale of mingled admiration and horror, such as has been told of very few literary men, even in their worst estate. It is painful to think of it, but it is right that such a history should be known, were it only as a beacon to warn susceptible youth from that horrible fascination of drink, which lures so many to their destruction.

YANKEE HOMESPUN.

"When I lived in Maine," said Uncle Ezra, "I helped to break up a new piece of ground. We got the wood off in the winter, and early in the spring we begun ploughing on't. It was so consarned rocky that we had to get forty yoke of oxen to one ploughwe did, faith; and I held that plough more'n a week. I thought I should die. It e'en a most killed me, I vow. Why, one day, I was hold'n, and the plough hit a stump which measured just nine feet and a half through it, hard and sound white oak. The plough split it, and I was going straight through it when I happened to think it might snap together again, so I threw my feet out, and had no sooner done this than it snapped together, taking a smart hold of the seat of my pantaloons. Of course I was tight, but I held on to the plough-handles; and, though the teamsters did all they could, that team of eighty oxen could not tear my pantaloons, nor cause me to let go my grip. At last, though, after letting the cattle breathe, they gave another strong pull altogether, and the old stump came out about the quickest. It had monstrous long roots, too, let me tell you. My wife made the cloth for them pantaloons, and I haven't worn any other kind since." The only reply made to this was "I should have thought it would have come hard upon your suspenders." "Powerful hard." -Sam Slick's Traits of American Humour.

SELF-INDULGENCE takes many forms, and we should bear in mind that there may be a sullen sensuality as well as a gay one.

RUNNING after happiness is only chasing the horizon.

KINDNESS pains more than cruelty when it is given instead of love.

A REVENGEFUL knave will do more than he will say; a grateful one will say more than he will do.

MANY men have the materials of happiness placed within their reach, but not one in ten knows how to manufacture anything out of them except ennui.

A PRESENTIMENT of coming gladness is the summit of terrestrial felicity.

LOVE can excuse anything except meanness, but meanness kills love, and cripples even natural affec

tion.

Printed by Cox (Brothers) & WYMAN, 74-75, Great Queen Street, London; and published by CHARLES COOK, at the Office of the Journal, 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street.

TALES OF THE SLAVE SQUADRON.

"THE FAIR ROSAMOND."

I HAVE witnessed in my time-more than a quarter of a century has slipped past since then-many strange scenes, and taken part in not a few dashing enterprises in connection with the Slave Squadron on the south-west coast of Africa. Some of these will, I think, interest and amuse the general reader, especially if, in telling them, I can manage to avoid the profuse use of, to landsmen, unintelligible sea-terms, in which nautical tale-writers are so unmercifully prone to indulge. Without further preface, then, I start, almost necessarily, with the story of the Fair Rosamond, although incidentally only connected with the exertions of the Slave Squadron, and partaking more of a shore than a sea character.

Just previous to entering the service, I was a gawky stripling of nineteen, residing in the Vale of Bath, county Surrey, Jamaica; my boyish head full of silly romance, and my heart alternately swayed by two master passions,--love of bright eyes, and blue water. Two attractive objects pointed and individualized this double penchant,-one, the Fair Rosamond, the other, a beautiful maid of Bath-Jamaica, not Somersetshire Bath. I found it difficult to decide between these rival beauties; the elegant, finelymoulded frame of the Fair Rosamond reposed gracefully as a swan upon the waters, and there was a light, airy, coquettish way about all her movements,--rakish I should say, but that I am speaking of a lady,especially when an hour or so after the rising of the land-breeze she unfolded her white wings in the bright morning sunlight, and glided from Kingston Roads towards Point Morant, the fresh waves leaping and sparkling to embrace her as she passed, and then, doubling on her path, shot back to her moorings with the undulating sweep and velocity of a sea-bird, which was perfectly irresistible. As frequently happens, I had become enamoured of this beauty before informing myself of her true character, which, upon inquiry, I found to be anything but immaculate.

"You know her captain, of course?" remarked young Freestun, the nephew of a Kingston merchant, who, like me, was watching the brigantine's motions on such a morning as I have described.

"By sight only. A slim young man, of perhaps

[PRICE 14d.

eight or nine-and-twenty: I saw him come on shore in his fancy gig yesterday. What is his name?"

"It is odd you do not know; ask Mademoiselle Tollemache," replied Freestun, with a light sarcastic laugh; "she can give you more information than any one else. As to his name, that which he bears here is no secret; he is called Charles HubertCaptain Charles Hubert."

"And pray what trade is Captain Charles Hubert engaged in?" I asked, after a moment's reflection.

"What trade-humph! Well, whilst here, Captain Hubert's trade, as far as I have seen, consists in gaming, drinking, racing, betting, and so on; pleasant, all that, if it would but last."

"He is a man of fortune, then?" "Of amazingly good fortune, I am told," replied Freestun, still in the same light ironical tone; "and if one might credit," he added, "what our Jamaica gossips say, but they are such slanderers, you know, Captain Hubert can play at the now forbidden game of Blanc et Noir, blanc to win five times out of six, as well as any skipper north or south of the Line."

"I understand; but what does he here, then?"

"Ask Mademoiselle Virginie, I repeat; she is, I have reason to suspect, particularly intimate with this interesting captain, or at least-but there goes old Squaretoes to the office: I must begone; farewell!"

This was odd,-perplexing. This same Virginie Tollemache was the fair maid of Bath I have spoken of; and how, in the name of all the Saints, could there be any sympathy between that bright particular star in the galaxy of womankind, and a mercenary trader in human beings,-a vulgar slave-dealing ruffian? It could only be a scurvy jest of Freestun's, -nothing more. To suppose otherwise were sheer blasphemy; and yet I had scarcely a right to arrive at so peremptory a conclusion, my knowledge of Mademoiselle Tollemache being, as with the treacherous Fair Rosamond, of a very distant and superficial kind. All I knew of her, and of her family, may Бе summed up in a very few words :

My father, Mr. Peregrine Sutcliffe, had arrived in Jamaica about fifteen months previously, as manager and superintendent of an estate, chiefly situate in the Vale of Bath, belonging to Augustus Penshurst, Esq., a Cornish gentleman and member of parliament, and

was succeeding in his arduous vocation remarkably well. I, his only surviving son, of course accompanied him. Mr. Andrew Tollemache, a Scotch gentleman, married to a French lady, resided in Vale Lodge, about a mile nearer to the town, or village, of Bath than our domicile. Mr. Tollemache, formerly of Trinidad, was a prosperous planter, and Virginie was his only child. She was, I concluded, called Virginie,-Mademoiselle Virginie,-because her mother was known as Madame Tollemache. The practice of hospitality is a religion in the Antilles, and it thus happened that my father and myself were frequent guests at Vale Lodge, and that I, as a matter of course, fancied myself desperately in love with the divine Virginie. Beautiful exceedingly, of stately and elegant form,-lustrous as a tropical star, a radiance by the way, very different from that of the pale points of light which dot our northern hemisphere,-dreamy, dark-eyed as a gazelle, and three years my senior, she would, I doubt not, have halfexpired with laughter had any one suggested that she was an object of serious admiration to such a lubberly young cub as I then was. This was transparently clear, even to my own silly self; and, spite of the charm of her occasional presence and society, and, descending to mundane attractions, the beauty of the island, the splendour of its luxurious vegetation, and the many agrémens incident to a West-India habitat, the ardent longings for a sea life, first awakened on the beaches of Devon, returned strongly upon me, and gathered force and intensity with every passing hour. Wearied at length with my incessant importunities, my father was induced to promise that, at the first favourable opportunity, my wishes should be complied with. We had thought of opening negociations with the captain of the Fair Rosamond, but the morning revelations would of necessity put an end to such a purpose at once and for ever.

The reader is now sufficiently cognizant of the state of affairs in connection with myself, relatives, and neighbours, as they existed on the day when Captain -Charles Hubert's character and vocation, and his asserted intimacy with Virginie Tollemache, were so broadly hinted at by young Mr. Freestun. I sauntered homewards late in the evening,-if that could be called evening of which the silver splendour rivalled in luminous transparency the golden glory of the day, rendering distant and surrounding objects as distinctly visible as at noontide. My father was not at home; he might be at Vale Lodge, and I bent my not unwilling feet thither in quest of him. A quarter of an hour brought me to a sharp turn in the path, distant only about two or three hundred yards from the avenue of palms leading directly to Mr. Tollemache's house. Before I could myself be seen, I caught a glimpse of two persons standing close by each other. just within the shadow of the trees. I leapt back to the concealing shelter of some bushes as hastily as if a deadly serpent had suddenly confronted

me.

One of those persons I recognized at a glance,it was Virginie Tollemache; there was no mistake about that; but who could her companion be? He stood more within the shadow than his companion did, and his back, as he conversed, apparently with great earnestness, with her, was towards me; yet did Freestun's words flash, with instantaneous conviction of their truth, across my mind! The fellow's height, his figure, were those of the captain of the slaver: but I should be sure presently, for they were about to part. The lady, by her frequent and hurried glances in the direction of her father's house, appeared to apprehend interruption or discovery from that quarter, and by her impatient gestures, as she forcibly disengaged her hands from his, it was evident she was urging his immediate departure. At last he

yielded to her entreaties; they embraced each other tenderly, and separated, the lady speeding along the avenue towards her home, and the gentleman, after a moment's hesitation, walking gaily towards me, whistling as he came. I at once stepped into the broad path, and we rapidly neared each other. Captain Charles Hubert-it was he was somewhat startled at seeing me, and made a kind of irresolute pause as if to speak, but his half-formed purpose did not hold, and with a defiant toss of his head, a twirl of his cane, and a louder whistle, he passed on. I walked slowly towards Vale Lodge, where I found my father, as I expected, profoundly immersed in the game of backgammon with Mr. Tollemache; Madame Tollemache was busy with some accounts at a side table, and Mademoiselle Virginie was sitting as demurely and tranquilly at the pianoforte as if she had just come in from church, or a prayer-meeting; only when she approached the table to bid us farewell, the light of the candles showed me, though no one else noticed it, that her eyes were full of tears, and there was a trembling sadness in her "Good night" which sounded on my ear like the echo of a recent and painful agitation. Boy as I was, and apart from any silly, selfish sentiment, I felt deeply grieved-shocked may say. The proud, sensitive, beautiful girl had, I feared, ventured upon a slippery and dangerous path, in which one false step were ruin. I did not, however, feel that I had any right to betray her secret, and except to my father, who uttered not a word of reply or comment, I did not breathe a syllable of the matter to a living soul.

I

I rose the next morning very late, and with more vehemence than ever, intreated my father to redeem his promise of sending me to sea, no matter in what ship, scarcely in what capacity.

"Well, well," he half ironically replied, "I'll see what can be done; you're not fit for a civilized shore life, that's very certain; perhaps, however, a strict man-of-war captain may be able to drill you into sense as well as seamanship; and, if I mistake not, Commander Penshurst is just the man for such a task." "Commander Penshurst ! "

Ay, cousin to the proprietor of this estate; he commands his Majesty's sloop of war Curlew, just arrived at Port Royal. He will be here to-morrow, and I think it not unlikely that he may obtain you a midshipman's warrant."

I jumped on my feet, and clasped my hands with ecstacy. "My dear father! do you really think so?"

Why yes, I know him well, and I think he would even strain a point to oblige me. I see by the papers that he has had a smart boat affair with an armed Spanish slaver off Cuba, in which several of his crew, including a middy, have lost the number of their mess. The prize has been sent into the Havanna for adjudication by the Mixed Commission there, and he has brought three of her hands,-Englishmen, and said to be deserters, to Jamaica. The Curlew will remain here ten days or a fortnight, some repairs being necessary. You are aware, Tom," he added, gravely, "that she is attached to the African Slave Squadron ?"

me.

Certainly, I was aware of that; but when did a madcap greenhorn, eager for novelty and adventure, stop to calculate the danger of the course he was bent upon pursuing. I was entranced by the sudden brilliancy of the prospect opening before As to Mademoiselle Virginie; my dominant thought, I remember, with regard to that terrestrial angel, was one of exultation at the mortification and regret she must infallibly experience when, dazzled with my new uniform, she became aware what a promising young Nelson she had slighted and passed over for a rascally slave-monger!

Commander Penshurst was punctual to his appoint

ment, went over the plantation, and expressed himself extremely pleased with the condition of his relative's estate. This was a favourable opening, and my father made the request agreed upon. Captain Penshurst was a fine-looking, dashing officer, in the early prime of life; and, as my father spoke, his dark hawk-eye measured me from head to foot, in a way that sent the hot blood to my toe and finger-ends in a gallop. "Humph! by no means an ill-favoured young fellow, Sutcliffe, this son of yours, though it's rather late in the day with him for a start in naval life: I can, however, give him an acting warrant, which I dare say the admiral will confirm; the sooner, therefore, he gets his sea-togs on, and reports himself on board, the better."

These words decided my destiny, and three days afterwards I stepped, handsomely rigged out, upon the Curlew's deck. I was kindly received by Lieutenant Armstrong, a strict disciplinarian, but a kindhearted, gentlemanly man, though he did, in sailorphrase, come in at the hawse-holes. The Curlew was a powerful vessel of her class, carrying eighteen guns, four of which were carronades, upon a flush deck, besides a long nine-pounder brass swivel gun about midships, and had a prime crew of one hundred and seventy-five men and boys. The required repairs were nearly completed, and but a few days would elapse, I was informed, before we again steered for the south-west of Africa. The Fair Rosamond was still at her moorings, at no great distance from the Curlew, but quite ready for a sudden start, having cleared at the Custom House some days previously for the Cape Verde Islands, and thence to the Gambia and Rio Grande, in quest of palm oil,-a common dodge of slavers in those days, because affording them an excuse for taking on board a large number of empty casks destined to hold the water necessary for the crowd of human beings they expected to bring off. Keen eyes on board the sloop were frequently bent upon the Fair Rosamond; and it was the opinion of most of the old hands that they had seen the brigantine before, though not within such easy speak. ing distance, and when not painted in quite such fal-theral style as at present. We saw very little of Captain Penshurst - business or pleasure kept him almost constantly ashore,-but the service of the ship was carried on with order and dispatch by the lieutenant in command, and the Curlew was reported ready for sea some time before it was expected she would be. I obtained leave to go on shore for the purpose of bidding my friends good-by, and on reaching home I was not a little surprised to find my father, togged smartly, off for a grand dinner-party at the Tollemaches, and that I was to accompany him. He almost laughed out, as I, on hearing this, frizzed up my hair with my fingers, and glanced complacently at my new uniform, in a mirror opposite. "You silly jackanapes," he pleasantly broke out, "what chance, think you, can a beardless stripling like you" (this was a libel as regards beard) "have against a man wearing two gold epaulettes?" I made no reply to this courteous speech,- -one reason being that I did not comprehend it,-but a short time after setting foot in Vale Lodge it was perfectly intelligible. Captain Penshurst was there; and it was plain as daylight that he and the enchanting Virginie were acknowledged, contracted lovers,--so rapid is the growth of sentiment and passion in those hot, tropical climes. Mr. and Madame Tollemache were also evidently aware of, and gratified with, their daughter's important conquest, the captain of the Curlew had wealth as well as social rank to bestow. Whilst I, for more reasons than one, was exceedingly ill at ease. How about the moonlight meeting with the skipper of the brigantine beneath the palm-trees? Ought I not to

inform Captain Penshurst of that significant circumstance? 66 Virginie," I bitterly cogitated, “Virginie is a vain, heartless coquette, and it is my duty, therefore, to .' "Don't make a fool of yourself, Tom," broke in upon my reverie, from my father's voice, carefully pitched in an under tone. I was standing, at the moment, in a window-recess, apart from the company. "Don't make a fool of yourself, Tom: I know what you are muttering about, quite well a mere girlish caprice, depend upon it, that could not for a moment be expected to survive the addresses of a bona fide captain of the royal navy. Be silent, therefore, upon matters that concern you not."

I deferred to this parental counsel, and as quickly as possible took my leave of the very agreeable party. This was on a Sunday. On the Tuesday we were to sail; and, late on the previous evening, we were surprised by the captain's hail from a shore - boat nearly alongside, he not being expected on board till the next morning. There was a brilliant moon; and the instant Captain Penshurst reached the deck, I saw that he was in a state of extreme excitement. His face was white as stone; and so were his firmly-compressed, yet quivering lips; and a volcano of passionate rage gleamed in his burning eyes. He walked sharply aft, and spoke briefly with Lieutenant Armstrong: the subject was, I could hear, the Fair Rosamond and her captain. Presently he came forward and abruptly addressed me :- "Sutcliffe, you know something of this Captain Charles Hubert, as he calls himself: so, at least, your father hints. Is this so?"

"I know very little of him, sir-and that-"

"Do you know where he is likely to be met with just now?" interrupted Captain Penshurst, impatiently.

"Very probably at the Royal Hotel."

"Show me: I know the fellow by sight, myself, but you had better come with me."

At

He

"Will

The shore-boat was still alongside, and in ten minutes we were landed. The Royal Hotel was soon reached, but we passed through several crowded rooms without meeting the object of our search. length we found him in a billiard-room, with three or four companions. He was playing for a large stake, and did not notice our entrance. At last his eye caught the fixed, angry stare with which Captain Penshurst regarded him. It shook him somewhat; but quickly rallying, he returned it with one equally fierce and menacing. His self-possession and steadiness of hand were however gone: he missed the easiest of strokes, and finally threw down his cue, with a curse. had lost a considerable sum. Captain Penshurst's fiery glance was now, it seemed to me, riveted upon a curiously-twisted guard-chain round Hubert's neck, to which, I supposed, a watch was attached. you play with me?" exclaimed the commander of the Curlew, with startling abruptness, as he seized a cue, and approached close to Hubert: you and I are, I am sure, old, though, I think, never before such near acquaintances as just now." A deep flush crimsoned the slave-captain's features, but he said nothing, and was moving away, when Captain Penshurst, who was fairly beside himself with passion, suddenly raised his cue, and, by a dexterous lateral jerk, struck open Hubert's waistcoat with the butt-end, thereby revealing a locket suspended by the curiously-twisted gold neck-chain. To seize it, glare at it with dilated eyes, and cast it wildly from him, was, with Captain Penshurst, the work of an instant. Rascal," he shouted, "from whom did you steal that portrait ?” Hubert instantly saw his advantage; a mocking, triumphant light shot athwart his countenance, and his lips curled derisively, as he slowly rejoined,

"Where did I steal this portrait of la belle Virginie, you ask? A pleasant question, truly. It strikes me now that you have chanced to see mine, similarly chained and mounted, in that charming person's possession, eh? most valorous captain? But here is something you have not yet seen. Look! Read! A mon bien-aimé, Charles Hubert:-Virginie T.' And, see, the date is June 9, 1824: an old friendship, you perceive; and, I believe, your companion there can satisfy you that it is a very intimate, affectionate one."

A terrific blow on the face of the taunting rascal was Captain Penshurst's answer. Hubert reeled, lost his balance, and fell heavily on the floor; but regained his feet in an instant, and sprang towards his assailant with the leap and yell of a tiger. A bowie knife glittered for a moment in his hand; the next, an agonizing cry, and sudden jet of blood, pro claimed how fatally he had avenged himself. The terror and confusion of such a scene may be imagined. Hubert and his companions rushed out of the room, and I was left alone with the apparently dying captain. But a few moments, however, passed before the landlord and others made their appearance: the sufferer, who had fainted, was carried to bed, and medical assistance was instantly obtained. This done, I started off to inform the shore authorities of what had happened, and next made for the Curlew in all haste. Lieutenant Armstrong, after listening to the account I gave, with much emotion, instantly determined on boarding the Fair Rosamond, and seizing her captain, if on board, by the sole warranty of force; and hastily left the cabin for that purpose. He was too late: the Fair Rosamond had given us the slip; and all we could discern of her was the faint gleam of her white sails, already far away to the eastward. The lieutenant resolved upon instant pursuit the necessary orders were given, and in less than no time we were cracking on in the wake of the brigantine, under a ten-knot breeze from the northwest. But the Atlantic is a wide place; and the morning light revealed to us nothing but a vast expanse of air and ocean, untenanted by a ship or human being, save ourselves. Our friend had, for the present at least, escaped. We, however, kept on; reached in due time the Cape Verde islands, looked in there, and subsequently ran down the African coast to about ten degrees of south latitude, without falling in with either the Fair Rosamond or any other prizeable craft. We did not, however, despair of overhauling the brigantine, for we heard of her repeatedly, and at length our hopes were realized. The sloop had just rounded a headland at no great distance from the mouth of the Coanza river, when the look-out aloft sung out "Sail ho! and right ahead." Every glass was instantly directed towards the stranger-distinctly visible, at the distance of about half-a-league, though evening was fast closing in.

There was no mistaking her: it was the Fair Rosamond, plain enough, under crowded canvas, and slipping away to the westward at the rate of six knots at least, light as the wind was. She was well down in the water, and had, it was nothing doubted, a closely packed living cargo on board. Every possible inch of canvas was instantly spread in pursuit; and, as it was evident we were seen, a gun was cast loose, and a shot sent across the slaver's bows; and at the same moment St. George's glorious ensign flew aloft, immediately greeted-as I have hundreds of times exulted to hear - by the incense of the man-stealer's maledictions. The impudent rascals returned the shot, hoisted Spanish colours, and, changing her course a point or two, ran off at a spanking rate. The Curlew's guns would have reached her, but, sending round shot after a vessel

whose hold was crowded with human beings, was not to be thought of, except in the last extremity, and all our efforts were consequently directed to run alongside and capture her by boarding. This was more easily proposed than brought to pass. A sternchase is proverbially a long chase; and our dance across the Atlantic after the Fair Rosamond proved no exception to the rule. The nights were, however, fine and clear, so that we fortunately contrived_not to lose sight of her. Cuba, or possibly Porto Rico seemed to be her destination; but the wind and the Curlew baffled her efforts to reach either of the desired havens, and so far was she driven out of her course that the blue mountains of Jamaica had been for some time visible from the deck, when the fitful, varying breeze fell suddenly to a dead calm. This occurred in the night; and, as a thick mist, which came on at the same time, rose, like a curtain in the dawning light, the Fair Rosamond was descried, as motionless as ourselves, at about two leagues distance on the starboard bow. Unless the devil could help his own, at such a pinch, with a speedy breeze, we were now sure of her. Three of the Curlew's boats fell quickly from the davits into the water, and were off in a crack, fully manned and armed, to take possession of the, at last, luckless brigantine. Two hours' lusty pulling brought us alongside, and though a foolish attempt at resistance was made, the contest was brief as it was sharp, and the Fair Rosamond, with 175 likely negroes on board, was the lawful prize of the Curlew. We had scarcely breathed after the struggle, when the second lieutenant, Mr. Burbage, called my attention to the brigantine's launch, already at a considerable distance from the vessel. Captain Penshurst's murderer," said he, "is escaping in that boat; do you follow, as you know his person, and be sure that no effort is spared to effect his capture." A small barrel of water, a bag of biscuit, and a compass, were tumbled into the sloop's pinnace, and away we started in chase. I need not dwell on the details of this boat-race : suffice it to say that, by about eleven at night, we were so close upon our quarry, that the fugitives had no resource but to run their boat ashore near Yallah Point, Jamaica, and make for the interior of the island. One of them-the captain, I was pretty sure was carried off in the arms of the men, having been, I presumed, wounded in resisting the Curlew's boats. Unacquainted as I was with the locality about Yallah Point, a night pursuit of the runaways would have been hopeless,-absurd. The only thing to be done was to secure the captured launch, and get on myself towards Kingston, as fast as possible, across the country, leaving the men to follow, more at leisure, with the boats, coast wise. After several hours' delay, I succeeded in procuring a horse, though a sorry one, and was thus enabled to reach the Vale of Bath at about noon the succeeding day. I had a strong suspicion as to where the wounded fox would run to earth, and I was not, it proved, mistaken. My father, after attentively listening to my story, informed me that he happened to be at Vale Lodge early in the morning, when a cry, taken up by a score of voices, suddenly rang through the house to the effect, that Captain Charles Hubert was at the gate, mortally wounded-dying. The panic which instantly ensued was terrible. Madame Tollemache swooned, -her hushand, usually so imperturbable, was greatly agitated; and as to Virginie, her wild demeanour and passionate exclamations of sorrow, love, terror, and remorse, were vehement, overwhelming.

"This is strange news," I remarked. "Did he appear much hurt?"

"Past all surgery, I should say, judging from his death-like aspect. That which especially astounds