introduced in those days-had stopped on | the left ?" she asked herself, but there was the gravel-walk, or carriage-road, at the no answer in her memory. She stood in foot of the steps to listen to what her mother was saying.

"I am not going to undertake any exploring expedition, mamma, but merely to breathe a little fresh air on the hill yonder. The sun has not set yet; there will be no difficulty in finding the well-frequented path, which the gardener tells me is perfectly safe-plain sailing,' he calls it. I will only just take a peep of the sea and the line of coast, and then return through the village."

"Well, be sure that you are at home before dusk, and don't go too near the brow of the hill, for the short, stinted, brown grass is generally very slippery, and it would be no joke to fall over the rocks and be dashed to pieces."

The young lady laughed, and set off on her solitary stroll; and she was soon mounting the hill at the place the gardener had indicated to her. The ascent might have been rather laborious to an old or infirm person, but did not at all fatigue the young and active Camilla. The path was easily found, and she traversed it with light steps, and with that sense of enjoyment with which the healthy inhale the pure mountain-air. It is a bad sign when the enfeebled frame shivers in this invigorating breeze, and would fain shrink down into the shelter of even a close and airless

room.

much perplexity for a little time, and then quieting herself with the reflection that she would only go as far as the rocks, and need not attempt the descent unless she perceived it to be very easy, she took-as so many do in life-the wrong path, turning, in fatal ignorance, from the right one.

The path she was traversing certainly could not be called "a good one;" it was very rough, and the young lady picked her way with some difficulty; but she was approaching the rocks, the sea was in view, and, comforting herself with the thought that the gardener's notion of a nice path might be very different from her own, she toiled on until she reached the very verge of the hill, which seemed to end abruptly in a massive wall of rock, stretching down to the shore beneath. Below lay the smooth, hard sand, looking like a sloping pavement of yellow marble inlaid with diamond sparks, up which the deep blue waves were rolling with a hollow, murmuring sound that, low as it was, she could distinctly hear. Beyond was the waste of waters, dancing and glit tering in the setting sun, whose still glorious though fading rays tinted with purple the jagged line of rocks that formed headland beyond headland until a bend in the coast hid them from sight.

Camilla, in breathless admiration breathless from the effects of her toilsome walk-stood and gazed upon the splendid view before her. She was a great admirer of the beauties of nature, and, moreover, she was apt to be guided by impulse. This is very excusable-indeed, it is rather a pleasing fault in a young person, but it is one which ought to be conquered as time rolls on, for experience and reflection should go hand in hand.

Camilla walked on briskly; the entire solitude delighted her, for she did not meet a human being, nor indeed behold a living creature. At length she came to a spot where two paths branched off in different directions. Which of them was she to take? The gardener had told her that one of them led down to the beach, a little farther on, by a good zigzag track, or rather road among the rocks, from the top of which she would see the little bay She looked down over the giddy precibeneath, the sands, the jutting rocks of pice, but doing this caused no sensation of the coast beyond, and the wide expanse of vertigo, and as she perceived a sort of sea, filling up the picture as far as the eye path winding down among the rocks she could reach. The other path the gardener determined to try it, and forthwith began had told her also led to the upper margin to scramble downwards. At first she of the rocks and to the shore below, but rather enjoyed the novelty of this unthe descent was much more difficult, and sophisticated mode of descent, but after a there was no regular pathway. little time finding it very difficult, and Camilla stood with the two lines meet-fearing it might be equally dangerous, she ing close before her. Which was she to sat down on a ledge of smooth rock to follow? She tried but in vain to remem- consider whether she had better clamber ber the directions given her by the gar-up again at once or continue to descend, dener. "Was I to take the right path or and then look for some easier way to the

"Surely," she thought, "there must be some road down to the beach by which I might get safely up the hill, and as I have gone so far I had better clamber down to the sands and look for it."

Yet yawning graves within thee lie,
O faithless, fearful main !

"What wonders all unknown to man
Within thy watery world may be !
To search thy depths he never can,
These none but God may see.

33

"Thou speak'st-thine ancient voice I hear-
That voice which ages have not broke ;
Tell they deep tones of hope or fear?
I know not what they spoke.

Thou mock'st the creatures God has framed
In his own image, mighty sea!
Scorn on, thou conqueror, yet untamed-
Scorn on, then, proud and free!

"Thou may'st be proud, for thou, but thou,
Of all earth's circle holds, alone
Didst never at Time's bidding bow,

Screwing up her courage she recom-
menced the descent, and at length achieved
it after sundry falls and a good deal
of compulsory sliding, during which she
found it no easy matter to keep her balance,"
and reached the bright sands at the foot of
the rocks with only one or two slight
bruises, torn gloves, and a broken
parasol. She immediately determined on
going round the little rocky promon-
tory that partially shut in, on one side,
the pretty bay she had admired from
above. The rocks did not stretch very
far down on the beach, and Camilla soon,
therefore, made her way to the other side
of them, and then hastened down close to
the sea-side to watch the waves rolling
gracefully up, now lazily retreating, and
then, as if gathering fresh strength, swell-
ing into foaming billows and dashing the
white spray over the glittering sand. Ca-
milla had a habit of rhyming when much
pleased or struck with any object, and as
she stood there alone, gazing in silence on
the most magnificent of God's creations,
her thoughts formed themselves into the
following lines:

"Thou'rt hurrying past, thou'rt hurrying past,
Thou, Ocean, with thy waves of foam;
Ah! whither, restles sea, so fast
Does thy swift current roam?

"Still dashing on, still dashing on,

64

Thy billows speed their endless way;
Now they are here, now they are gone,
Old Ocean, whither, say?

Speed they the trusting bark to bear
In safety to its distant strand,
Wafting the wanderer to some fair,
Some long-sought distant land?

"Or speed they on destruction's way,

Where the dark tempest raves afar, To make the shattered wreck their prey, On which the wild waves war?

"The struggling mariner to sweep

In their cold grasp from life and light? Are such thy pastimes, treacherous deep? And thou can'st smile so bright!

"Ay, bright as yonder tranquil sky

Seems thy blue, sparkling, liquid plain,

VOL. LVIII.-NO. 1

Or his vast empire own.

"But there are limits to thy power,

O thou, whom Time has vainly fought---
For thee, e'en thee, there comes an hour
With desolation fraught.

"An hour when thy long reign shall pass,
Thy mighty waters swept away
Into some dark chaotic mass,
By Him thou must obey.

Ay, thou-and thy stern, ruthless foe,
Together crushed, shall be no more,
The race of man, ye shall not-no-
Forever triumph o'er.

"When Time and thou extinct shall be,
Man shall from death to life arise-
He only claims eternity,

Of all beneath the skies."

Camilla was still musing, with her gaze bent on the sea, and listening to its ceaseless sound, when she was startled from her dreamy mood by a voice close to her ear, demanding in no very gentle accents what she was doing there.

Exceedingly surprised she turned quickly round, and recoiled until the waves almost touched her ankles, in her sudden terror at the extraordinary pair of eyes that were absolutely glaring at her. She might have seen that they belonged to a young man of middle hight, who had on a rough pea-jacket and looked like a sailor; but the eyes so overpowered her that she remarked nothing except that it was one of the male sex who had accosted her. She had not observed any one on the beach, nor had she heard an approaching step. How came he there?

3

she to do?

"What will become of me ?" she again | quite safe with me. If I even meant you ejaculated, as she looked about her in the ill, there is that in your face which would utmost dismay. The rock was quite per- act like a talisman on me." He turned pendicular at this place; there was not away for a moment, as if in strong emofooting on it for a dog, or a goat, much tion, and pressed his hand on his brow. less for a human being, and the sea would Camilla rose from her knees, and stood evidently fill up the bay ere long, cutting looking at him with surprise and interest. off all escape by the beach. What was Her fear was almost gone. "Yes," he said, recovering himself, "you are like, very like, one who-one who is now up yonder," and he pointed toward the hea vens above. "It is years now since my sweet Alice died, but I can't forget her; she was so good and so beautiful. She was a clergymen's daughter. I was not then what I am now; and, though you may think it strange, Alice cared as much for me as I did for her. If she had lived He led the way, and she mechanically things would have gone very differently followed him, until they came, at a short with me; but she died, and I—no matter distance off, to an opening in the massive-I had much to bear with in many ways rock. It was like a rude Gothic archway, injustice, unkindness, unnecessary hardthe work of nature, not of art.

The question was solved for her by her late not very welcome companion, who soon rejoined her with the disagreeable intelligence that all egress from the bay was closed on the right side as well as on the left, for the waves were now breaking against the rocks on both sides.

"You must come into the cave, young lady; there is nothing else to be done."

"Have you never heard of St. Alban's Cave, miss? They say it was the hidingplace, during a period of religious persecution, of a very holy man, and that gave it the name of St. Alban's Cave; but since then its saint-like character has disappeared, for it has been the scene more than once of violence, and even of murder. It does not bear a very holy reputation now," he added, with a laugh, that seemed quite satanic to the excited and terrorstricken girl.

He motioned to her to enter, but she hesitated, and then drew back as she repeated to herself in the faintest of all possible accents: "Murder!" The man's ears were evidently as quick as his dark eyes were keen, for he immediately echoed her whispered exclamation.

"Murder! Yes, murder; and perhaps there may be murder here this very night."

Camilla groaned and sank involuntarily on her knees.

"Oh! do not murder me- -do not murder me! Let me go away safely, and my father will give you any reward you may ask. Oh! have pity on me!",

Again the sweet smile, so in contrast to the ferocity of his eyes, stole over the man's mouth, and he said in a voice as gentle as the softest murmur of the summer wind:

"Nay-never fear, young lady. Ralph Woodley is not the man to murder a woman, or to do her any harm. You are

ships-and I became wild and reckless and well-nigh mad. I have seen too much of the dark side of fate, and now what am I? A smuggler and an outlaw, young lady, and a word from your mouth might cost me my life."

"I would never say that word, believe me," cried Camilla eagerly.

"You might say it inadvertently. But come, you must take refuge in the cave, for the sea will be up here presently."

Camilla, entering through the sort of Gothic porch, found herself in a wide cave, or space, in the rock, the flooring of which, so to speak, was of dry sand, while the vaulted roof rose high above. There was no appearance of any furniture, however rude, nor of any cooking utensils in this cavern-no accommodation of any sort, except two or three jutting rocks, which, low and flat, might have served as seats. It was a chill, cheerless place, and the unwilling visitor asked if she would have to remain there until the tide turned.

"No, that you won't," said the young man, "for the sea flows in here too; but we have an inner chamber, generally pretty dry." And, crossing the cavern, he pushed in some peculiar manner against the apparently solid rock, and a large upright stone moved back, disclosing another cave, which at first seemed to Camilla quite dark, but in which, on a second glance, she perceived a glimmering light. "There is a step," said her companion; "let me help you."

Standing on the threshold of this inner

Stop one moment where you are,' said the conductor, "and don't move an inch till I am ready to help you."

She stood still as directed, and in less than a minute she found herself lifted through some aperture, and placed on her feet on ground certainly not so hard as rock.

"This way," said the young man, leading her carefully upwards; "it is all right."

At length he stopped, and removing the bandage from her eyes, he said:

aperture, Camilla saw that the glimmering | the turning of a key in a rusty lock. Prelight proceeded from a horn-lantern hung sently something just above her was up in a corner; she also saw some rough moved, and then there came a rush of cloaks lying about, and some oars; there fresh air in her face. were a few wooden stools and a deal table, with sundry pewter mugs, and a flask in basket-work on it. Looking more narrowly round she espied in one corner a heap of pistols, cutlasses, and other weapons, whereupon the thought of murder came strongly upon her again, and again she implored the smuggler not to kill her. "No harm will happen to you," replied the young man, while his eyes shone like two stars in that obscure cavern, "if you will solemnly promise never to disclose what you have seen here. There is a way by which you can get out upon the hill, and you will reach your home safely, if you will take an oath never to betray us. My comrades will be here shortly, and the daylight won't last much longer, therefore" the sooner you go the better. But first you must swear not to answer any question respecting the cave; indeed, not to say that you have been in it. Nobody knows of this stronghold, take care that you do not betray us; and if you meet any sailors or naval officers on the hill, or any where, and they question you, you must deny having seen me and spoken to me. Life and property depend upon your silence. There will be terrible work tonight if you drop a hint of what you have seen down here, little as that has been; nay, more, if you value your own life you must be silent as the grave, for if you betray us, wherever you may be the smugglers' revenge will overtake you, and that revenge will be death !"

The trembling girl took the oath prescribed to her. Ralph Woodley had thought it expedient to frighten her, for he did not know how far her discretion was to be relied upon, and secrecy was important that evening to him and his companions. Of course, the death of which he warned her was only a threat to insure

her silence.

"And now," said the man, "I must blindfold you, for mortal eye must not behold the mysteries of St. Alban's Cave." Camilla was very unwilling to be blindfolded, but Ralph was resolute, and the will of the stronger triumphed. Her pocket-handkerchief was tied tightly over her eyes, and then she was half-assisted, half-lifted up what seemed to be very steep steps, and she heard something like

There, now you are free and in safety, and can go in peace to your happy home." "Thank you a thousand times, my kind preserver!" cried the warm hearted girl. Oh! how much I am indebted to you! I wish that my father could do any thing for you. I wish you would come and see us at Rose Villa."

The smuggler shook his head.

"Ah! no, young lady, for me there are but the hoarse wild waves, or a prison's gloomy walls; but never mind, the dreariest life must have an end, and it is not all dreary with me either, for I have plenty of excitement at times. God bless you, miss; it will be a pleasant thought to me, in many a rough hour, that I have been the means of saving your life, for hád I not almost forced you up the cove you must have been drowned. It is well for you that I was on the watch this evening. May I make bold to ask your

name!"

"Camilla Egerton is my name, and my father has taken Rose Villa, near the vil lage of, for a year, on account of my mother's health. Do come to see us, and let papa and mamma add their thanks to mine. You won't? Then promise me that if ever you get into trouble you will apply to us. My uncle, Sir Philip Egerton, has a good deal of influence, and it will be all at your command if you should ever require it.”

Camilla had only a few shillings in her purse, and she felt that if there had been as many pounds in her pocket, she could not have taken the liberty of offering money to such a man as her preserver. She drew a handsome ring from her finger, and presenting it to him, she said:

"Will you do me the favor to accept