ore; and to my mother, now that _he_ is safe."

One kiss from the gallant earl, and the high-minded, though low-born,
maiden stepped into the boat. One wave of the hand, when the morning
mist interposed its white veil, and parted them for ever;--yet not
before old Grimes, taking a last survey of the vessel, was quite sure
he saw the magician of the casket looking at him over the ship's side.
In all probability his fancy had not deceived him; the affair of the
casket, though supposed by the fisherman to be altogether of a
supernatural nature, was, in all likelihood, a means of supplying the
earl with money and information to aid his escape.

The subsequent history of this unfortunate but misguided chieftain,
whose daring and audacious bravery was worthy of a better cause and a
more disinterested master, is but too well known.

The vessel, being ill equipped and hardly sea-worthy, was pursued--the
earl taken, and an ignominious death gave to the world assurance of a
traitor.

[Illustration: THE MAID'S STRATAGEM]

THE MAID'S STRATAGEM;

OR,

THE CAPTIVE LOVER.

"Let me alone with him. If I do not gull him into a nayword,
and make him a common recreation, do not think I have wit
enough to lie straight in my bed."

--_Twelfth Night._

The following tale is perhaps the most apocryphal in our
series. There has been considerable difficulty in fixing its
locality: and, indeed, we are hardly sure that the names,
dates, and places we have hit upon, will answer to the facts in
every particular. We have done our best to verify it, and have
succeeded, we trust, in the attempt, more to our reader's
satisfaction than our own.

"There be more fools than farthingales, and more braggarts than
beards, in this good land of ours. A bald-faced impertinent! it should
cost the grand inquisitor a month's hard study to invent a punishment
for him. This pretty morsel! Hark thee, wench; I'll render his
love-billet to thine ear. Listen and be discreet.

"'If my sighs could waft the soft cargo of their love to thy
bosom, I would freight the vessel with my tears, and her sails
should be zephyr's wings, and her oars love's fiercest darts.
If I could tell but the lightest part of mine agony, your heart,
though it were adamant, would melt in the furnace of my speech,
and your torture should not abate till one kind glance had
irradiated the