ed for Campbell's, in that dim momentary glance. He darted on with the rapidity of an arrow, and immediately I heard a long shrill whistle, re-echoed by another and another from the cliffs, from the shore, and from the sea. The moon had almost withdrawn her feeble light, and I could no longer discern any object but the white sands under my feet and the sea foam that frothed over them.

More than two miles of my homeward path was yet before me; and in their progress I should have to cross two gullies furrowed through the sand by the land-springs from the adjacent cliffs. Intermingled and bedded in these were several rocky crags, and portions of the foundered cliff, amongst which it was easy to pick one's daylight way; but the impenetrable gloom that now enveloped every object, made me pause for a moment to consider how far it might be safe to continue onward in my wavewashed path. A light streaming from one of the windows of Campbell's cottage, a few furlongs up the beach, decided the result of my deliberation, and I turned towards the little dwelling, purposing to apply there for a lantern and a guide, should the younger Campbell chance to be at home.

I had no need to tap for admittance at the humble door. It was open, and

on the threshold stood the mother of the family. The light from within gleamed across her face and figure, and I could perceive that she was listening with intent breathlessness, and with eyes rivetted, as if they could pierce the darkness, towards the quarter from whence I was approaching. My steps on the loose shingle at length reached her ear, and she darted forward, exclaiming," Oh, Amy, thank God! here's your father." The young woman sprang to the door with a light, and its beams revealed my then unwelcome features, instead of those of the husband and father. "Oh, sir!-I thought" was poor Margaret's elo

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I did my best to calm their terrors. To dispel them was impossible, while the tempest raged louder and louder; and independent of that, there were other too reasonable grounds of apprehension. I suggested the probability of Campbell not being in the boat, as he had passed me on the beach so recently; but at all events, he was abroad in a tremendous night, and with a desperate gang, expecting and armed against resistance. Forgetting my own purpose of borrowing a lantern, to continue my homeward path, I entered the cabin with the distressed females, whose looks thanked me for abiding with them in this their hour of need.

There was something peculiarly interesting in this young woman; not beauty of feature, for, excepting a pair of fine dark eyes, shaded by lashes of unusual length, there was nothing uncommon in her countenance, and her naturally dark and colourless complexion was tinged with the sallow hue of sickness;-her lips were whiter than her cheek, and her uncommonly tall figure, slender and fragile as the reed, bowed down with the languor of weakness and sorrow. But when she lifted up those dark eyes, their melancholy light was touchingly expressive, and in unison with the general character of the slight shadowy frame, that seemed almost transparent to the workings of the wounded spirit within. Amy's young heart had never recovered the shock of her William's untimely death, and her timid tender nature was weighed down under a perpetual load of conscious self-reproach, that for her sake, and that of

her infants, her father and brother had engaged in the perilous unlawfulness of their present courses. As she sat looking on her mother's face, I could perceive what thoughts were passing in her mind. At last a large tear, that had been some time collecting, swelled over the quivering lid, and trickled slowly down her cheek, and rising suddenly, and letting fall the netting and shuttle, she came and edged herself on the corner of her mother's chair, and clasping one arm round her neck, and hiding her face on her shoulder, sobbed out,"Mother!"-" My Amy! my dear child!" whispered the fond parent, tenderly caressing her, why should you always reproach yourself so? You who have been a good dutiful child, and a comfort to us ever since you were born Before your poor father fell into evil company, and listened to their temptations, did we not contrive to maintain ourselves, and your dear fatherless babies, by honest industry; and where should you have taken refuge, my precious Amy, but under your parents' roof?" A look of eloquent gratitude, and a tender kiss was Amy's reply to these fond assurances.

For a few moments this touching intercourse of hearts, beguiled them from the intense anxiousness with which they had been listening to every sound from without; but the redoubled violence of the storm fearfully roused them from that momentary abstraction, and they started, and looked in each other's faces, and then in mine, as if beseeching comfort, when, alas! I had only sympathy to bestow.

The conflict of wind and waves was indeed tremendous! A gust of wind, more awful than any which had proceeded it, rushed past us with deafening uproar, and as it died away, low sobs, and shrill moaning lamentations, seemed mingled with its deep bass. We were all silent, now straining our sight from the cabin door into the murky gloom without,-now gathering to gether round the late blazing hearth, where

the neglected embers emitted only a fitful glimmer. The wind rushing through every chink and cranny, waved to and fro the flame of the small candle, declining in its socket, and at last the hour of twelve was struck by the old clock, that "ticked behind the door," in its dark heavy case. At that moment a large venerable looking book, that lay with a few others on a hanging shelf, near the chimney slipped from the edge on which it rested, and fell with a dull heavy sound at Margaret's feet. It was the Bible that had belonged to her husband's mother, and as she stooped to pick it up, and replace it, she perceived that it had fallen open at the leaf, where twenty-two years back from that very day, the venerable parent had recorded, with pious gratitude, the birth of her son's first-born. "Ah, my dear son! my good Maurice !" ejaculated the heartstruck mother; I was not used to forget the day God gave thee to me.Thou wert the first to leave me, and now," She was interrupted by the low inarticulate murmur of a human voice, that sounded near us. We all started, but Amy's ear was familiarized to the tone-it was one of her little ones talking and moaning in its sleep. The small chamber where they lay opened from that we were in, and the young mother crept softly towards the bed of her sleeping infants. She was still bending over them, when the outer door was suddenly dashed open, and Campbell-Campbell himself, burst into the cottage. Oh! with what a shriek of ecstacy was he welcomed! With what a rapture of inarticulate words, clinging embraces, and tearful smiles! joy was transcient, and succeeded by sudden chill of nameless apprehensions; for, disengaging himself almost roughly from the arms of his wife and daughter, he staggered towards his own old chair, and flinging himself back in it, covered his face with his clasped hands. One only cause for this fearful agitation suggested itself to his trembling wife,

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But the

My son! my son!" she shrieked out,

him lie bleeding on the beach," said one of the new comers, in reply to an exclamation of surprise from those who before occupied the cottage. Campbell's agitation was dreadful. He turned, shuddering, from the sight of his victim. The women stood petrified with horror. I alone retaining some self-possession, advanced to examine if human aid might yet avail to save the poor youth, who was laid (apparently a corpse) on three chairs, near the door. Comprehending my purpose, the humane tenderness of poor Margaret's nature surmounted her agonized feelings, and she came trembling to assist in the painful examination.

The young man's face was turned from us towards the wall, and almost covered by the luxuriant hair, (a sailor's pride) which escaping from the confining ribbon, had fallen in dark wet masses over his cheek and brow. His right hand hung down from his side, and on taking it into mine, I found that it was already cold as marble, and that no pulse was perceptible in the artery. Margaret had as expeditiously as her agitation would permit, unclosed his sailor's jackets, and checked shirt, and though she started and shuddered at the sight of blood thickly congealed over his bosom, she persisted heroically in her trying task. Ilis neck-handkerchief had been previously united, and stuffed down as a temporary pledget into the wounded breast. In removing it, Margaret's finger became entangled by a black string passed round the youth's neck, to which a small locket was suspended. She was hastily moving it aside, when the light held by one of the sailors fell upon a medallion, (a perforated gold pocket piece,) and her eye glancing towards it at the same moment, a half choaked exclamation burst from her lips, and, looking up, I saw her standing motionless, breathless, her hands clasped together with convulsive energy, and her eyes almost starting from their sockets, in the stare of indescribable horror with which they were rivetted on

the suspended token. At last, a shriek (such a one as I never before heard) the recollection of which still curdles

the blood in my veins, burst from her lips, and brought her daughter and husband (even the unfortunate young man himself,) to the spot where she stood absorbed in that fearful contemplation. She looked up towards her husband (on whose brow cold drops of agony were thickly gathering, whose white lips quivered with the workings of a tortured spirit,) she gazed up in his face with such a look as I shall never forget. It was one of horrid calmness, more fearful to behold than the wildest expressions of passionate agony, and grasping his fettered hand firmly in one of hers, and with the other pointing to the perforated gold piece, as it lay on the mangled bosom of the dead youth, she said in a slow steady voice," Look there! what is that? Who is that, Richard ?" His eyes rivetted themselves with a ghastly stare on the object to which she pointed, then wandered wildly over the lifeless from before him; but the tremendous agitation of his frame ceased, the convulsive working of the muscles of his face changed into rigid fixedness, and he stood like one petrified in the very burst of despair.

Once more she repeated in the same calm deliberated tone, "Who is that, Richard" and suddenly leaning forward, dashed aside from the face of the corpse the dark locks that had hitherto concealed it. "There, there!" she shrieked—“ I knew it was my son?" and bursting into a frenzied laugh, she called out, "Amy! Amy! your brother is come home! come home on his birth-day!-Will nobody bid him welcome? Richard, won't you bless him on his birth-day?" And snatching her husband's hand, she endeavoured to drag him towards the pale face of the dead. He to whom this heart-rending appeal was addressed, replied only by one deep groan, which seemed to burst up the very fountains of feeling and of life. He staggered back a few paces