it! Hans, we'll make a spoon, or spoil a horn.'' what the devil's in the wind now? and what -As he was speaking, a well dressed stran- hell's errand has this fellow to get done ?’— ger entered the dancing-room, and looked He looked at the gold, and weighed each coir cautiously around him. Passing three or upon the tip of his finger. Genuine guinfour tables, he came direct to the corner one eas, by heaven! and not a light piece among where Jan and I were seated, took a chair,, them," he muttered. Then drawing out a called for schnaps and tobacco, and addres- seal-skin purse, he deposited three pieces in sed himself to us with some common place a private pocket, flung a fourth to me, anċ remarks. held the fifth one carelessly in his hand.

"A few minutes elapsed. The stranger eyed us with attention; and in turn we look ed sharply at the stranger.

"He was not a young man-four or five and thirty, of good mien, well-shaped, and evidently of a higher caste than any other in the dancing-house. He stole a side-glance now and then at Jan and me; and then suddenly addressing us, he asked if the skipper were not Captain Dangerfield?

"I am that unlucky man,' was the reply. "Bah!' returned the stranger. 'Fortune is a slippery wench. She'll play the wisest of us tricks at times; but the bol urn her, in the long run to good account. I believe the Lovely Kitty will shortly be ready for sea?'

Dangerfield bowed assent. "Would you have room, Captain, to accommodate a cabin-passenger

?'

"I might find it, were the consideration worth the trouble,' said the skipper.

"Would you favor me,' replied the stranger, with the accommodation you could give a passenger, and the amount of remuneration you would expect ?'

"There's no great trouble in slinging a spare hammock. We never light the galley fire above twice a week, and then cook what lasts the crew during the intermediate time. As to drink, there's always an open anker on the deck for any one who chooses to draw the spiggot; and below he can have claret if he please. I shall expect five naps, for landing the gentleman safely.'

666

Say that the five were made ten?' "He should have my own birth,' replied the skipper.

"Raise that ten to twenty ?' continued the stranger.

666

Why, d-n me! he might in that case all but command the Lovely Kitty.'

6

"Enough. I fancy we shall understand cach other perfectly. Meet me at ten o'clock to-morrow night at ,' and he named an' obscure tavern, and we will enter more fully into business. A lawyer requires a retaining fee; and why should not an honester man have one? Here, worthy captain, will English guineas answer as well as French napoleons?' and he flung five gold coins upon the table. 'Be punctual, ten, to-morrow evening at the -,' and he whispered the address, rose, and bade us good-night.

"I pray thee, friend Hans,' said Dangerfield, when the stranger had quitted the room,

"Put that yellow boy in thy locker, Hans were it only to keep the devil out of it; and with this one, we'll have a rousing night.— Luck's everything, after all. I came here to night with a light purse and a heavy heart and see the godsend which Dame Fortune has sent me. What can the stranger want? I ask only five naps. ; and before a man could run three rattlines up the rigging, the fellow makes it twenty. I fear it's some awkward job. Well, provided he comes down as handsomely as he commenced trade, we must not be over particular to oblige him in return.— Come, let's have some more drink, and then we'll out upon the ramble, and inake this guinea fly.'

"Next night, we repaired to the remote tavern indicated by the stranger as the place of meeting; and, true to his appointment, he was already there waiting for us in a private room. Wine and hollands were brought up; our pipes were filled, and lighted; and the stranger, like a man of business, came to the point directly.

666

Captain Dangerfield, I am a person of few words. I know my man; and there's no use beating about the bush. I want a service performed. You can do it; and I have both the power and the inclination to remunerate you for the trouble liberally.'

"He paused. Dangerfield nodded, and he told him to heave a-head.

6

"Excuse me, worthy captain,' said the stranger, you and I are at present but slightly acquainted. I have no doubt that your friend is true as steel; but what I have to say to you requires no third ear to listen to. I would converse for half an hour with you, and alone.'

"I rose; took the hint ; quitted the house; and left the stranger and Dangerfield to themselves. When I returned the former had gone away, and the skipper was smoking his pipe, and like the old woman's crow, driving hard at the thinking.'

"How goes business?' I required.

666

'Why, I have had a sporting offer to do a bad job,' was the reply.

I

"No throat-slitting, I hope?'
"Not exactly, Hans; but, upon my soul!
would rather avoid it.'

"Have you consented, or refused, Jan?'

666

"I have taken time till to-morrow to think the matter over, and then I am to give the stranger a simple yea or nay. He certainly puts things forward like a regular lad

of business; and English guineas look very
pretty in green silk net-work. I would ra-
ther it was a man, though. I am naturally
pigeon-hearted; and tender feeling for the
fair sex is a weak point in my character.-
Come, Hans, hang reflection! a man's con-
science must be regarded by his purse; and
mine won't stand too strong a pull at present.
Let us sweat another guinea to-night, and to-
morrow I'll tell all."
you

66

Eight hours passed, the wind was fair, and as much as we could carry whole canvas to,-when shrieks were suddenly heard from below.

"Jump, Hans!' exclaimed the skipper; 'what, in the devil's name is the lady after ?' "I flew down the ladder, and, d-n me! there she was, raving mad! Her silence was easily accounted for; they had drugged her on shore; and for the last dozen hours "When I met Jan on the following even- she had been insensible. Fortunately we ing the matter was concluded. He had had in were giving a passage home to a young the morning a serious quarrel with old Stol-Irishwoman, who had married a Dutch saibein; and the owner plainly told him that on lor-and she took charge of the deserted inher return home, the Lovely Kitty should be fant and mad mother. provided with another skipper.

"There's an ungrateful old scoundrel!' exclaimed Dangerfield in a fury. I, who have made the aged sinner what he is, to be kicked off like a mangy turnspit! Never mind. Before the devil claims the miser, I'll shew him that Jan Dangerfield never forgets an injury.'

66 6

Well, what of the affair with the stranger? You said something about a woman. Is she the person who will pay so freely for

a run to Ireland?'

"Once or twice, when down below, I saw the lady; and she was uncommonly handsome. The violence of her attacks were wearing her rapidly down; and when we made the land, and got the cargo out she was sinking fast. Whatever might have been his instructions, Jan stretched across to Innisturk; obtained a priest; the lady was shrieved and departed soon after; and the dead mother and living child were landed on the island."

"Then Dangerfield was saved the trouble of despatching her?" observed the gipsy.

turned out, for the Lovely Kitty it was indeed a sinking voyage. We made the banks; it blew fresh; on came a sudden snow-storm

"No; rather she will be paid for,' said the skipper. She and an infant are in the "How far that was in the bargain between way; it is desirable to remove them. I know Jan and the stranger I cannot tell; but, hownot why I asked not wherefore. We sail to-ever fortunate the skipper's private adventure morrow night; and our boat must be in waiting at twelve at an appointed place, to carry out the passengers. Once on board, I am to refer to sealed instructions for their future disposition. I have received twenty pieces in hand; and on my return, and if I shall have obeyed the written orders, the stranger gives me a liberal gratuity. Harkye, you have not been overlooked; and here are five yellow-boys, which the stranger desires you to accept. All he insists upon is secrecy and determination; and he hints broadly, that we never run a cargo which will pay better in the end than spiriting this lady off.'

"Next evening the lugger was ready for her midnight start; the cabin prepared for the fair passenger; and at the appointed time Dangerfield and I with a couple of trusty confederates, pulled the boat to the place fixed on previously by the stranger.

and you could not see a ship's length, the drift blew before the wind so thic❜k. An English frigate was running out to sea, and we were running in. She was on us-nay, over us-before we even saw her. Down went the Lovely Kitty; and, save Dangerfield and myself, who someway got from the foundering lugger into the frigate, the whole crew went to the bottom with the vessel. Left without a second shirt, or second shilling, we were too happy to enter in the frigate that had been our ruin ; and she, within four and twenty hours after reaching Plymouth Sound, sailed in obedience to an order from the Admiralty, which was waiting her arrival there.

"I need not tell you that the strict discipline of a man of war did not exactly suit Jan "The night was pitch dark; but on run-or myself; and that on reaching Valparaiso, ning along the jetty, we saw the expected we took the earliest opportunity of deserting. parties waiting, and a lady, closely muffled, We slaved, and privateered, and free-traded. with a bundle which appeared to be a child, Ha! let this part of the history pass, for it's was handed in, and placed unresistingly in not what a man can look back at with satisthe stern-sheets. Jan supported the female faction. Sometimes luck befriended us, and in his arms- -I took charge of the poor baby at others fortune turned sulky. Give a dog -the stranger shook the skipper's hand, wish- a bad name-you know the rest. Some ed us bon voyage, and we pulled off to the lugger. I wondered at the dead silence the lady all through preserved. She never spoke; made no remonstrance; was lifted from the boat; silently carried down the companion ladder, and stretched on a sofa in the cabin.

swore that we were pirates; and we were ticketted accordingly at so much a-head. A wild attempt of Dangerfield's, which failed, brought us into the hands of the Philistines. He, and half a score besides, were hanged in the Plaza, and gibbetted afterwards at high

"Would you crown all by rendering a ble standing in society, and secure an easy

"Rather, ask me what I would not do.' "It is in my power to offer both. Wilt Canal. You thou spend thy days in easy comfort, thy evenseem reduced. Go, make yourself more pre-ings in the dancing-house, or glean what sentable; and at eight, to-morrow evening, will enable Nature to exist from unwilling wait for me at the place I named.' charity, and die in the streets, if they reject thee from the hospital?'

"What is it ?'

"A man.'

"How is it to be removed?' 66 6 'By death!'

"In plain English, you want him murdered,' I said.

"Call it by any term you please,' he returned.

66

Well, Miriam, I will not detain you, Both played a cautious game; but in good time each understood the other. I was confoundedly poor; and his arguments were so weighty that I consented to "

"Commit another murder!" said the gipsy, "Go on, Hans.'

"The Jane was about to sail-and the stranger who sought the boy had taken a passage in the vessel, where I shipped myself for the run. My directions were, to do the job whenever an opportunity presented itself,the more quietly the better; and to effect it, I was supplied with weapons and a deadly drug. I tried once or twice to use the latter, but always without success; when at last fortune stood my friend, and I was enabled to remove my victim."

"What oceans of blood you must account for, Hans!"

"Mother, that is my own look-out-and I wish to close the tale. No opportunity had offered until we got sight of Innisturk; and the stranger expressed his intention to land next morning on the island. I secretly determined it should not be with life; and accident enabled me to execute the deed. Stop. let us have a pull at the flask."

He drank, and handed the whiskey to his companion.

"And who was this ill-fated gentleman ?" "The father of the deserted boy; the husband of her who died on board the lugger." "Great God! Did I not read thy lines aright, and call thee last night a double murderer ?"

"I deny it!" exclaimed the mariner. "In the lady's case the job was Dangerfield's. I merely got five pieces for assisting; and if a lady chooses to go mad, and die raving, am I to be blamed, good mother?"

66

Come," let us proceed upon our journey. I see sportsmen approaching," said the gipsy as she rose.

"Be it so; and as we walk over the heath, I will tell thee how I fared afterwards, and wherefore I am in England."

"Some foul errand, Hans, has brought thee."

"Thou shalt know all, Miriam. Come, the flask is well-nigh finished; another draught will drain it."

The last drop of Archy's morning supply disappeared, and the mariner and the gipsy queen set forth to cross the moorland.

THE extraordinary visitors who had infested every part of my father's premises, upstairs and downstairs, excepting "my lady's chamber,” had but a short time disappeared, when guests of a different description began to arrive, and came in fast succession, until every habitable corner of the old mansion was duly colonised. One party had encountered the dwarf's equipage on the road, and had the chief butler ever entertained a doubt regarding the supernatural powers of the little gentleman, an incident attendant on this accidental meeting on the king's highway, would have rendered him a true believer.

"The morning was thick; and we had fired a gun, and burned a blue-light to apprize the islanders we were standing off and on' until the weather cleared. Unluckily for the smuggler, the signals were heard and seen by a man-of-war brig. When the fog dispersed, she made sail after the cutter; and, failing to overtake the smuggler, the brig launched her boats to carry her by boarding. A short action took place. On board the Jane there was uproar and confusion-I took advantage of the noise and smoke, and, I forgot to mention, that an oddity in the without detection, as a carronade was dis- dwarf's costume was not confined to his charged, shot the stranger with a pistol adoption of the Kilmarnock night-cap-and through the heart. The brig's boats were while it was his pleasure to keep his ears at the moment keeping up a heavy fire of warm during the season of repose, he had small-arms; and the stranger's death was not neglected to protect those valuable orascribed to a random bullet from the assail-gans against cold in his journeyings. This

ants."

"Go on, Hans; my flesh creeps at the cold and pitiless perseverance with which you worked out the deed of blood. What followed?"

"Why, the body was landed on the island, and laid beside her whom twelve years before Jan and I had carried off from Flushing."

was effected by means of a skin covering of singular construction, in which his upperworks were so completely ensconced, as to leave nothing of his saffron visage exposed to vulgar gaze, save eyes and nose. Where the road was under repair, the little gentleman's vehicle was obliged to draw up, and allow room for another carriage to pass, and the section of the master's queer face en

cased in otter-skin, and the hideous grin of the sable functionary in the rumble, were too much for mortal gravity, and the ladies burst into a scream of laughter. The merriment was short; at a sudden turning, the postilion managed to run the carriage into the ditch, and put its fair occupants into fear and terror. Fortunately, no injury to person or property resulted-but when Archy heard the accident narrated, he shook his head sagely, observing that "warlocks winna bide being laughed at, and to mak the young ladies treat him wi' respect again, he just muttered a bit cantrip, and couped the carriage by way of a hint to them."

and emitting "a pleasant and a wholesome odor," the swarthy imps crawling under the tent opening, the men, some employed tinkering, and others busy in peeling rods or making baskets, all seen in the unsteady blaze which rose or sank, as fuel, more or less combustible, was thrown upon the fire,— all was in good keeping with the scene and company-and exhibited a gipsy encamp ment in the alternations of light and shade, which an artist would select were he transferring them to canvas.

In every situation of life, and through every gradation of society, rank is respected; and it was singular to observe, what deference in the gipsy bivouac, was shown by these wanderers to their queen. Introduced by royalty itself, the mariner was warmly welcomed-and in turn, he repaid this civility by a liberal contribution of whiskey which was readily procured. While the swarthy community seemed bent on a night of revelry, Miriam and her companion were engaged with more serious considerationsand Hans Wildman having replenished his flask from the earthen jar, retired with the sibyl from the general carousal, to hold secret converse with one, in whose matchless skill in

Never was "maiden meditation"-had my fair sister indulged in such-more regularly routed by hilarious revelry, than pretty Julia's on the eve before her wedding. The nuptial feast was furnished out in border fashion-and with heart of pride, the chief butler regarded the long array of substantial viands he had marshalled on the table, some time before he could tear himself away, and report in the drawing-room that dinner was paraded. I never read Ude nor Kitchener-therefore I cannot favor the reader with a bill of fare. I am aware that the success of a modern author has no reference to his scholarship, provided his millinery acquirements would command a situation from Howel and James. With shame, he had placed the most unlimited assurance. I confess that I am not able to describe the "Well, Hans Wildman, we are once more ladies' dresses; white miniver, piled velvet, alonė,” said Miriam, as she seated herself and murrey-colored satin, being to me terms on a heather bank which overlooked the of "an art unknown." All I shall say is, gipsy encampment, "go on with thy story." that to substantial fare the gentlemen brought "It will soon be told," returned the mariborder appetites, and that the women,-hea- ner. "The Jane reached the Scheldt in ven bless them all!-looked so confounded-safety, the landing had been most successful, ly handsome, that any man solicitous of entering the holy estate, might, with a safe conscience, have made a prompt selection, and then and there, committed matrimony on the spot.

"The art that none must name,"

and, as you may readily understand, her skirmish with the brig's boats, and the death of the passenger were carefully hushed up. Personal safety secured the silence of the crew and skipper on a subject, which capitally compromised all on board the Janeand indeed, the fortunate smugglers were too much engaged in dissipating the proceeds of their lucky run in schnaaps, and hops, and dancing-houses, to waste a thought on the death of an individual, whom none of them knew, and none of them cared for.

While within the ancient mansion of the Elliott's, "all went merry as a marriage bell," we must leave the ladies executing reels and strathspeys, and the gentlemen drinking health to them, " pottle deep," to follow the footsteps of that wild enthusiast the gipsy queen, and the confessed murderer who attended her. Soon after they had re- "Before we sailed for Ireland, I had ar commenced their journey across the moor, ranged with my employer a private place of they fell in with two or three members of the meeting when I should return, to report what swarthy community to which Miriam be- had occurred, and claim and receive the prolonged, accepted their invitation, and accom-mised reward; and, at the appointed time, he panied them to their bivouac.

It was twilight when the party reached the place where these wanderers had taken up their temporary abode, and the women were at the moment busily engaged in preparing the evening meal. The brightness of a clear fire of peat, the white wigwams that surrounded it, the iron kettle suspended from a trivet, simmering over the red coals,

punctually attended, listened to the details of the murder with some emotion, warned me on my own account to be secret, and without hesitation told down the stipulated gold.

"Saw you the boy?' he inquired care lessly.

"Oh yes-to avoid suspicion, I made it a point to attend the funeral-and, therefore,