ham, and that feudal law which enabled a landlord to evict the people, they were all ready to face fire and water, shot and steel, to rescue him and his friends from the perils that surrounded them. Fresh hands were laid on the oars; the sun attained its meridian height; the outlines of the Isle of Marmora began to rise higher to the southward; sturdily pulled the Highland oarsmen, and still their strange wild chorus was wafted to leeward on the Grecian

sea

'Horo, horo, horo elé,
Horo, horo, horo elé;
Hu ho i o 'sna ho elé.

CHAPTER LVII.

THE ISLE OF MARMORA.

I GAZED alternately on the distant island that was now rising faint and blue from the shining sea, and on the huge lateen sail that tapered far away aloft upon its slender yard, which resembled a fishing-rod, while Belton still lounged in the stern-sheets, and lunched on sliced Bologna sausages, biscuits, and sherry.

'Yonder Isle of Marmora has some interest for me,' said he; 'I had an uncle who got his wife out of that identical place.'

From the marble quarries, perhaps.'

'Not at all-he was no Pygmalion. He was firstlieutenant in the flagship here, about ten years ago, and being in hopeless ill health, was landed, with six months' leave to remain at the house of an Armenian merchant, who treated him with great kindness, and whose daughter young and lovely, of coursenursed him with the most enchanting tenderness. So whether it was owing to the fresh breezes from

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the Propontis, the cool wines of old Greece, or the charms of the soft maid of Armenia, I know not; but before the six months were up, mine uncle reported himself to the Admiral as fit for duty," and joined his ship. He thought very sadly about his Armenian for a time, and felt very restless in his cot at night; but soon dismissed her from his thoughts, as the ship had to be painted and overhauled, and sent home to Portsmouth. year after he was with our fleet at Stamboul, and while rambling there with a brother captain-for he had his own frigate then-they entered the slavemarket in disguise. There he saw-what? - his beautiful Armenian friend-his kind little nurse— the daughter of his hospitable entertainer-offered for sale as a slave! She knew him, and in tears and agony stretched her pretty hands towards him; for she was a Christian woman, and felt keenly all the horrors of her situation. Her story was soon told. Her father's ships had perished at sea; his wealth had passed away; he died, and his Turkish creditors had remorselessly seized everything, even to the carpet his daughter sat on. Then they seized her too, and offered her for sale-and there she stood, with a ticket on her breast, and her price marked thereon.

'For sale! My uncle was an honest fellow-he damned their eyes all round, and swore he felt it in his heart to flog one-half Stamboul and keelhaul the other. An Unbeliever cannot purchase women; but my uncle knew a Turkish officer, who was an Irishman-Bim Bashi O'Toole-who, for a dozen of wine, undertook to manage the affair; so for four hundred guineas he bought the fair Armenian, and married her at the ambassador's chapel. Then he brought her home in his own frigate. He is now posted, a C.B., on half-pay, and resides with his Armenian wife, and six little half-Scotch, half-Armenian

imps, in one of the prettiest villages in Strathearn; so you see, Mac Innon, this classic island of Marmora has quite a family interest for me.'

While Jack ran on in this fashion, I was wholly occupied in thinking of two soft eyes, and a certain fair, pale, English face, with its chestnut braids and rosy lips, and of a low sweet voice, that seemed already whispering in my ear-the voice of Laura, whose tones had come to me so often in the dreams of night. In imagination I again beheld her, and that peculiar individuality which indicates every one by habit, gesture, form, and smile, came all before me in one gush of memory.

The nut-brown sail, with its broad, black stripes, bellied out in the light wind that played over the ripples of the noonday sea, but ere long the wind grew light, and as it died away, the sail flapped heavily and the kochamba lurched and rolled upon the glassy swell.

The day drew on, and soon the rosy tints of sunset lingered on the shore, bathing with a ruby gleam each wooded bay and rocky cape that stretched into the dim and azure haze, far, far away. The coast of

Roumelia seemed all of sapphire hue; the little Isle of Coudouri beamed from the blue sea like a huge amethyst sparkling with diamonds-these were the casements of its little town, that were glittering in the western light.

The Isle of Marmora now looked close and high, and I sighed for the lagging wind, as we lay becalmed about four miles off its western promontory, and one mile due east of Coudouri, with the sea darkening fast around us, and the stars coming out one by one from the sky of brilliant amber.

While we continued to scan the coast with our telescopes, as it was in this part of the Isle the yacht was ashore, Jack Belton discovered the masts and hull of a smart schooner, which lay pretty high up in one of

the sandy bays that now opened upon our view; and this we had no doubt was the craft we were in quest of, as the position in which she lay, and her appearance, exactly corresponded to what we had heard of the Fairy Bell, Sir Horace's vessel. Being somewhat tired by the exertions of the past day, my soldiers and the galiondgis had relinquished their oars, and sat gazing dreamily either at the glassy water or the little black speck which indicated the hull of the yacht ashore.

Suppose the islanders were to rise upon us, and assist these Oriental ticket-of-leavers!' said Belton. 'You are most unpleasantly suggestive,' said I; 'but let them rise, they are welcome.'

'Indeed!'

'Yes. With thirty Highlandmen, I would not fear to face three hundred Greeks.'

"Even those of Leonidas ?'

Yes, Jack-even those of Leonidas!'

'Bravo!-but this may prove more than a mere melo-dramatic performance.'

'It may-but ha!-what is that?' I exclaimed. ‘A gun—a flash on the shore !'

'Another!'

And another!'

Now, heavens above, what may this mean ?'
The pirates.'

The pirates already!'

We have been anticipated by the four caiques!' cried several voices.

'Out with the sweeps and oars!-down with the mast and yard!-in with the sail!' I commanded, with excited energy, and the orders were obeyed with alacrity.

'Clap on to the sweeps now!'

'Give way, my boys-give way with a will!' said Belton.

Flash after flash came rapidly and redly from the

dark and wooded bay; the boom of carronades pealed over the water, and then came the patter of small

arms.

My soul was full of anxiety; I panted rather than breathed, for I was without a doubt that we had been anticipated-that those wretches had commenced their attack, and that Sir Horace was fighting gallantly, like a brave English gentleman.

'But see,' said Callum, to whom I had freely communicated all my fears, there are three or four vessels now rounding the promontory and entering the bay, for good or for evil?'

The telescope, Jack-the telescope, for God's sake!-thank you,' said I, adjusting it for a night observation, as the darkness had now almost set in; but I could distinctly perceive four long, low, and sharply-built caiques, full of men, many of whom appeared to be armed with muskets, pulled swiftly round a black promontory of rock which jutted into that sea of amber, and each in succession shot swiftly into the wooded bay.

Several brilliant rockets now hissed upward into the blue sky; and as their sparkles descended in a shower among the woods, or on the rippled water all became dark and still-so deathly still, that I heard only the beating of my heart, and the halfsuppressed breathing of the rowers, three of whom were bending on every sweep, and the splashing of the water, as we neared the eastern headland of the little bay in which the yacht was beached, and into which these dark and mysterious craft had glided so noiselessly