out, and there was a little bit of dry beach, on which they landed, without any particular object in so doing. However, in wandering about the shore, Charles discovered a small path, which leading up the face of the rock to about a yard above the high water-mark, conducted them to a cavern of nearly thirty feet in depth, whose entrance commanded an extensive and beautiful view of the scenery around. After standing for a few minutes to observe the prospect, Charles turned to examine the cave itself. It did not possess from nature any particular attraction; but the fragments of a strong chain caught his attention; and on looking farther, he found that the place was regularly divided into two apartments, the interior of which contained a rough iron bedstead, a heavy cavalry sword, and some linen died in blood. The sword was rusty, as also the bedstead; but neither bore any very great marks of antiquity. They nevertheless proved, that

1

the

the spot where he stood had not long before been trod by other feet than his.

Charles raised the linen on his stick, and brought it forward to the light, at the mouth of the cavern." Some one has been murdered here, I should suppose," said he, as he looked at the evidence of blood having been spilt there. Mary shrunk back from the sight, and lady Anne was so terrified, that she would not stay another moment, though Charles much wished to have examined farther; but bound in gallantry to follow them, he was obliged to give up the search for that day. His mind, however, was not satisfied; and though to prevent them from being alarmed, he affected to make a joke of the whole affair, he took an opportunity of returning by himself a few days afterwards. Nothing new, however, presented itself; he found every thing exactly in the same position in which he left it; proving, that in all probability, no one had been there since. He went to the bottom of the cave,

and

and examined it minutely all round; but there was nothing farther to be seen; all was simple and plain, extending no deeper than he had at first supposed; and the only thing he discovered, in addition to what he had perceived at the first view, was a trace of blood from the mouth of the cave to the iron bedstead.

Whatever event occurs in the world, people immediately set out to explain all the whys and wherefores, and to resolve all the difficulties connected with it, without having any data to guide their judgment. They at once fix upon an hypothesis, which they prop up by a thousand subsequent theories; and having built a goodly fabric, from the materials supplied by their own imaginations, they are surprised when they find a single breath overset it all, like a child's house of cards, which, though it cost some trouble to put together, requires but a touch to reduce it again to the flat nonentities from which it was raised. Few people were more given

to

to this sort of thing than Charles Melville, for he had some curiosity, and a good deal of imagination; and though he well knew that every supposition he could form would most likely be wrong, he set about accounting for what he had met with in the cave, and gave himself no small trouble to raise and overthrow a thousand plausible theories; to all of which he found some objection; and at last determined in his own mind, that in all probability some one had met with some accident on the water, and had been taken there for shelter, till such time as they could be removed to the town. He might be right, or he might be wrong-I know nothing about it-I will know nothing about it, till I get to the part of the story that tells us.

The villa with which they had all been so much fascinated, since the unpleasant occurrence which drew lord Burton from Naples, had lost much of its attraction in the eyes of lady Anne Milsome and Mary; and Charles, though he hated any

thing

thing in the least approaching to petty politics, by no means opposed himself to a scheme which the two ladies had conceived, of proceeding on their tour imme. diately. The truth was, he wished they were once more arrived in England. Had Mary, as he had solicited, given him her hand there, the prolongation of their residence in scenes of such unparalleled love. liness, would have been a pleasure rather than any thing else. But now all his hopes were fixed in England; and though he did not choose to let it be too apparent, he was all impatience for the termination of their rambling.

Following the original plan of visiting the Ionian Islands, lady Anne proposed that they should proceed directly to Corfu; and it may be imagined, that Charles not only caught at the idea with avidity, but very soon contrived to get every thing prepared for their journey, or rather voyage. Mary, from their frequent water parties, had become an excellent sailor.

She