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Mr M, as he turned away, determined to seek out the Colonel before he rested. He chanced to follow exactly in his steps; but rapidly as he walked, it was some time before. he perceived his antagonist at a considerable distance in advance of him, walking on the pathway which skirted the stream, as it ascended towards the mountain region. The moon had just risen, calm, and bright, and beautiful, peacefully beaming on the rocks and furze, and glancing in the rapid stream as it pounced along from stone to stone, yet almost seeming to hush its wonted murmurs, through sympathy with the calm softness of the light that trembled upon it. Such an appearance of nature formed a singular contrast with the burning fever in the heart and brain of the insulted parent, who now strode along, irritated even more than he had previously been, by the sight of the man whose injuries he sought to resent and avenge. He had now approached within a dozen paces his hands were upon his pistols, and he was about to call out to Colonel B, who was just going to pass round a huge lump of granite that lay in the way, and would have, concealed him momentarily from the view of Mr M, when the report of a pistol from the other side was heard, and in the same instant Colonel B leaped breast high from the ground, and then fell flat upon it, a dead man.

A moment before, and Mr Mhad been himself eager to inflict such a doom upon the man who now lay stretched almost at his feet, yet at the sight of what was done, he was petrified with horror, and stood for a moment, feeling as if his burning heart had been plunged in icy water. The next moment his recollection returned, and rushing round the rock, from the other side of which the shot appeared to have come, he found the Widow Lynch and her son, the latter with a pistol in his hand, still smoking from the discharge which had killed Colonel B- "Murderers!" said Mr M- -, drawing forth one of his pistols, " you are detected in your foul assassination. Surrender yourself instantly," he added to the son, " or you die as surely as the man you have just shot." The man made no reply, but

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was soon over

flung himself upon Mr Marm him-in the struggle the pistol was discharged, and the ball whizzing past the ear of the ruffian, did him no injury. Mr Mpowered, as his arms having been seized, he could not use his second. pistol; the murderer was strong, and having flung him down, planted his knee upon his breast.

"What shall we do with him, mo ther?" he said. "Best send him after the Colonel, to give him a character," she replied, with a wild and› fiend-like laugh. "I said I'd have my revenge of him too, an' the divil has put it in my way sooner than I expected."

The prostrate man thought of his daughter, and wished for life. "Woman," he exclaimed, "I never injured you!"-" Hah-you lie-you lie!" almost shrieked the hag. "I asked you to speak a word for my boys--for the boy that now has you in his grip-and you would not-But," she added, after a little pause, "I can't hate you, as I did the villain that's just done for. If you're let go, will you swear never to say a word to man or mortal of what you have. seen to-night?"-"No," said Mr Mfirmly-"Kill me, if you must; but if I live, I shall do my duty, and endeavour to bring you both to justice."

"Hoh, you will ?" said the woman, and repeated her horrid laugh-" but say your prayers thin, if you think, they'll do you any good, afore you die." She paused again a little space-her eyes glistened as if some joyful thought had struck her, and she whispered to her son.

"What brought you here, wid a pistol in your hand?" she said again, addressing Mr M

"May God forgive me," he replied, "a wicked purpose; but I trust that sin, great as it was in intention, may not be imputed to me!"

"I don't think you liked the Curnelmuch, more than ourselves, Mr M. Maybe if we hadn't been in the way just now, you'd have saved us the trouble? What brought you here, I say, at this time, wid a pistol in your hand?"

"Not to assassinate a man in cold blood," replied Mr M. “A crime so foul as that I have not to answer for."

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"Maybe you will though," said the woman, and save other people from being suspected. Lay hoult on him, Dinnis, and take him off. I charge him wid having shot the Curnel, and you'll back what I say-You seen him, didn't you?"-and again came forth the devilish laugh.

In a moment the unfortunate Mr M- saw the dreadful situation in which he was placed-his brain spun round, and he grew sick, with the fear not of death, but of infamy. "Spare me, spare me!" he cried out in agony

"No," replied the woman, in a tone which seemed like the echo of his own 66 No" to her proposal a minute before-the wretch mocked him even then.

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It would protract my tale too much to tell minutely all that followed. A host of circumstances were brought forward against Mr M- He was proved to have followed the Colonel to a lonely place under strong irritation; to have taken his pistols with him, of which one was discharged, and the woman Lynch and her son swore positively to having come up on him, as the murder was done. All this was coherent, while his story was improbable, and unsupported. True, he had the Colonel's letter, which he said had provoked him to follow him with pistols; but the magistrates, who examined it, could see nothing in it but a proposal for an elopement, and not at all justificatory of the proceeding which it was said to have induced. True, the character of the woman Lynch and her son was bad as bad could be, and it was very possible to suppose them capable of the murder which Mr M- alleged they had committed; but there was no particle of evidence against them, save the assertion of the accused, who had the strongest possible interest in speaking falsely. The weapon, too, with which he alleged the murder had been committed, could not be found, although the most diligent search had been made in and around Lynch's cabin. Mr Mwas committed, by the magistrates, for trial. Who shall paint his misery, or that of the wretched Emily? Death, a felon's death-infamy, horrible infamy-hung over her father's head, and no ray of comfort pierced through this dreadful storm of un

speakable calamity. For a time, something like insanity took possession of the unfortunate prisoner; but at last the consolation of religion visited him, and Emily became his ministering angel, and he wept, and was calm, and tasted something like peace even in the midst of misery and tears.

Time rolled on-property lives, though men, who call it theirs, die; and it became necessary to arrange for the disposition of Colonel B's effects. The heir-at-law was his nephew, who had but a few weeks before been on a visit with him, and he now returned, petrified with horror at what had happened, and utterly incredulous as to the guilt of Mr MHe visited him in prison, and listened to his statement, which was given in the language, and with the deport ment, of a man who had done with this world, and only testified the truth, for the truth's sake. The prisoner's daughter was with him, for humanity did not refuse that blessing to his gloomy cell; and if one may speak of female loveliness in such a situation, even there, the touching dignity of her extreme sorrow, and the pious duty of filial love in which she was constantly engaged, gave a depth of beauty almost angelic to her peerless face and form.

Tears stood in the young gentleman's eyes, as he mounted his horse to quit the prison-gate. "Aye, your honour," said the servant, as he held the stirrup, and spoke with the familiarity which their respective ages made not unnatural between master and servant, " 'twas a sorrowful sight you seen, I'll warrant me-a kind gentleman they always said he was,

and the poor young crathur-sure it's hard, an' heavy, an' arely her misfortunes have come upon her."

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"I wish you would bring me to the place."

"Whin, your honour ?”

"Nothin', sir-only I thought I seen -Look, sir, don't you think you see somethin' movin' down the side o'

"This evening, after we ride the hill, toart [towards] the rock ?" home."

"The cross of Christ be about us! Sure, sir, it is not to go there after dark you want?"

"No; there will be moonlight. It was about this day month the murder was committed-and by moon light. I wish to see it under similar circumstances."

"An you're not afeerd, sir?" "Afraid, fool! No; of what should I be afraid ?"

"Why, your honour, to say nothin' of evil sperrits, for maybe you that has been at college doesn't beleeve in them like us poor people-but it's just convanient to the Lynches' cabin, an where they are I'm thinkin' there's little good."

"Never mind, take courage, and bring me to the place. I have a particular reason for wishing to go there."

Now, in sober truth, young Frederick B had no reason at all, but he had a strong impression upon his mind, derived from he knew not what a presentiment, if philosophy would allow of such a thing-that by going, he would discover something of importance; and upon this impression, or presentiment, he acted.

At moonrise he arrived with his servant at the entrance of the gorge, through which the stream passes into the glen. Their horses were left in the care of one of the cottagers, and they proceeded on foot up the pathway which, exactly a month previously, had been trodden about the same hour by Colonel B― and Mr M. The present night, too, was calm and clear as that night had been, and all was silence, save the rushing of the eager stream.

The servant, although somewhat confident from the presence of his master, who had been "at College," yet felt some fear withal, and as they came within sight of the rock where the murder was committed, which they did while yet a very considerable distance from it, he involuntarily stopped, and looked round with an anxious gaze as far as his eyes could reach.

"What is the matter, Peter ?" said his master.

"Yes," said his master, looking in the direction pointed out, " I do see what I take to be two persons walking that way. I see them now more plainly-it is a man and a woman. What ails you, man?-does one man and an old woman frighten you?"

"It's the Widdy Lynch and her son," whispered the man; "an' the divil's not far off, in some shape or other, I'll be bail."

"Hush, Peter-let us observe their motions-see, they are getting down under the shadow of that rock. Good Heaven! they have vanished!"

"No, your honour," said Peter, smiling to find that for once he knew better than his master who had been at college-" they're only gone close to the rock, and are quite hid in the shade-the bames o' the moon is all on the other side-they're gone there to hatch some divilment, I'll warrant me."

"Could we get to the other side of the rock without being perceived by them, Peter ?"

"Not if you go straight forward, sir-for they'd see us immediately; but if you go up the side of the hill a bit, and keep up till we get beyant the rock, thin we can come down upon the far side of it."

"Let us do so, then. I should wish, if possible, to hear their consultation."

The plan was put into execution, and in half an hour they found themselves approaching the rock on the opposite side from that on which they had before seen it.

"Think you they are still there?" said Frederick B

"I do, sir," replied the servant; "I kep my eye on the place, an' barrin' they wint within the last two minits, they're still in the same spot." "How shall we get close upon them?"

"You can climb up upon the rock, an' get over their heads," replied the servant, whose spirit of enterprise had now overcome his fear.

"Good-that will be the best

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lowed by his master; and they went forward, silent and warily, as the fowler creeps to take his aim. They readily climbed the rock, and lying flat upon the top, with their heads almost reaching over the verge on the darkened side, they easily overheard the whispered conversation of the pair beneath.

"I wonder you're not afeerd, mother," said the man, "to come down to this place, of all places in the world, to persuade me to sware more, whin I tell you I'd rather kill another man than sware. Let them take your own oath, but don't ax me to go into a coort-house agin."

"Sware!" said the woman-" why, what's swarin'? or what's in a coorthouse, or a judge's wig, to frighten ye? Is that the courage you larnt in foreign parts, to be afraid to spake, you that did the raal business so cliverly? Musha, but it was a steady hand that sent the bullet into the middle of his forehead-what is there in your tongue, that it can't be as steady as your hand ?"

"Well, mother, don't say more about it now-I'll see afore the trial comes on, an' make up my mind to do it; but I wish you'd let me off. Where's the pistol? I want to lend it to Kelly in the mornin'."

"In the hole in the top of the rock overhead," said the woman-" Pull

out the stone first, that I put in after it to prevent it getting wet."

The man placed his two hands upon the rock above his head, and made a spring to get upon it, when he found himself in the grasp of Frederick B. He was paralysed with sudden fear, and made little or no resistance to being secured. The woman gave a loud shriek, and then resigned herself to her fate. " Aye," she muttered-" Aye, and now my time is come; and sure I might have known it didn't I dhrame last night that I made the ould man that's in jail a present of a black coffin, and he threw it back to me, an' said it would do for myself?"

Three years afterwards, Emily M was promoted much nearer the top of the alphabet, and, as Emily B, appeared the lovely and happy wife of him whose fortunate chance it had been to rescue her father from the peril that impended over him. The old gentleman still kept his beautiful cottage, and old Marguerite still lived to take care of it. The skeletons of the Widow Lynch and her son hang in the surgeon's room of the county infirmary, whither their bodies had been sent to be anatomized.

So ends my tale,

ECLOGA.

CHRISTOPHERUS-DUX-SATELLES.

CERULEA camerâ, penetralibus Ambrosianis,
Flavus ubi rorem Tapitourius iste ministrat
Montanum,-(ros hic certe stillatus Olympo!)
Nascentis speciosa Magæ portenta coquebat
Christopherus, nomen cui dat Septentrio clarum,—
Forte suis vacuus sociis, solitâque podagrâ:
Namque evanuerant victi certamine Bacchi
Signifer, et Porcus, Titillatorque benignus.-
Concrepuere fores subito, simul et venerando
En sese obtulere seni Dux atque Satelles;
Hic novus acer eques, et homo novus ;-ille duello
Strenuus heroum victor, procerumque senatu :
Æreus huic rutilo vultus, sed ferreus illi.

Nempe Magæ auspicium patrociniumque petebant:-
Emulus optat uterque alium præstare favore
Christopheri; tantum hoc ausus non cedere Duci
Alter, præterea concedere cuncta paratus.
Aunuit his pater, et nutu tremefecit utrumque
Ut sorices binos viso terrore molossi.
Jussit et alternis contendere versibus ambos,

Quo melius constaret uter patriæque Magæque
Gratior;-ille vafer! quoniam ambos calce libenter
Expulerat, comitas vêtuere metusque podagræ.
Assensere illi:-melos prior incipit heros.

DUX.

Ille ego cui Bonapars palmam dedit iste fugatus,-
Victus et eloquio cedit Caneius ordo*

Flaminiusque,-mihi Mars Mercuriusque secundi.
Dux ego magnificus, princeps, primusque minister.

SATELLES.

Ille ego qui Scriba atque Senator acerrimus olim,
Nunc tenue canto, mutatæ conscius auræ,
Velo auras quascunque meo captare peritus,-
Candidus, ingenuus, facilis, liberalis, honestus.

DUX.

De me altus pero speciem nomenque recepit,
Alitis utque Jovis rostrum mihi nasus aduncus,
Atque meæ laternam æquant imitamine fauces:
Quapropter laurum constat mihi jure deberi.

SATELLES.

Nonne decora mihi facies, flavique capilli?
Sericus et sermo nonne est, et serica vestis,
Quâ me indutum pinxit eques Laurentius iste?
Quare mihi laurum debitum tu cede, benigne :

DUX.

Auspice me, Officium vix tandem ægreque resignat,
Mercatu solitus libero gaudere Minister,

Literulas proprie quia scribere nescit ineptus:
Callidus ipse autem Scriptor sum literularum.

SATELLES.

Ecquid dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
Scamna satellitibus Fiscalia, templa serena,
Despicere unde queatis Humum, numerisque videre
Errare, Officiique vias, heu! quærere frustra?

DUX.

Insanum me olim sedem hanc ambire fatebar,
Quorsum hoc? Dementi Phœbus quondam Phaetonti
Annuit invitus patrios conscendere currus,
Dementique mihi Princeps commisit habenas.

SATELLES.

Ecce novus custos totâ speculatur in urbe
Cœruleus, mea cura; qualis solet esse Priapus,
Terror ego furum,—nisi quod sit ligneus iste,
Haud ego: Judæi Membrum et me jactor apellæ.

Talia cantabant: alto Iste sopore prehensus
Interea, subito stertit lævum atque sonorum,
Haud secus ac tormenta tonant ingentia belli:
Hi fugere, atque Novas trepidi percurrere Athenas.

"I will stand or fall with my order."

VOL. XXVIII. NO. CLXVIII.

LORD GREY.
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