ly it is too bad, Mrs. Campbell; I must try if other people are not more to be depended on."" Indeed, my lady, we have tried hard to get it for your ladyship; but there's such a sharp look out now, and the Ranger has been lying off the island for this week past, our people haven't been able to get nothing ashore, and yet I am sure my husband and son have been upon the watch along the beach, and in the boat these three nights in all this dreadful weather; and to-night, though it blows a gale, they're out again ;" and the poor woman cast a tearful shuddering glance towards the window, against which the wind beat dismally, accompanied with thick driving sleet, that half obscured the glimpses of a sickly moon. The lady was pacified by these assurances, that the foreign luxury should be procured for her that night, if human exertions made at the peril of human life, could succeed in landing it. The silks, &c. were examined and approved of by the young ladies, and finally taken and paid for, after some haggling about "the price of blood," as the purchase-money might too justly have been denominated. Mrs. Campbell received it with a deep sigh, and humbly curtseying, withdrew from the presence, not without (involuntarily, as it were) stealing an abashed glance towards my countenance as she passed me. She was no sooner out of the room than her fair customers began to expatiate with rapturous volubility, on the cheapness of their purchases, an inconsistency of remark that puzzled me exceedingly, as, not five minutes before, while bargaining with the seller, they had averred her goods to be of very inferior manufacture, and exorbitantly dear. "Ay, but," observed the prudent mother, "you were in such a hurry, or you might have made better bargains; but it's always the way-and yet I winked and winked at you both. I should have got those things half as cheap again." Indulgently tender as I am inclined to be to the little whims and foibles of the sex, I could not, on the present occasion, refrain from hinting to my fair friends a part of what was passing in my mind. At first they laughed at my quizzical scruples, and replied to them with the common-place remark, that "the few things they occasionally purchased could make no difference; for that the people, would' smuggle all the same, and find encouragement from others, if not from them." And when I pressed the question a little further, suggesting to their consciences whether all who encouraged the trade were not, in a great measure answerable for the guilt incurred, and the lives lost in the prosecution of it, they bade me not talk of such horrid things, and huddled away their recent purchases in a sort of disconcerted silence, that spoke any thing rather than remorse of conscience and purposed reformation. My "sermonizing," as it was termed, seemed to have thrown a spell over the frank sociability that usually enlivened our evening coteries. Conversation languished-the piano was out of tuneand the young ladies not in a singing mood. Their mamma broke her netting-thread every three minutes, and, from a digression on the degenerate rottenness of modern cotton, digressed insensibly into a train of serious observations on the dangers impending over Church and State, from the machinations of evangelical reformers-ever and anon, when the storm waxed louder, interspersing her remarks with pathetic complaints of the perverseness with which the very elements seemed to conspire with Government against the landing of the precious bales. The storm did rage fearfully, and its increasing violence warned me to retrace my homeward way, before the disappearance of a yet glimmering moon should leave me to pursue it in total darkness. Flapping my hat over my eyes, and wrapping myself snugly round in the thick folds of a huge boatcloak, I issued forth from the cheerful brightness of the cottage parlour into the darkness visible of the wild scene without. Wildly magnificent it was! My path lay along the shore, against which mountainous waves came rolling in long ridges, with a sound like thunder. Sleet, falling at intervals, mingled with the sea surf, and both were driven into my face by the south-east blast, with a violence that obliged me I had no need to tap for admittance at the humble door. It was open, and on the threshold stood the mother of the family. The light from within gleamed across her face and figure, and I could perceive that she was listening with intent breathlessness, and with eyes rivetted, as if they could pierce the darkness, towards the quarter from whence I was approaching. My steps on the loose shingle at length reached the ear, and she darted forward, exclaiming, "Oh Amy! thank God! here's your father." The woman sprang to the door with a light, and its beams revealed my then unwelcome features, instead of those of the husband and father. "Oh, sir! I thought”— was poor Margaret's eloquently unfinished ejaculation, when she discovered her mistake; "but you are kindly welcome," she quickly added, "for this is no night for any Christian soul to be out in, though my husband and son frequently to pause and gasp for a guide, should the younger Campbell breath. Large masses of clouds were chance to be at home. hurried in sublime disorder across the dim struggling moon, whose pale light gleamed at intervals, with ghastly indistinctness, along the white sands, and on the frothy summits of the advancing billows. As I pursued my way, buffeting the conflicting elements, other sounds, methought, appeared to mingle in their uproar. The deep and shrill intonation of human voices seemed blended with the wailing and sobbing of the storm; the creaking and labouring of planks, the splash of oars was distinguishable, I thought, in the pause of the receding waves. I was not deceived. A momentary gleam of moonlight glanced on the white sails of a vessel at some distance from the land, and one of her boats a black speck on the billows) was discernible, making her way towards the shore. At that moment, another boat close in shore, shot by with the velocity of lightning, and at the same instant a man rushed quickly by me, whose tall remarkable figure Oh, sir! they are both, both tossI recognized for Campbell's in that dim momentary glance, he darted on with the rapidity of an arrow, and immediately I heard a long shrill whistle re-echoed by another and another from the cliffs, from the shore, and from the sea. The moon had almost withdrawn her feeble light, and I could no longer discern any object but the white sands under my feet, and the sea foam that frothed over them. More than two miles of my homeward path was yet before me; and in their progress I should have to cross two gullies furrowed through the sand by land-springs from the adjacent cliffs. Intermingled and bedded in these were several rocky crags, and portions of the foundered cliff, amongst which it was easy to pick one's day-light way; but the impenetrable gloom that now enveloped every object, made me pause for a moment to consider how far it might be safe to continue onward in my wave-washed path. A light streaming from one of the windows of Campbell's cottage, a few furlongs from the beach, decided the result of my deliberation, and I turned towards the little dwelling, purposing to apply there for a lantern and ing in one little boat on that dreadful sea; and that is not all, the Ranger's boats are on the look out for the lugger they are gone to meet, and God knows what may happen-I prayed and beseeched them for this night only to stay peaceably at home, such a night of weather as was working up, but all in vain; we had promised our lady and the cargo was to be landed to-nightOh, sir! my lady, and the like of she, little think”- And the poor woman burst into tears. This was no time for admonition and reproof, or for the consolatory remarks so often addressed to the unhappy, of "I told you it would come to this," or "This would not have happened if you had listened to me," or, "Well, you have brought it all upon yourself." The consequences of their illicit traffic was now brought more forcibly home to the minds of these poor people, by the agonizing suspense they were enduring, than they could have been by any arguments I might have laboured to enforce. I did my best to calm their terrors. To dispel them was impossible, while the tempest raged louder and louder; and independent of that there were other too reasonable grounds for apprehension. I suggested the probability of Campbell not being in the boat, as he had passed me on the beach so recently; but at all events he was abroad in a tremendous night, and with a desperate gang, expecting and armed against resistance. Forgetting my own purpose of borrowing a lantern to continue my homeward path, I entered the cabin with the distressed females, whose looks thanked me for abiding with them in this their hour of need. A cheerful fire brightened the interior of the little dwelling, where neatness and order still bore testimony that the habits of its inmates had at least been those of peaceful industry. The fire-light gleamed ruddy red on the clean brick floor: a carved oak table, and a few clumsy old chairs of the same fashion, were bright with the polish of age and housewifery; and one, distinguished by capacious arms, a high stuffed back, and red cushion, was placed close beside the ingle nook, the accustomed seat of the father of the family. His pipe lay close at hand, on the high mantle shelf, where a pair of brass candlesticks, a few china cups, some long-shanked drinking glasses, and sundry tobacco stoppers, of fantastical figure, were ranged in symmetrical order. The dresser was elaborately set out with its rows of various shape and quaint diversity of motto, and device, its japanned tray, and mahogany tea-chest, proudly conspicuous in the middle. The walls were hung round with nets, baskets, and fishing apparatus, and to the rafter various articles of the same description were appended; but Campbell's duck gun, and his two clumsy pistols, rested not on the hooks he was wont to call his armoury. An unfinished net was suspended by the chimney corner, at which the youthful widow had apparently been employed. She resumed her seat and shuttle, but the hand that held it rested idly on her lap, while her eyes were rivetted in mournful solicitude on the anxious countenance of her mother. There was something peculiarly interesting in this young woman; not beauty of feature, for excepting a pair of fine dark eyes, shaded by lashes of unusual length, there was nothing uncommon in her countenance, and her naturally dark and colourless complexion was tinged with the sallow hue of sickness;-her lips were whiter than her cheek, and her uncommonly tall figure, slender and fragile as the reed, bowed down with the languor of weakness and sorrow. But when she lifted up those dark eyes, their melancholy light was touchingly expressive, and in unison with the general character of the slight shadowy frame, that seemed almost transparent to the workings of the wounded spirit within. Amy's young heart had never recovered the shock of her William's untimely death, and her timid tender nature was weighed down under a perpetual load of conscious self-reproach, that for her sake, and that of her infants, her father and her brother had engaged in the perilous unlawfulness of their present courses. As she sat looking on her mother's face, I could perceive what thoughts were passing in her mind. At last a large tear, that had been some time collecting, swelled over the quivering lid, and trickled slowly down her cheek, and rising suddenly, and letting fall the netting and shuttle, she came and edged herself on the corner of her mother's chair, and clasping one arm round her neck, and hiding her face on her shoulder, "Mother!"-" My Amy! my dear child!" whispered the fond parent, tenderly caressing her, "why should you always reproach yourself so? You who have been a good dutiful child, and a comfort to us ever since you were born. Before your father fell into evil company, and listened to their temptations, did we not contrive to maintain ourselves, and you and your dear fatherless babies, by honest industry; and where should you have taken refuge, my precious Amy, but under your parents' roof ?" A look of eloquent gratitude and a tender kiss was Amy's reply to these fond assurances. For a few moments this touching intercourse of hearts, beguiled them from the intense anxiousness with which they had been listening to every sound from without; but the redoubled violence of the storin fearfully roused them from the first to leave me, and now". that momentary abstraction, and they started and looked in each other's faces, and then in mine, as if beseeching comfort, when, alas! I had only sympathy to bestow. The conflict of winds and waves was indeed tremen--it was one of her little ones talking dous, and I felt too forcibly convinced, that if the poor Campbells were indeed exposed to it, in their little fishing boat, nothing short of a miracle could save them from a watery grave. There was a chance, however, that the landing of the contraband goods might have been effected by the crew of the lugger, without help from shore, and, in that case, the prolonged absence of the father and son might arise from their having proceeded with them to some inland place of concealment. The probability of this suggestion was eagerly caught at by the conscious pair, but the ray of hope gleamed with transient brightness: A gust of wind, more awful than any which had preceded it, rushed past with deafening uproar, and as it died away, low sobs, and shrill moaning lamentations, seemed mingled with its deep bass. We were all silent, now straining our sight from the cabin door into the murky gloom without,-now gathering together round the blazing hearth, where the neglected embers emitted only a fitful glimmer. The wind rushing through every chink and cranny, waved to and fro the flame of the small candle, declining in its socket, and at last the hour of twelve was struck by the old clock that "ticked behind the door" in its dark heavy case. At that moment a large venerable looking book, that lay with a few others on a hanging shelf, near the chimney, slipped from the edge on which it rested, and fell with a dull heavy sound at Margaret's feet. It was the Bible that had belonged to her husband's mother, and as she stooped to pick it up and replace it, she perceived that it had fallen open at the leaf, where, twenty-two years back from that very day, the venerable parent had recorded, with pious gratitude, the birth of her son's first born. "Ah, my dear son! my good Maurice!" ejaculated the heartstruck mother; "I was not used to forget the day God gave thee to me-Thou wert and moaning in its sleep. The small chamber where they lay opened from that we were in, and the young mother crept softly towards the bed of her sleeping infants. She was still bending over them, when the outer door was suddenly dashed open, and Campbell -Campbell himself, burst into the cottage. Oh! with what a shriek of ecstacy was he welcomed! With what a rapture of inarticulate words, clinging embraces, and tearful smiles! But the joy was transient, and succeeded by a sudden chill of nameless apprehensions; for, disengaging himself almost roughly from the arms of his wife and daughter, he staggered towards his own old chair, and flinging himself back in it, covered his face with his clasped hands. One only cause for this fearful agitation suggested itself to his trembling wife. "My son! my son !" she shrieked out, grasping her husband's arms, what have you done with him? He is dead! he is murdered! Oh! I knew it would come to this."" Peace, woman!" shouted Campbell, in a voice of thunder, uncovering his face as he started up wildly from his chair with a look of appalling fierceness-"Peace, woman! your son is safe;" then his tone suddenly dropping to a low hoarse murmur, he added, "This is not his blood," and he flung on the table his broad white belt, on which the tokens of a deadly fray were frightfully apparent. "Campbell !" I cried, " unhappy man! what have you done? to what have you brought your wretched family? For their sakes, escape, escape for you life, while the darkness favours you." He trembled, and looked irresolute for a moment, but immediately resuming the voice and air of desperate sternness, replied, "It is too late--they are at my heels-they tracked me home;" and while he yet spoke, the trampling of feet, and the shout of loud voices were heard; the door burst open, and several rough looking men, in the garb of sailors, rushed into the cottage. "Ah! we have you, my man," they vociferated-" we have you at last, though the young villain has given us the slip."-" Villain !" shouted Campbell; "who dares to call my son a villain ?" But checking himself instantaneously, he added, in a subdued tone," but I am in your power now, you may do what you will;" and once more he seated himself in sullen submissiveness. The women clung round him, his unhappy wife exclaiming, "Oh! what has he done? If there has been mischief, it is not his fault-he would not hurt a fly-For all his rough way he is as tender-hearted as a child -Richard! Richard! speak to them -tell them 'tis a mistake." He neither spoke nor moved, nor lifted up his eyes from the ground on which they were fixed. "No mistake at all, mistress," said one of the men," he has only shot one of our people, that's all, and we must just fit him with a couple of these new bracelets " And so say ing, he began fastening a pair of handcuffs round Campbell's wrists. He of fered no resistance, and seemed indeed almost unconscious of what was doing, when the eldest of Amy's children, a pretty little girl of four years old, who having been awakened by the noise, had crept softly from her bed, and and made her way unperceived towards her grandfather, burst into a fit of loud sobbing, and climbing up upon his knees, and clasping her little arms about his neck, and laying her soft cheek to his dark rough one, lisped out, "Send away naughty men grandadnaughty men frighten Amy." The springs of sensibility that seemed frozen up in Campbell's bosom were touched electrically by the loving tones and caresses of his little darling. He hugged her to his bosom, which began to heave with deep convulsive sobs, and for a moment the tears of the old man and the child mingled in touching silence. As he clasped her thus, the handcuff that was already fastened to his left wrist, pressed painfully on her tender arms, and as she shrunk from it, he seemed first to perceive the ignominious fetter. His brow was wrung with a sudden convulsion, but its distortion was momentary, and turning to 14 ATHENEUM VOL. 11. his weeping daughter, he said quietly, Amy, my dear child take the poor baby; I little thought, dear lamb! she would ever find hurt or harm in her old grandfather's arms." It was a touching scene-even the rough sailors seemed affected by it, and they were more gently executing their task of fitting on the other manacle, when again steps and voices approached; again the door opened, and a second band appeared at it, a group of sailors likewise, bearing amongst them a ghastly burthen, the lifeless body of the unfortunate young man who had been shot in the execution of his duty, by the rash hand of the wretched culprit before us, whose aim was not the less fatal, for having been almost unconsciously taken in the bustle of a desperate conflict. "We've missed our boat, and we could not let him lie bleeding on the beach," said one of the new comers, in reply to an exclamation of surprise from those who before occupied the cottage. Campbell's agitation was dreadful-He turned, shuddering, from the sight of his victim. The women stood petrified with horror. I alone retaining some self-possession, advanced to examine if human aid might yet avail to save the poor youth, who was laid (apparently a corpse) on three chairs, near the door. Comprehending my purpose, the humane tenderness of poor Margaret's nature surmounted her agonizing feelings, and she came trembling to assist in the painful examination. The young man's face was turned from us towards the wall, and almost covered by the luxuriant hair, (a sailor's pride) which, escaping from the confining ribbon, had fallen in dark wet masses over his cheek and brow. His right hand hung down from his side, and on taking it into mine, I found that it was already cold as marble, and that no pulse was perceptible in the artery. Margaret had, as expeditiously as her agitation would permit, unclosed his sailor's jacket, and checked shirt, and though she started and shuddered at the sight of blood thickly congealed over his bosom, she persisted heroically in her trying task. His neck handkerchief had been previously untied, and stuffed down as a temporary |