he is mistaken, if you promise secrecy and fidelity; and you must know further, that it has always been at Lerwick's peril to tell of us, or reveal this vault."

"Had he done so," cried the mate of this band, "we would have cut him in inches, and left his corpse where no human being should have found its pieces."

Levingstone assured Captain Whiggans that his fidelity and honour would remain unshaken; and the captain be lieved him, and instantly replied, "Then come along, Mr. Levingstone,"

"For what is death but parting breath?
On many a bloody plain

I've dared his face, and in this place
I scorn him yet again."

Now they all descended; for by this time the men from the ruinous drawbridge were called by the boatswain's whistle into the spacious vault so rich

ly decked in days of yore with architectural finished column, capital and frieze; and, as nearly as Levingstone could guess, they were beneath the former one at least thirty feet; but even at this depth, the cold, dark, dreary vault was not so damp nor noisome as many a wretched cellar either in the Cowgate or Cripplegate. The castle was founded on a rock, and this spacious vault, Levingstone was told by Captain Whiggans, was cut out of the solid rock; there were flues that communicated to it from the wall of the castle, and allowed a circulation of air; and a very deep well in the centre of the floor collected all the water the rock might be disposed to allow to trickle on the floor, and the well was never full.

The entrance of this vault they arrived at, and there was no appearance of a large passage into it, the only opening

being by means of a hole in the wall of one of the niches, and which seemed not at first sight to communicate with any other place; but though a man might easily crawl into this hole, he could not go in erect, and two men abreast might as soon think of escaping through the eye of a needle. But Whiggans and his men soon removed three very large stones, and some of a smaller size, and made room enough for one man at a time to go in erect. Whiggans went foremost, and called Lerwick by name, and asked him, "What the devil he was doing there!"

No answer was returned; they searched the vault; no Lerwick was to be found.

Well," said Whiggans, "if we don't get him here, we shall get him elsewhere, before the cock crows; you must be tired, Mr. Levingstone; we

have here plenty of biscuit, cheese, cold meat, and brandy and hollands. One of the men took a torch, for every man did not have one, and went to a corner of the vault and brought a cag of brandy; another went to a recess in the vault, and brought from a small cask some good biscuit and cheese; a third brought a small cask of water; and there were stone-benches in the place, on which, as the clock. struck twelve, all sat down to this subterraneous supper.

It was indeed the supper of banditti ; there were three torches burning, besides a lamp, which, slung to three cross poles, was sufficient of itself, when lighted, to have served for beacon-fire to vessels floating on the savage surge; and Levingstone remarked, that, except their calling Whiggans, captain, and going off when he ordered, or

halting when he spoke, all the other seventeen men seemed to know and regard neither law, order, discipline, nor commander. They ate, drank, sung, and laughed, and told wondrous tales, or quizzed each other, just as the mood was on them. However, that night not one of them would get drunk, as all had resolved to have Lerwick brought to the gallows.

It was a picture Levingstone much wished to admire: Whiggans scarce ever smiled; he was indeed the man of loneliness and mystery, and none ever heard him sigh: his very name appalled all his crew. His swarthy cheek, with sallower line, his keen commanding eye, swayed the fiercest soul his crew could name; and he possessed that magic art, this lawless train confessed and envied, and at times opposed in vain. But not a man of his crew assumed his place, even though many of