as by a sense of the danger of remaining where she was. Her husband placed his strong arms around her, and guided her uncertain steps with a care unusual to him, glancing back every few moments to ascertain if his daughter followed his directions. Lucille, with a courage and firmness worthy of her father, followed him closely, bravely repressing the tremulous pulsations of her heart, and keeping her eyes steadily fixed upon the guiding form in whose steps she walked. The pathway ended as it began, in a gorge between the hills, which, after a few yards, seemed to enclose them on all sides. The party halted, and Laval lifted up a matted screen of wild vines that hung over the face of the cliff. It revealed an opening large enough to permit the mule without his rider to pass through. The pastor dismounted, and transferred the child to his mother. "We shall find friends and shelter here," said Laval. "I will go before, and prepare those within for the appearance among them of others as unfortunate as themselves." He bent his tall form, and was soon lost in the darkness beyond. In a few moments a glimmer of lurid light flashed through the opening, and the voice of the forester bade them enter. The pastor made the mother and daughter precede him, and followed, leading his mule. The scene which there met their view was wild and fantastic beyond description. A lofty palace of weird and most grotesque architecture seemed to rise before their vision, lighted from various points by torches made of resinous woods, and placed in such a position as was most convenient for their owners. Many groups were scattered over the large area whose appearance seemed to realize the story of the gnomes, though why they were permitted to intrude into this lighted hall, over which the spirit of beauty had thrown its most attractive spell, seemed a mystery. Haggard, hopeless-looking men, half starved women and children, with their clothing often in tatters, started forward to welcome the new-comers, in the hope that they brought assistance to them, for hitherto the ence of Laval in their midst had been for the purpose of bringing to them such scanty supplies of food as he could obtain without suspicion. pres Collected there were thirty wretched refugees who had been beggared, driven from their homes, and threatened with imprisonment and the galleys if they did not renounce their religious belief. While living in the mountain fastnesses, with no shelter save the canopy of heaven, one of the persecuted sect had accidentally discovered the entrance to the cave, and there the hapless Huguenots found safety from their enemies amidst scenes of grandeur and loveliness that rivalled the proudest palace made by the skill of man. The area of the hall measured several hundred feet, and the vaulted arch above, by the dim light, seemed to rise to infinity. Lofty pillars, cornices wreathed with snowy flowers, and walls covered with fantastic arabesques, looking as if formed of floating mist sud | denly frozen into shapes of unimaginable beauty, bewil dered the eye, and appealed to the imagination. A wide arched portal, supported on either hand by colossal figures, led into an interior apartment, from which gleamed a faint light, revealing outlines of spectral images resembling a hall of statuary. The pastor paused and looked upon the scene to which he had been so suddenly introduced. As the gaunt forms of its hapless occupants came crowding toward him, with words of welcome and recognition, and stretching forth his hands, he uttered a fervent prayer for the rescue and preservation of the hapless beings awaiting there the means of flying from their native land forever, glad to abandon every earthly possession if life and reason could be preserved. A light form, with dishevelled hair and streaming eyes, glided from the shelter of a pillar, and Lucille threw herself before him, and clasped his knees. "Oh, good pastor!" she tremulously said, "leave us not until you have obtained forgiveness for me from my father for the cowardly act which brought all this misery upon us. My heart is broken by having incurred his displeasure as well as that of my heavenly Father." "Poor child, what can you have done which is considered so unpardonable?" asked the pastor. "She has denied her Lord in the hour of temptation," replied Laval, sternly. "And although she is dearer to me than my own heart's blood, I feel that, in atonement for this sin, God will require of me the same sacrifice he demanded of Abraham. The only difference will be that mine must be consummated, while the patriarch only underwent a severe trial of his faith." "What can you mean?" asked the pastor, as he gazed in surprise upon the gloomy brow and rapt expression of the forester. "Only that I feel myself to be one chosen to a peculiar lot, and the future rises up before me a phantom of such horror as might freeze the blood in veins less fiery than mine. Within the past few hours a vision of prophecy has come upon me with a power I can not resist. I behold the long vista of woe that stretches before us ending in the dim futurity in an outpouring of blood that shall appal the nations of the earth, then will the retribution have fallen, and the destruction of my people be signally avenged. But-but the victim demanded of me will be my own precious one; and, shrink as I may, this right hand must hurl her to destruction." He stretched forth his trembling hand, and placed it on the head of the frightened girl. "Oh, father, you have not yet forgiven me!" she murmured. "Twice last night you were on the eve of taking my life, and now you express the same intention. Dear pastor, intercede for me, that he may pardon my great fault. I am young; I fear to die." heart, and win forgiveness for your recantation from | glad welcome, and then sunk like a mass of lead in her Him whose holy cause you denied. But, should it be bosom. A cold thrill sent its icy shiver through her ordered otherwise-should the dragoons circumvent us, veins, as he laid his hand upon her shoulder and called I warn you to make your peace with God, for I will her by the pet name he bestowed upon her only in his with my own hand destroy you, sooner than suffer you blandest moods. to fall into the power of those who have no mercy on us. Go, Lucille, and delay not the pastor; time is precious to him." The pastor placed his hands upon her bowed head and blessed her. She then turned meekly toward her father, who seemed moved by a sudden impulse to snatch her to his heart. Comforted by this assurance of his unabated affection, Lucille returned to her mother. The morning found the inmates of the cave assembled in the hall of statues, for it was the Sabbath. Wan figures arose on all sides, with every variety of drapery flowing from their gigantic proportions. Seen by the flickering and imperfect light of a few scattered torches, they looked like a convention of antique sages, in their robes of state, collected there in solemn conclave to decide on some question of momentous import. Near its centre arose an altar, of pure white, supported by a gigantic hand, that seemed to rise from the floor and grasp the slender shaft that rested upon it, as perfectly poised as if a skillful architect had adapted it to its position. On either hand floating drapery fell from it in folds of such airy delicacy as to seem ready to be displaced by a breath. An open Bible rested upon the shaft, showing that it had already been appropriated as a place of worship by the refugees. Laval, bewildered by the weird scene, passed on until they reached the farthest extremity of the vast hall. There an irregularly-shaped recess, about fifteen feet long and nearly as wide, was screened from observation by a falling sheet of stalactite, on which two figures in the act of embracing seemed rudely traced in the basrelief. In this he found his wife and child, stretched upon a bed of dried leaves. Madame Laval lay pale and exhausted, completely broken down by the mental anguish of the last few hours. The boy was sleeping quietly beside her, but it was evident that he, too, had suffered from the indisposition of his mother. Lucille sat beside them, holding the hand of Madame Laval in her own. It thrilled and trembled with nervous excitement, for in this phantomhall she could only sleep while the warm clasp of her daughter assured her that some living and breathing form was near her. Lucille looked inexpressibly sad. The shadow of a dark presentiment was on her, and she prayed for strength to fortify her child-soul for the moment of thrilling terror and fatal doom which arose as a dim, and undefined horror before her. Nature bestows upon a few of her children, of finer organization, a subtle instinct, which enables them vaguely to foreshadow the future especially if that future be charged with clouds of evil; and to such belonged this young girl. The approach of her father was felt before she saw him. For one brief instant her heart bounded with a "Petite, you look almost as ghastly as those stone figures out there, and your mother seems as if she had been ill a month. Fie! this will never do. If we begin by despairing, how must it end with us?" The girl raised her large sad eyes to his, and said, "We feared for your safety; that is why we seem so downcast, father." The sound of his voice aroused his wife from her half-dreaming state, and she languidly unclosed her eyes. "Dear Jean, is that you? Oh, such a weight is lifted from my poor heart by your return! The baby is not well; and I believe, if I am compelled to stay in this dreadful place, with all those stony figures looking like ghosts, I shall die. They make me afraid. It seems like a place for the dead people that can't rest in their graves." The stern soul of Laval, moved by such a whirwind of emotion as had lately swept through it, could find little sympathy for this species of nervous terror; the querulous tones of his wife's voice annoyed him, and he hastily said, "Annette, in the time of health and strength the words of living truth, taught you from your infancy, were never doubted; and now, in the imbecility of fear and sickness, they shall not be. Cast those doubts away, I command you, and ask of Christ forgiveness for having harbored them. Even this trial of faith may come to you, Annette; and should you then prove untrue should you even waver, then may God help you, for I never will. I will cast you from me as a worthless weed, no longer worthy of a place in the heart of a man who deserves the name. I pardoned the child because she is young and timid; but you-you, the wife of my bosom, the mother of my children—oh, it is very, very different!" and the stern voice faltered with emotion. Madame Laval was roused from her supineness by this impassioned appeal. She clasped his hands in both her own, and said, "It was the doubt of a moment. I do believe, Jean, with all my heart; and I promise you that I will perish before I will prove untrue to the faith by which I have lived." Torches were brought in, and disposed in such a manner as to throw the glare of light upon the space immediately around the altar. Then the most singular and interesting portion of this exquisite work of nature became visible. Suspended above it was an irregular canopy, crowned by a broken mitre, from which a dove was springing forth with outstretched wings, as if ready to soar heavenward, yet held down, wounded and partially crushed by the weight of the ecclesiastical crown from which it had failed to escape. "Behold the visible emblem of our faith, struggling to rescue itself from the fangs of Rome!" said such positions beside him, that it was impossible to aim accurately at either of them without danger to him; thus they all escaped the murderous fire, save the infant. A bullet glanced and broke his arm; the frantic mother snatched him from his father's arms, and fell fainting with terror. M. Lefevre, pointing upward. He entered the unique | mark to be passed by; his wife and daughter stood in pulpit, and opened the service by reading a portion of Scripture. He then gave out the opening lines of one of the soul-stirring hymns sung by the Huguenots in their places of worship. His voice was one of fine power, and he commenced the strain himself. The others joined in; and those hidden in different parts of the cavern, who had not yet been informed of what was going on, took it up as they came winding through the dim arcades toward the illuminated point near the centre. The thrilling anthem echoed through the vast dome, and seemed to die away in depths yet unexplored. The singers involuntarily paused, at the close of each verse, and listened to the fading strain, sounding as if a seraph-band had caught each cadence as it arose, and were wafting it away, away to the spirit-land. A picture for an artist gifted with the highest inspiration of genius would that striking scene have made. The men, with their wasted and strongly-marked features and worn vestments, leaning in every variety of attitude against the gigantic forms that cast their shadows around; the women and children, grouped together on the floor-many of the former possessing a delicate beauty which showed that hardship was new to them and the infant faces looking up with awestruck expression to the white-haired man, who spoke to them of "a home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," where persecution nor want should ever reach them. At the close of the sermon the choral hymn again arose, and amidst its dying echoes the benediction was given. A thrilling cry suddenly broke the impressive sounds of M. Lefevre's voice, and horror-struck faces revealed that they were surrounded by a cordon of soldiers, who had noiselessly approached, and now stood with levelled muskets and glaring eyes, ready to pour destruction in the midst of the helpless and unarmed groups before them. That cry was the signal; each dragoon had taken deadly aim at his intended victim, and a simultaneous discharge carried death to nearly every manly heart in that assembly; while women and children received ghastly wounds, compared with which death would have been mercy. There were flying forms, and wild shrieks, and cries for mercy, that were never hearkened to by the ruthless murderers. The wretched man stooped to lift them again that he might at least die in the attempt to protect them, when a fierce grasp was laid on his shoulder, and a voice said, "You we are commissioned to make prisoner." At that instant a cry was heard that vibrated to the inmost soul of the father; and with the fury of a baited tiger he dashed aside the hand that would have held him, and, bounding over the dead and dying, reached his daughter just as a dragoon was laying his rude grasp upon her. To dash him aside, snatch her to his breast, and fly toward the opening leading to the hills, was the work of a brief moment. Three soldiers started in pursuit; but Laval, burdened as he was, outstripped them all-for he was nerved by desperation; to escape with her, or to destroy her himself, was his stern resolution; though he felt as if the clutch of a fiend was on his heart as the terrible thought passed through it. The outlet was open, for the sentinel had heard the discharge of fire-arms, and hastened to ascertain its cause. Appalled by the scene that met his view, he fled over the hill-side to meet imprisonment from the dragoons who guarded the ravine. Hotly pursued, the forester rushed through the opening, and gained the edge of the precipice. Two soldiers were on the path in front of him, and he saw there was no escape. He turned his face for one instant toward those who followed him; it was livid, and his hair bristled upon his head like one in mortal fright. His daughter lay helpless upon his breast, and it was evident that terror had rendered her insensible to what was passing. The grasp of his pursuers was already upon the garments of Laval; their curses were ringing in his ears, when his voice arose with such fearful agony in its tones that even those hardened men recoiled: "My God! to save her, thou knowest this is all that is left me!" And with a frantic impulse he threw the helpless form over the yawning chasm. One of the dragoons clutched at her dress, and there was an instant of breathless horror; then the garment yielded, and to save himself from losing his footing on the edge of the precipice, the man relaxed his grasp, and the slight form of Lucille went down-down, while her father stood paralyzed by the deed he had thus been forced to commit, with rigid frame and stony eyes, an image of desThe first discharge had covered Laval with blood. The pair in its most terrible aspect.-From the Huguenot desire to take the forester alive caused so conspicuous a | Exiles, published by Harper Brothers. Utter extermination, except to the pastor and Laval, had been their orders, and well did they execute them. So securely had their measures been taken, that not one escaped to the numerous hiding-places afforded by such a place as the cave; and perhaps it was a mercy that they did not, for there they must have perished by the wasting tortures of famine. A RIDE ON SERVICE. A THRILLING INCIDENT. "So, finding no excuse would be admitted, Lieute nant Morden began his story: "It was two or three years ago, during ordinary Kaffir weather-that is to say, there were no thunder clouds of war darkening the sky, but for all that the black shadows of Kaffir marauding parties were flitting across it whenever they had a good opportunity. The It was a splendid summer evening, and the moon was shining out from the sky, bright as if, like a fortunate general, she never knew what it was to be behind a cloud. But wherever she smiled, it was on few pleasanter spots than one of those half valleys, half slopes, which form so agreeable a feature of South African scenery, where the gracefully undulating ground is covered-not too closely-with clumps of trees and flow-fact is, the Kaffirs, as usual, stole cattle whenever they ering shrubs, so picturesquely grouped that one might have fancied wealth had been expending itself there in park-adornment, only that so much taste would never be displayed by man's decorating hand. But the moon shone also on other objects less in harmony with the peaceful valley than gleaming leaves or drooping blossoms; for brightly her rays were falling on piled arms and military accoutrements, which flashed up to her recollections of strife and bloodshed. And scarlet uniforms moved in and out among the greenwood, and around the fires which flung the glow of their red flames upon the moonlight. could; and some daring fellows had just made off with a fine herd belonging to a frontier farmer, after wounding both the herdsmen. Troops were of course ordered off from the nearest point, to endeavor to recover the plunder, and obtain compensation for the outrage. Accordingly, Grant, of ours, stationed at a small post across the Rhei Kops River, received orders to undertake the duty with the greatest portion of his detachment. "That is to say, the orders were despatched to him, but they were scarcely gone, when an express arrived with the intelligence that Grant had that morning been thrown from his horse, and so severely hurt that the sergeant had sent as quickly as possible for medical assistance. But the doctor could not be laid hands upon at once, as he was gone to visit another of our small outstanding posts. It was, in short, the bivouac of a detachment of British-I mean white-troops, en route from bead-quarters to their destined post on the extreme frontier. We did not belong to the party, but, journeying also "under orders," had halted in the valley some time previous to the arrival of the detachment, which had been tempted "This deprived me of a pleasant companion; for I to bivouac there by the same attraction as ourselves-a was ordered off immediately to take the duty in Grant's spring of sweet fresh water, a luxury which South Afri- place, and endeavor to teach the offending Kaffirs the can travellers of every class soon learn to prize, as worth of their misdeeds. Few minutes did for prepamuddy ponds are the ordinary substitutes for fountains. ration, and I was soon in the saddle. Then came As one or two of the officers belonging to the detach-shaking hands with brother officers, and kind wishesment were old acquaintances, we were not sorry for the and I was off. rencontre; so joined our travelling dinners pic-nic fashion, and spent a pleasant evening there in the soft moonlight, listening to many a tale of hair-breadth escape and bygone adventure, with which a soldier's stirring life had stored the memory of some of our companions. Most were of distant scenes and places, which was noticed and laughed at by the tellers themselves, as giving room for suspicion that they guarded against all contradictory evidence. "Or," I suggested, "that South Africa does not afford the materials for any adventure worth recording." "Though belonging to a white regiment, I had, of course, a Hottentot soldier as escort, a smart little fellow, who, if he barely reached my elbow, looked as if his keen eyes could pierce half a mile further than mine into a mass of jungle. They were always darting about in every direction, looking for something suspicious. It seemed a positive pleasure to him when some Kaffirs were visible on a large flat we were crossing. "Three Kaffirs, sur, and dey got plenty assegais.' "I could see the Kaffirs plain enough, but nothing of the assegais. However Piet stuck to it that they had them, and afterwards that they were hiding them-of which I saw nothing either. I rode up to them, and found they had a pass quite according to rule for entering the colony. They were unarmed, and when I charged them with having weapons, denied it with the most perfect assumption of injured innocence, yet there "I have heard of that," said another. "It is a good was a look about one which made me feel that Piet was story, Morden, tell it to us." right and I was wrong. But I had no time to waste in investigation, so rode on. "Not that, at all events," replied one who had hitherto been a listener; "for I can say, for my own part, that the most critical day of my life was spent not a hundred miles from here." 66 Yes, do!" echoed half a dozen voices. “But I am a bad story-teller." "So much the better; you'll tell it all the more straightforward, as the reviews at home say of an unliterary traveller." walked the horse to and fro. Lame he was decidedly; | over the first shock of the tiger-grip, we were scouring we examined the foot, but could not discover the cause a rugged flat with death-spurred speed. of mischief. He was dead lame, there was no question about the matter. And there was no question either as to what was to be done. Piet had to lead the animal slowly back to the fort, while I went on alone. "I now discovered that the tiger had, luckily for me, made an awkward leap of it. He had miscalculated his distance, and instead of being seated very comfortably behind me, he merely held on by his murderous claws, while half his body hung over the tail of the horse, and his hind legs were one moment flourishing wildly in the air and the next scarifying the legs of the poor horse, in their vain efforts to obtain a footing, which my steed's mad kicking and plunging prevented for the time; but "I had not, however, gone twenty yards further that could not last long. before I saw a splendid tiger "But where, you will ask, was the savage beast's delicate teeth all this while? So I asked myself, when my first expectation of having my spine bitten right through was agreeably disappointed. There was such a wonderful fumbling, and snorting, and growling, and crunching, and tugging, behind me, that it was a minute or two before I understood it. "But when I did, what a glorious idea it was! bringing with it the first little doubt of becoming the tiger's dinner which had visited me. I had got into a habit of carrying my spare ammunition-powder, bullets, shot of different sizes, in short anything I did not want at hand-slung in a strong cartouche-box behind me, sol "Well, as I said, I had not ridden twenty yards, before I saw a splendid tiger, the finest I ever saw in South Africa, break cover some distance in front. As these animals, though they can be terribly fierce when irritated, are seldom the first to commence hostilities, I was surprised to see him advance straight towards medier fashion. At this the tiger made a grab, fierce as if to do battle. Then I suddenly recollected that only one of my barrels was furnished with ball, the other being loaded merely with small shot, which in the hurry of preparation I had forgotten. I now levelled, and took as steady aim with the useful barrel at the fellow as his rapid movements allowed, and fired. "He was hit, somewhere about the chest I thought, but it only checked him for a moment; then he rushed at me like a gigantic wild cat as he was, with his eyes burning and his teeth bristling. His claws-I did not see them, but I knew well what like they were. "The remaining barrel was worth no more than a handful of sand, but I resolved to face it out. The brute was close upon me, so I seized my gun by the barrel, and, whirling it round my head, was prepared to deal the rascal such a blow as might, I hoped, cure him of coming to such close quarters. "But my horse was not in my councils, and calculating possibly that his face might be clawed more readily than mine, he at this very moment wheeled half round, and galloped away as if something even worse than a tiger was behind him. "This mad flight had not lasted a minute, when I did not require the horse's cry of pain and terror-and every one who has heard knows how horrible that is to tell me what had happened. The tiger had sprung upon us, and while the claws of his left fore paw were fixed in the flank of my unfortunate horse, those of his right were plunged deep into my own side. "For one instant my four-footed comrade in suffering seemed paralysed; but the next he sprang into the air like an antelope, then whirled round and round like a teetotum, and then darted off like a rocket, kicking up his heels as perhaps horse never kicked before. All this occupied but a few seconds, and by the time I had got enough to crash through both leather and tin (for it was so lined), and when he found the unsavory morsel not to his taste, he was so jammed by the teeth, that he could not as yet extricate his jaws to employ them more pleasingly on my flesh and blood. "So there he was, crunching and champing, but for how long? And there was the maddened horse cutting the maddest of capers, and trying his best to fling both me and the common enemy from his back, dashing furiously over any sort of ground, and taking leaps such as only an animal so spurred on by pain and terror could have taken. "And now the tiger tore his claws out from my side, but only for an instant, to enable him to plunge them, in tender embrace, further round my waist. Was this a proof that he was progressing? In situations of this kind one minute is like ten, and all this takes much longer to tell than to occur, but how fully and painfully you seem to live through each long-drawn instant. Thank God, such moments cannot last long! Now every thought was busy with the question-what to do? To turn round and face the tiger, so close as we then were, would, I felt, be certain death; and to throw myself off was, I found, impossible, he held me so tightly in his loving embrace. "What was to be done? Just at this moment, as my infuriated steed was executing one of his maddest pranks on the edge of a rugged hill, I espied the dark waters of Rhei Kops River at no great distance. At once the idea flashed on me, if I could reach it before I was converted into a luncheon. I at once seized the reins with a master's hand, for hitherto the agonized animal had had it all his own way, as I knew he was, for the time, doing the best for both of us. But now I touched the reins in a way he knew must be obeyed, |