of the fact-so perfectly uniform seemed the wall. I therefore sought the knife which had been in my pocket when led to the inquisitorial chamber. But it was gone; my clothes had been exchanged for a wrapper of coarse serge. I had thought of forcing the blade in some minute crevice of the masonry, so as to identify my point of departure. The difficulty nevertheless was but trivial; although, in the disorder of my fancy, it seemed at first insuperable. I tore a part of the hem from the robe, and placed the fragment at full length, and at right angles to the wall. In groping my way around the prison, I could not fail to encounter this rag upon completing the circuit. So, at least, I thought; but I had not counted upon the extent of the dungeon, or upon my own weakness. The ground was moist and slippery. I staggered onward for some time, when I stumbled and fell. My excessive fatigue induced me to remain prostrate, and sleep soon overtook me as I lay.

Upon awaking, and stretching forth an arm, I found beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water. I was too much exhausted to reflect upon this circumstance, but ate and drank with avidity. Shortly afterward I resumed my tour around the rison, and, with much toil, came at last upon the ragment of the serge. Up to the period when I ell, I had counted fifty-two paces, and, upon reuming my walk, had counted forty-eight more hen I arrived at the rag. There were in all, en, a hundred paces; and, admitting two paces the yard, I presumed the dungeon to be fifty rds in circuit. I had met, however, with many gles in the wall, and thus I could form no guess the shape of the vault-for vault I could not p supposing it to be.

had little object-certainly no hope-in these arches; but a vague curiosity prompted me to tinue them. Quitting the wall, I resolved to s the area of the enclosure. At first I proled with extreme caution; for the floor, although ingly of solid material, was treacherous with છે. At length, however, I took courage, and not hesitate to step firmly-endeavouring to in as direct a line as possible. I had advanced ten or twelve paces in this manner when the ant of the torn hem of my robe became gled between my legs. I stepped on it, and iolently on my face.

the confusion attending my fall, I did not liately apprehend a somewhat startling cirince, which yet, in a few seconds afterward, hile I still lay prostrate, arrested my attenIt was this: my chin rested upon the floor prison, but my lips and the upper portion head, although seemingly at a less elevation e chin, touched nothing. At the same time, head seemed bathed in a clammy vapour, peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to

my nostrils. I put forward my arm, and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular pit, whose extent, of course, I had no means of ascertaining at the moment. Groping about the masonry just below the margin, I succeeded in dislodging a small fragment, and let it fall into the abyss. For many seconds I hearkened to its reverberations, as it dashed against the sides of the chasm in its descent; at length there was a sudden plunge into water, succeeded by loud echoes. At the same moment there came a sound resembling the quick opening and as rapid closing of a door overhead, while a faint gleam of light flashed suddenly through the gloom, and as suddenly faded away.

I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped. Another step before my fall, and the world had seen me no more; and the death, just avoided, was of that very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the Inquisition. To the victims of its tyranny there was the choice of death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors. I had been reserved for the latter.

Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back to the wall-resolving there to perish rather than risk the terrors of the wells, of which my imagination now pictured many in various positions about the dungeon. In other conditions of mind I might have had courage to end my misery at once, by a plunge into one of these abysses; but now I was the veriest of cowards. Neither could I forget what I had read of these pits-that the sudden extinction of life formed no part of their most horrible plan.

Agitation of spirit kept me awake for many long hours; but at length I again slumbered. Upon arousing, I found by my side, as before, a loaf and a pitcher of water. A burning thirst consumed me, and I emptied the vessel at a draught. It must have been drugged-for scarcely had I drunk before I became irresistibly drowsy. A deep sleep fell upon me-a sleep like that of death. How long it lasted, of course I knew not; but when once again I unclosed my eyes, the objects around me were visible. By a wild, sulphurous lustre, the origin of which I could not at first determine, I was enabled to see the extent and aspect of the prison.

In its size I had been greatly mistaken. The whole circuit of its walls did not exceed twentyfive yards. In my first attempt at exploration I had counted fifty-two paces, up to the period when I fell; I must then have been within a pace or two of the fragment of serge-in fact, I had nearly performed the circuit of the vault. I then slept, and, upon awaking, I must have returned upon my steps-thus supposing the circuit nearly double

"Do! You, sir! That ain't the worst on it, neither. They put things into old gen lm'n's heads as they never dreamed of. My father, sir, wos a coachman. A widower he wos, and fat enough for anything— uncommon fat, to be sure. His missus dies, and leaves him four hundred pound. Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt-wery smart- top boots on-nosegay in his button-hole broad-brimmed tile-green shawlquite the gen im Goes through the archway, thinking how he should inwest the money-up comes the touter, touches his hat: License, sir, license?? 'What's that!' says my father. License, sir!' says he. What license?' says my father. Marriage license,' says the touter. Dash my veskit,' says my father. I never thought o' that.' I think you vants one, sir,' says the touter. My father pulls up, and thinks a bit.

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"No,' says he, "I'm too old; b'sides, I'm a many sizes too large,' says he. Not a bit on it, sir, says the touter. Think not!' says my father. I'm sure not,' says he; we married a gen'lm'n twice your size last Monday.' Did you, though?' says my father. To be sure we did,' says the touter; 'you're a babby to him this way, sir- this way! and sure enough my father walks arter, him, like a tame monkey behind a horgan, into a little back office, vere a feller sat among dirty papers and tin boxes, making believe he was busy.

"Pray take a seat, vile I makes out the affidavit, sir,' says the lawyer. Thankee, sir,' says my father, and down he sat, and stared with all his eyes, and his month vide open, at the names on the boxes. What's your name, sir?' says the Lawyer. Tony Weller,' says my father. 'Parish?' says the lawyer. Belle Savage,' says my father; for he stoped there wen he drove up, and he know'd nothing about parishes, he didn't. And what's the lady's name?' says the lawyer. My father was struck all of a heap. Blessed if I says he. 'Not know says the lawyer. ore nor do you,' says my father. 'Can't I

have me, I know.' The license was made out, and she did have him, and what's more she's got him now; and I never had any of the four hundred pound, worse luck. And that's how I got a motherin-law."

"Very good; you can go at any hour, Sam. I shall be busy with Mr. Perker."

As he was sauntering away his spare time, and stopped to look at almost every object that met his gaze, it is by no means surprising that Mr. Weller should have paused before a small stationer's and print-seller's window : but, without further explanation, it does appear surprising that his eyes should have no sooner rested on certain pictures which were exposed for sale therein, than he gave a sudden start, smote his right leg with great vehemence, and exclaimed with energy—

"If it hadn't been for this, I should ha' forgot all all about it till it was too late!”

The particular picture on which Sam Weller's eyes were fixed, as he said this, was a highlycoloured representation of a couple of human hearts skewered together with an arrow, cooking before a cheerful fire, while a male and female cannibal in modern attire,-the gentleman being clad in a blue coat and white trousers, and the lady in a deep red pelisse, with a parasol of the same—were approaching the meal with hungry eyes, up a serpentine gravel path leading thereunto. A decidedly indelicate young gentleman, in a pair of wings and nothing else, was depicted as superintending the cooking. A representation of the spire of the church in Langham Place appeared in the distance; and the whole formed a "valentine," of which, as a written inscription in the window testified, there was a large a assortment within which the shop-keeper pledged himself to dispose of to his countrymen generally at the reduced rate of one and sixpence each.

"I should ha' forgot it-I should certainly ha forgot it!" said Sam. So saying, he at once stepped into the stationer's shop, and requested to be served with a sheet of the best gilt-edged letterpaper and a hard-nibbed pen which could be warranted not to splutter. The articles having been promptly supplied, he walked on direct towards Leadenhall Market, at a good round pace, very