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them had that dark eye-brow which shaded many a glance of fire. They were all men of robust but not Herculean make; yet, though no giant frame set forth their common height, Levingstone saw in the look of each more than marked the crowd of ordinary men; and oft he asked himself what faith could bind them to each other, mould their minds to Whiggans's will, subject them to such wretched toils and perilous pursuits, in the most dangerous of which they never grumbled nor repined, accused not, hated not, but with smooth voice and prompt exertion went on to do their lawless trade. Levingstone was forced to view their desperate trade, all having cast their lot into one common scale, as a chain that linked them to each other, and crowned their daring deeds with linked success.

Strange as it may seem that these

men were not afraid of Lerwick making a disclosure of their secret places, they seemed to have no apprehensions that any thing he might say against them would be attended to.

They believed, and justly, that whatever he might say against them would only be what all the judges of the land knew; and they were certain that for the sake of his brother, Lerwick would' not reveal their hiding-places. His brother was at their mercy any night, and his brother knew well that Lerwick had killed the man in Ireland, and had for seven long years been as great a smuggler as themselves, though he had held all that time a situation of public trust.

The captain told his men they should now go to the cave. The spirits, &c. they had put up. To Levingstone the captain shewed an immense quantity of tobacco, two barrels of gunpowder

in the rock to which he would not approach but with a small lantern which lay in the vault, bales of silk, cambric, and some lace.

They came forth from the lower vault to the upper one, and put up. the stones as before, though they might not indeed have been so cautious, since, except their own people, none others had, perhaps since the days of splendour, visited that vault: indeed those who knew the castle well, those who paced its deep-walled galleries, trode around its spacious amphitheatre, and had visited one of the vaults, never thought of crossing the transverse pieces of water to explore the spacious subterraneous halls which had called the Bruce king and master.

CHAPTER VIII.

Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down!
He shall be encountered with a man as good as himself.
SHAKSPEARE.

LEVINGSTONE, Whiggans, and his men got at length to the cave, but it was a distance of three miles. It lay in a 'deep wood; it only had an entrance by a small fissure in the face of the rock, sufficiently large to allow a man to walk in erect; but the access to it was difficult, and the night was now extremely dark: the moon had set, and the heavens, so starry at nine o'clock, were now veiled in sable, mournful darkness.

But though this entrance was on the face of a rock, there was a projecting crag at the bases of the fissure suffi

ciently large to hold at one time four or five men; and the descent to this species of natural platform was only by means of swinging himself over the brow of the rock, by means of a rope that Lerwick could have got into the cave, if he were there; but the whole summit of this lofty rock was crowned with hazel bushes and small oaks, and it was an easy matter for him to let himself down. The people of Whiggans had ropes in the hand of one of the men, for they had not come unprepared: all are ready to descend.

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"Mr. Levingstone," said Whiggans, you know the old ruin of a castle was sought in vain; we shall not be so unsuccessful here, I hope. I and two

of

my men will go down; you had

better not go."

"Why, Mr. Whiggans, I have no personal fear; I am armed as well as you are."

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