safety, for she took it for granted that he would be included in it, she was quite at a loss to understand why she should still be so deeply interested in his fate, why she should yearn to know what had become of him, why she should long to see him once more; and such was the state of her feelings on the morning when the latter wish was to be so unexpectedly gratified.

The unusual, perhaps the unprecedented sight of a gentleman's carriage waiting at the top of the steep declivity that led down to the farm, occasioned her to hurry up to inquire the meaning of the visit. Reuben, in the meanwhile, had quitted the vehicle, but being now attired in a manner conformable to his station, she hardly recognized him till she heard his voice, when she uttered a cry of surprize, and exclaimed, "Norton is it you? Have you seen the amnesty? You are safe, you are safe. God be praised! The Lord hath listened to my prayer; the Lord forsaketh not his Saints. He hath delivereth thee from the snare of the fowler. The captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be de

livered. Hosanna in the highest!" Her lamplike eyes sparkled, and a wild joyous enthusiasm sate upon her features as she spoke; but when Reuben proceeded to inform her that he was no longer Norton, the quondam soldier and butler, but Reuben Apsley, the adopted son of Mr. Goldingham, of the Place; when the truth of this statement flashed upon her from his altered habiliments, the sight of the carriage, and of Goldingham, who was now advancing to join them, the colour rushed to her wan cheeks, and as instantly retiring left them of a more ghastly whiteness than before, her eyes glistened, she gasped for breath, and after a momentary pause faintly articulated, "I am glad of it, you are great, you are rich, you are among those that sit in the high places, you have been delivered like a second Daniel from the lion's den, the Lord scattereth blessings upon your head, and I rejoice with an exceeding great joy. Yea, I am very, very happy."

"No one better deserves to be so," said Reuben, taking her hand, "and if my uncle or myself can in any way contribute to—"

"What can be the meaning of this?" ex

claimed Grace, interrupting him, and withdrawing her hand with a slight blush, “ I must be happy, I ought to be happy, and yet my heart beats and throbs as if it would burst, and my head seems dizzy, and my eyes-don't mind these tears," she continued in a voice of increased tenderness; "indeed, Norton-Mr. Apsley, I mean,-I am very happy, I am indeed." And then, as if to escape from thoughts and sensations that at once bewildered and distressed her, she rallied her spirits, launched into her enthusiastic vein, and running towards the dwelling while her pallid face again flared up with a look of exultation, she exclaimed aloud, "Lord! thou hast made me glad, I will triumph in the work of thy hands. He hath had trial of bonds and imprisonment. He hath escaped from his chains-he is free! he is free! Open to me, my sister, and hearken to me, O my father, for I come to ye anointed with the oil of gladness."

Reuben had seen enough of Malachi's sturdy independence, to feel convinced that the smallest mention of pecuniary recompense for the per

formance of what he considered an imperative duty, would be received as an insult; and he therefore counselled his uncle, who was too apt to consider money an universal panacea as well as acquittance, to negociate with Grace, while he himself should keep the old man engaged in conversation. In pursuance of this plan he pushed forward to the barn, passing through the midst of his quadruped and feathered acquaintance, allotted in their respective habitations, and entered the dwelling-house, where he found every thing wearing the same air of exquisite order and neatness as on his former visit. Malachi, who had been hastily apprised of his arrival, without having learnt the change in his circumstances, held out his right hand, and grasped that of Reuben with his iron muscles, now braced to an additional degree of tension by his indignant recollection of the enormities that had been perpetrated upon the people of the Lord since their last meeting. He made not the smallest allusion to his son Joel, for his individual griefs seemed to have been swallowed up in the sufferings of his country, but he

groaned with very agony of spirit when he referred to the atrocities of Jeffreys. "Surely," he exclaimed, "the Lord shall avenge the blood of his slaughtered saints and servants; he shall strike down the murderer who killeth the poor and needy; the tyrant and the oppressors shall perish; will not the earth open and swallow them up, as it did the company of Dathan and Abiram? O that I had mine eyes, and that I could wield the sword of the Lord and of Gideon !" For some time he would hear nothing, bursting out into appeals to Heaven, or indulging in the anticipation of future freedom and indemnity; but he at length became more calm, and listened with apparent interest to the detail of Reuben's adventure, and of his fortunate escape from prison.

Goldingham, in the mean while, having taken Grace apart for that purpose, was sounding her as to the most acceptable service that he could render her and her father in return for their protection of his nephew. Reuben had observed that her religious fervour was daily rendering her more unfit for her situation at Lady Tre