blasphemous thanksgiving to the Almighty, that by his hand had her husband fallen, although at the time he slew him he knew not that he did it.

"Oh God! have mercy on my husband's soul, and forgive him, as I do! Oh, Heavenly Father! spare my brother, and look down with pity on him, for he knows not what he says. Hold him, Seymour; save him as he falls!" were the last words-uttered in a tone of unaffected piety and melancholy grief which would have riven any but a heart of stone-that struck upon my sinking senses on that night.

On awaking to consciousness, I found myself in France, stretched on a bed in a spacious room in the château belonging to the Countess de L(my maternal aunt), under whose care Jane had been placed immediately on our arrival in a foreign land. For many days both my reason and life had been despaired of, in consequence of a severe attack of brain fever, which had been brought on by the fatigue and over excitement I had undergone. Although now perfectly out of danger, it was some time ere I was permitted to hear the subsequent incidents of that night on which I had acted a part that proved me much more fit to have been confined in a lunatic box myself than to have assisted in taking any body out.

After I had fallen senseless into Seymour's arms, Wilson entered, and, on perceiving the state of things, immediately ordered the corpse of D(who, by being in the wake of the keyhole at the time I blew the lock in, had met his death when in the very act of endeavouring to obtain my sister's signature to some piece of villany that he and his lawyer had concocted) to be removed from my sister's sight; one of the nurses to be unbound for the purpose of attending her; and Mr. Tomkins, the surgeon, to be recovered instanter, by the somewhat cruel, though extremely efficacious, application of a lighted candle to the bare soles of his feet, and conveyed on board the lugger, where the utmost exertions of his skill were called forth in making the most of a very slender stock of physic, by the threat of being headed up alive in an empty butt, and hove overboard, if any thing happened to either of his patients.

Part of the gang, including “ Black

Charley," had been left in possession of the ground; and, after making a very substantial supper, had, with characteristic love of mischief, and utter recklessness of after consequences, broken open all the sleeping cells, and freeing the poor mad creatures, let them loose on their keepers, who, being bound hand and foot, were, of course, perfectly incapable of opposing any resistance to the numerous bites and scratches that were inflicted on them. The smugglers then extinguished (as they thought) all the lights, and, locking the doors, went out, taking the mistress of the asylum with them; and, owing her a grudge, for having refused them the shelter of her garden on one occasion, they "sarved her out" in the following manner ::-Catching the horse of Major D——————, they lashed her back to back to the dead corpse of the soldier-officer, and, seating him in his saddle, made his feet fast in the stirrups with a bit of ropeyarn, and, strapping the reins to his fingers, turned the animal adrift to gallop where it pleased.

God forbid that I should attempt to justify such needless atrocities, productive of the worst consequences,— for, as might have been expected, the house was destroyed, and its mistress, from that hour, went raving mad, and died in Bethlem. I only relate facts which must be still fresh in the memory of more than one that I could name. The smugglers had scarcely quitted the scene of action ten minutes' ere flames burst out at the northern gable of the house; and "Black Charley" had barely time to gallop back and save its inhabitants from being burnt alive. To describe the horrible scene of confusion which occurred would be impossible. Assistance soon arrived from the neighbouring town, and, by God's good providence, no lives were lost; but that sun which but the evening before had sunk down to rest behind a noble mansion, rose in the morning on a smouldering heap of ashes. Government took it up, and the Sussex coast was soon too hot to hold either Wilson or his men; but none of them were ever caught, for at that time it was about as likely to meet with success in running after a smuggler as in chasing a pound of quicksilver down a mountain. As to Wilson, he was always here, there, and everywhere,-at one time in command of a lugger, at another on the ton of a hores training

his men, and occasionally up in London seeing that every thing went on "all right" at the rendezvous. Jane, Seymour, and myself returned to England just in time to avoid forming a part of the unhappy détenus at that period, and for Seymour and myself to be apprehended. My cousin was liberated almost immediately, as the grand jury ignored the bill concerning "Tracey Seymour," but found a true one against "Edward Jervis," and he was dragged as a felon to the dock, and tried at the bar of his country for murder and arson; but the jury" acquitted the prisoner' without a moment's hesitation, and the populace loudly cheered him as he drove away in triumph, seated on the top of Lord A's four-in-hand. But neither the approbation of the mob, the gratitude of his sister, nor the powerful interest of Lord A-——, had any effect in restoring him to his rank and half-pay in the service, both of which he was deprived of, for not choosing to consider it a part of his duty, as an officer and a man of honour, to act either as a common informer or exciseman. Early one morning in the latter part of the year 1806, I was seated before the fire in the breakfastroom of my sister's house (not my own, reader, for I never possessed any thing with a roof to it grander than a dogkennel), in Berkeley Square, with my hands in my pocket, and a foot resting on each hob, brooding over the events of my fortunate and happy life, and trying to remember how many years I might have numbered before Goodluck and I shook hands and parted, never to meet again. Jane came and knelt beside my chair, and, patting the head of my old Newfoundland dog with one hand, laid the other gently on my arm, and, looking up in my face, said, in a soft, hesitating tone, "Brother Edward!"

"Sister Jane!"

"Do you remember my asking a great favour of you a long, long time ago, and your putting me off, by saying that you would give me an answer when I was three-and-twenty, and not till then, as no woman ever comes to the proper years of discretion before that time?' This is my three-andtwentieth birth-day. Here is the letter; do let me send it, Edward, it will make me so happy!"

young widow, in the unsuspicious innocence of her heart putting it into my outstretched hand "Oh, Ed

ward! how cruel of you! on my birth-day, too!" and poor Jane burst into a flood of tears as she viewed her epistle to "Messrs. P― and C——, of B― Street, solicitors," flaming

away in glorious style.

"Jane, I am not cruel. And now I tell you, once for all, that I have enough, and more than enough, for all my wants. When my father cursed me with his dying breath, he meant not that I should ever share the wealth he toiled and sacrificed his health in India for; and I inherit too much of his haughty, unforgiving spirit ever so to do. When I accepted the run of my teeth in this house, I did it that I might become the protector of my sister, and not her pensioner; and, so help me, God! as long as the navy is in want of foremast men, I never will. Dry your eyes, love; I am not worth any body's tears, and you have known what it is to shed enough with real cause not to be quite so ready with them when there happens to be none. There, there's a knock at the door; some one for me, no doubt; so run up stairs, or people will think we've been fighting !"

Presently Wilson, whom I had not seen for a long while, was announced : rough but friendly greetings passed between us, and he sat down, looking pale, anxious, and agitated. "You are quite a stranger, Wilson !"

"Would to Heaven I had ever been so!" he exclaimed; and then, struggling with his feelings, added, "Jervis, I am going to speak to you on a subject which ;" but here something brought him up with a round turn, and I endeavoured to give him time for recovery, by congratulating him for about the sixth time on the free pardou which government had accorded him (on his finding securities for never engaging in "free-trade" again), for his conduct in swimming off with a rope to a brig of war in distress, when none of the boats would venture to put to sea, and by that means saving the lives of the officers and ship's company. "But for that pardon I should never have come here to day. I am prepared for the reception I shall meet with when James Wilson, once an outlawed, Edward Jervis

done so from a boy!" and he rose from his chair, and stood erect, as if in expectation of a furious burst of rage. I was taken all aback. "I know," he continued, "that my former unfortunate profession is an insuperable bar to our union; but

"The sister of a disgraced king's officer," I bitterly added, "with the damning mark of broke the service' fixed against his name is a fitting wife for a pardoned smuggler. I have

braved too much of the world's scorn to mind its censure when I say,-so that you can win her, wear her! and, 'outlawed, hunted smuggler' though he once has been, there breathes not the man in England that I would sooner hail as brother than James Wilson !" who stood speechless, evidently not prepared for the reception that he met with; but at the same time I took the liberty of reminding him that there was another person to be consulted on the occasion, and that that said person had refused so many" eligible," offers, that I doubted whether she was ever going to try her luck in the matrimonial line again. He asked me to speak for him." "No, Wilson, never! I am a bad hand in an 'affaire du cœur,'-for I never had but one, and we all know how that terminated. Speak for yourself, man, and God send you, what it has seldom been my lot to meet with, success!" and, ringing the bell, I desired the servant to tell his mistress that she was wanted on business; and down came Jane.

"How do you do, Mr. Wilson? Well, Edward, what is it?"

"He'll tell you," I said, pointing to poor Wilson, who, now that Jane had come in, stood looking as much like a

fool as if any body had paid him so much an hour for remaining stuck to one spot to be laughed at. Thinking I was "de trop," I went out, and, locking the door upon them, stood sentry in the hall, for fear of eavesdroppers. Soon after, a very plaintive voice said, "Edward, how can you do so! I can't get outlet me out!" and as I freed the captive she slipped by me like a shot, and hastily ran up stairs.

A few months after, the papers announced the marriage of " James Wilson, Esq., eldest son of Major-General Wilson, of Blanket Hall, Berks, to Jane, relict of the late Major Dand only daughter of the late Sir E. Jervis, Knt., formerly of the Bengal Civil Service, of Berkeley Square, London, and of House, in the county of Surrey."

Wilson's reconciliation with his father followed his marriage with my sister, whose lot since has been as happy as mine is otherwise,- for "my dead father's curse is working yet;" and there is something within me which forebodes that the "last state of this man shall be worse than the first," and that my destinies are not yet fulfilled. But enough of this. My eldest nephew and godson, Edward, bears the rank his uncle once did, viz.,-that of a lieutenant in the British navy, to which noble service he bids fair to be an honour; my second, George, is a cornet in the

-th Hussars; and my niece, Jane, is at the moment I am writing this dancing away to her heart's content at the Surrey yeomanry ball at Epsom; while the "bold smuggler" has settled down into a quiet country, coursing gentleman, and become within the last few years a county magistrate.