You frighten me. There, there, my pet," he
continued, trying to take her hand; "go to your room for a bit with
Edie, and--yes, yes, lie down."

"Give me the paper," she said hoarsely.

"No, no, I cannot, indeed, my dear."

"Ah!" cried the agitated girl wildly. "I know--they have set him free?"

Sir Mark glanced at his niece, and then passed his hand over his beaded
forehead.

"Yes, yes, my dear," he faltered; "he is free."

"Ah! and he will come here and claim me, and then--"

She reeled as if to fall, but her force of will was too great, and she
mastered her emotion again, stepped forward, and seized the paper, her
senses swimming as she turned it again and again, till the large type of
the telegram caught her attention.

Then she closed her eyes for a few moments, drew a long breath, and they
saw her compress her lips and read without a tremor:

Daring attempted Escape.

Serious Affray.

Our correspondent at Grey Cliff telegraphs of a desperate attempt made
by three of the convicts at The Foreland last night about eight
o'clock. By some means they managed to elude the vigilance of the
warders after the cells had been visited and lights were out, reached
the yard, and scaled the lofty wall. Then, favoured by the darkness
of the night, they threaded their way among the sentries, and reached
the cliffs of the dangerous rocky coast, where, their evasion having
been discovered, they were brought to bay by a party of the armed
warders. In the affray which ensued two of the warders were
dangerously wounded with stones, and the convicts were making their
way down the cliffs to the sea when orders were given to fire. One of
the men was shot down, while, in the desperate attempts to escape
recapture, the others went headlong down the almost perpendicular
precipice which guards the eastern side of The Foreland.

Upon the warders descending with ropes, two of the men were brought
up, one with a shot through the leg, the other suffering from a badly
fractured skull, while, in spite of vigorous search by the boats of
H.M.S. _Merlin_, the body of the third man, which had been heard to
plunge into the sea, was not recovered. We regret to add that the man
injured by his fall expired in the ambulance on the way back to the
prison. He was the notorious convict Barron, or Dale, sentenced to
seven years' penal servitude, about a twelvemonth ago, for the daring
fraud