t rush off from my very sad position,
for my breath would soon fail me, and my lower limbs are thick from the
exercise of hospitality. How I longed for the wings of a dove, or at
any rate for the legs of Lieutenant Blyth Scudamore! And my dark
apprehensions gained double force when a stone was dislodged by my foot
(which may have trembled), and rolled with a sharp echo down into the
ballium, or whatever it should be called, where these desperadoes stood.
In an instant three of them had their long guns pointed at the very
thicket which sheltered me, and if I had moved or attempted to make
off, there would have been a vacancy in this preferment. But luckily a
rabbit, who had been lying as close as I had, and as much afraid of me
perhaps as I was of those ruffians, set off at full speed from the hop
of the stone, and they saw him, and took him for the cause of it. This
enabled me to draw my breath again, and consider the best way of making
my escape, for I cared to see nothing more, except my own house-door.

"Happily the chance was not long in coming. At a shout from below--which
seemed to me to be in English, and sounded uncommonly like 'now,
then!'--all those fellows turned their backs to me, and began very
carefully to lower, one by one, the barrels that had been let down
the incline. And other things were standing there, besides barrels:
packing-cases, crates, very bulky-looking boxes, and low massive wheels,
such as you often see to artillery. You know what a vast extent there
is of cellars and vaults below your old castle, most of them nearly as
sound as ever, and occupied mainly by empty bottles, and the refuse
of past hospitality. Well, they are going to fill these with
something--French wines, smuggled brandy, contraband goods of every kind
you can think of, so long as high profit can be made of them. That is
how your nephew Caryl means to redeem his patrimony. No wonder that he
has been so dark and distant! It never would have done to let us get the
least suspicion of it, because of my position in the Church, and in the
Diocese. By this light a thousand things are clear to me, which exceeded
all the powers of the Sphinx till now."

"But how did you get away, my darling Joshua?" Mrs. Twemlow enquired,
as behoved her. "So fearless, so devoted, so alive to every call of
duty--how could you stand there, and let the wretches shoot at you?"

"By taking good care not to do it," the Rector answered, simply. "No
sooner