him; and with the help of one of the fishermen, the old sailor was speedily sewn in a hammock and brought to the edge of the vessel.

"Stop, Marquis," said the chief officer, "I am not in such haste as to see a fellow mortal consigned to his grave, whether that be of earth or water, like a soulless beast. I am an attached Protestant, sir, and with your leave, part of the service for the dead used in my church shall be read before these relics are put out of sight." "I am an attached Catholic, sir," returned the Pirate; "but as I have no priest at hand to perform the service according to the ritual of my church, I shall be very happy to hear yours."

The officer, who was a worthy, middle-aged gentleman of the naval profession, immediately drew from his pocket a prayer book.

"I always carry this about me," he gravely observed, noticing the facetious smiles which sat on the faces of the irreligious party around. "Let me tell you, sirs, there is no book in the world to be compared with the Church of England Common Prayer, except the Bible itself." He cleared his voice, looked about to see that all were uncovered and in an attitude of attention, then deliberately proceeded through the whole of the service, while the calm and wide-spread water-the majestic sky, vast and clear—and the deep hush which pervaded the twilight atmosphere-imparted to the touching rite additional solemnity.

The Pirate listened with closed eyes. Never had words fallen before on his ear with such deep and awful emphasis. The fervent tones of the good officer, coming as they did direct from the heart, gave full effect to

every sentence though unaccompanied with any tutored harmony of accent, any studied inflection of the voice.

"Such words I may shortly hear said for myself on the scaffold," thought the Pirate. "And where shall I be when they are concluded? Where!-O God!

where!"

There was now a heavy plunge heard in the water; then were seen upon its surface a spreading circle and a few ripples, and ancient Toby was gone for ever out of the sight of the battling world.

"Now we must depart," said the chief officer. "Come my men, bustle-bustle! Marquis, you must submit to be handcuffed, and enter the boat with the black and your valet. The fishermen must go with us too."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

"By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night

Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard,

Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers,
Armed in proof, led on by shallow Richmond!"-Shakspeare.

THE widowed mourner, Madame Barry, was brought from her convent to the prison in which the Pirate lay. She was conducted to the sheriff's room, where Lieutenant-governor Markham, and certain subordinate magistrates, sat round a table. The Pirate was brought into the room unfettered; and the excellent lady, immediately fixing her eyes on him, became excessively agitated and almost fainted. Her wounds bled afresh. The presence of the man whom she believed to be the author of her sorrows, was intolerable to be borne."

"Let me go hence, your worships!" she panted, keeping her head turned from the Pirate as from a monster too hideous to be beheld-" I cannot-cannot stay in the same room with the murderer of my husband!"

The Pirate was at once taken back to his cell, 7 which he continued to pace with feverish and hurried steps until the turnkey went his midnight rounds through the passages of the dreary building.

"To bear the reproach and hatred of the good is dreadful!" murmured the Pirate. "It is this which was Cain's punishment, and it is mine. Truly can I say with him It is more than 1 can bear!' These fearful walls which hem me in from light, air, and happiness-the dreadful ordeal which awaits me in the shape of my trial-the deep, dark abyss which is before me as the final conclusion of my

'Strange, eventful history'—

whence arises their chief power of torturing me?—why from their scandalous notoriety! Could I suffer privately, unknown, and without involving others in my fall, I think that I should be more of a stoic. That abhorrent look Madame Barry gave me, planted a thousand daggers in my breast. Rather than bear its repetition I would rush of my own accord to the gallows! Let me think.-Did I not murder her husband? I have said No, but now I feel in doubt. A strange mist hangs over the past, and I can hardly distinguish my own actions from those of my companions. Was not my hand stained with his blood like theirs? Did I not help to strike him down? Is not his cry Could I have expected this from you, Anderson,' always in my ear like a terrible voice from a watery sepulchre crying to heaven for vengeance against me? In what a ghastly confusion my mind is involved! If I am thus at my trial I shall commit myself. Let me reflect.-I was on the mutinous ship-I afterwards commanded the old Captain's murderers-hah! that was the poisoned bait!command-COMMAND! Impatience of subordination

has been my ruin !"

He lay down to sleep. His excited thoughts forming

themselves into an awful phantasmagoria of harrowing scenes. There was the bloody spectre of Barry maddening him with his upbraidings because he had leagued himself with his murderers. There was the dreadful platform prepared for his execution in the midst of a shouting, hooting, barbarous multitude, whose name was "legion." Great drops of clammy sweat oozed from the tormented sleeper's face. He ground his teeth frightfully, and moaned so loud that the turnkey knocked at the door to know what was the matter.

"Come in for the love of heaven!" stammered the Pirate, springing up from his recumbent position dreadfully pale. "Turnkey, I beg you will come in !"

"Why what ails you, Marquis?" wondered the official, entering, and lifting up his lantern to survey the "You look as if you had seen a prisoner's face.

ghost!"

"So I have," faltered the Pirate, sinking his voice to a fearful whisper-" so I have. I had been dreaming that I was in the executioner's hands when I was wakened by your knocking, and, as I am alive, turnkey, my eyes opened on a figure revealed to me by a pale light that quivered about it."

"Nonsense-it was only in your dream you saw it -I have fancied such things myself."

66

My eyes were open-I saw it as plain as I see you -it stood exactly where you now stand."

The turnkey instantly jumped on one side, and cast a terrified look around the dim cell. He was not invulnerable to superstitious fears; on the contrary, his memory was charged with a hundred stories of signs