would not part with it for a purse full of gold, for it had enabled him to beat off an enemy, and he would therefore keep it. It was to no purpose M. Villejuive reasoned, on the silliness of such a predilection for a pistol: the sergeant might buy another for half a guinea, as good as that; at any rate, one that would serve his turn as well: for if the pistol was no more than perfect, one as fit for service was as good. as another. The arguments of M. Villejuive had still less weight with Macbean; and at last M. Villejuive begged he would lend it him till the next day. The sergeant would not part with it; it was his own, as lawfully as Quebec was his king's. He would keep it. M. Villejuive, if he wanted a pistol, could buy one as well as the sergeant; for if one pistol was the same to a "twa and forty man" as another, one pistol was certainly as

good as another if both fired well, to a farmer, who was in no danger of being murdered.

The murder of the Laird St. Clyde was quoted by Villejuive; but Macbean argued, as a security against the chances of M. Villejuive dying the same death, his being armed with a good hazel stick, and a dirk if he liked, which he observed every body had in his house. Macbean would not part with his treasure on any account, and he and Villejuive parted that evening at cross purposes about a trifling pistol.

It was the next day that M. Villejuive waited on the fiscal, and consigned to him the deeds of the mortgage, and settled that the estate of St. Clyde should be let at the same rent at which he held it, and that the rent should be paid to Ellen, or Colin St. Clyde, till they could redeem it; and

in the mean time a deed was made out, in which by will M. Villejuive bequeathed the redemption-purchase of the mortgage equally to his sons.

The fiscal could not understand this sudden change in the conduct of M. Villejuive, and was very sorry to hear he was going to leave the island. But there was some important business that demanded his presence at St. Omer, and he could not remain in Bute any longer; and that same day arranging all his affairs, he went and took leave of the minister and Ellen, saying, he expected to be back in the course of three months; but as the farm would go to wreck during his absence, Andrew Gillies was solicited to take it, with the live stock and the farming utensils. But Gillies could not pay the amount; and M. Villejuive was good enough to take a note for it, payable by instalments of six

months, if he did not return in three months; and this money the fiscal was to hold in the name of Louis Villejuive and that very night M. Villejuive went to Rothsay, and freighted an open boat, with which he went over to Kelly-Burn, and the boat returned in the morning. But one of the men that went with her had got drunk, and would not suffer himself to be carried on board; and his comrades left him to come over with some of the fishingboats next tide. But the fellow did not return, and it was understood that he had gone southward. However, he was a kind of hack boatman, and an" idle loon," that wandered from place to place, and kept much company with another idle old man, by name John Car: nobody cared about him, nor was his absence any loss to the town.

Levingstone and the minister were

greatly puzzled what to make of M. Villejuive's sudden departure; but as he had often talked of visiting St. Omer, and being a little eccentric in his journeys since he got possession of the caim of St. Clyde, nobody felt much astonished after the first report of his departure; and Levingstone, though he had determined to set off next day for Kelvin, remained at the manse in great anxiety for the return of Colin, as his time was very greatly limited, he being now an advocate at Edinburgh.

In a drawer of a table in the house Villejuive had just left, was found a letter, of which the following is a translation:

My Father and Confessor,

I am distressed beyond

the power of expression, and I shall leave this island to-morrow morning