e her hammock till day was breaking. Oh, would that
night could have lasted for years, so sweetly tranquil were
the starlit hours, so calm and yet so full of hopeful
promise. What brilliant pictures of ambition did she, that
young, untaught girl, present to my eyes,--how teach me to
long for a cause whose rewards were higher, and greater, and
nobler than the prizes of this wayward life. I would have
spoken of my affection, my deep-felt, long-cherished love,
but, with a half-scornful laugh, she stopped me, saying, 'Is
this leafy shade so like a fair lady's boudoir that you can
persuade yourself to trifle thus, or is your own position so
dazzling that you deem the offer to share it a flattery?'"

"I 'm afraid, sir," said Mr. Phillis, here obtruding his head into the
room, "that you 'll be very late. It is already more than half-past
seven o'clock."

"So it is!" exclaimed Cashel, starting up, while he muttered something
not exceedingly complimentary to his host's engagement. "Is the carriage
ready?" And without staying to hear the reply, hurried downstairs, the
open letter still in his hand.

Scarcely seated in the carriage, Cashel resumed the reading of the
letter. Eager to trace the circumstances which led to his friend's
captivity, he hastily ran his eyes over the lines till he came to the
following:--

"There could be no doubt of it. The 'Esmeralda,' our noble
frigate, was not in the service of the Republic, but by some
infamous treaty between Pedro and Narochez, the minister,
was permitted to carry the flag of Columbia. We were
slavers, buccaneers, pirates,--not sailors of a state. When,
therefore, the British war-brig 'Scorpion' sent a gun
across our bows, with an order to lie to, and we replied by
showing our main-deck ports open, and our long eighteens all
ready, the challenge could not be mistaken. We were near
enough to hear the cheering, and it seemed, too, they heard
ours; we wanted but you, Roland, among us to have made our
excitement madness!"

The carriage drew up at Kennyfeck's door as Cashel had read thus far,
and in a state of mind bordering on fever he entered the hall and passed
up the stairs. The clock struck eight as he presented himself in the
drawing-room, where the family were assembled, the number increased by
two strangers, who were introduced to Roland as Mrs. Kennyfeck's sis