their critical situation. After partaking of the food which had been selected from among the fragments that still lay scattered, for more than a mile, along the beach, the lieutenant directed the seamen to arm themselves with such weapons as offered, and, also, to make a sufficient provision, from the schooner's stores, to last them for four-and-twenty hours longer. These orders were soon executed; and the whole party, led by Barnstable and Merry, proceeded along the foot of the cliffs, in quest of the opening in the rocks, through which the little rivulet found a passage to the ocean. The weather contributed, as much as the seclusion of the spot, to prevent any discovery of the small party, which pursued its object with a disregard of caution that might, under other circumstances, have proved fatal to its safety. Barnstable paused in his march when they had all entered the deep ravine, and ascended nearly to the brow of the precipice, that formed one of its sides, to take a last and more scrutinizing survey of the sea. His countenance exhibited the abandonment of all hope, as his eye moved slowly from the northern to the southern boundary of the horizon, and he prepared to pursue his march, by moving, reluctantly, up the stream, when the boy, who still clung to his side, exclaimed

"Sail ho! It must be the frigate in the offing!"

"A sail!" repeated his commander; "whereaway do you see a sail in this tempest? Can there be another as hardy and unfortunate as ourselves!"

"Look to the starboard hand of the point of rock to windward!" cried the boy; 66 now you lose it-ah! now the sun falls upon it! 'tis a sail,

sir, as sure as canvass can be spread in such a gale!"

66

"I see what you mean," returned the other, "but it seems a gull, skimming the sea! nay, now it rises, indeed, and shows itself like a bellying topsail; pass up that glass, lads; here is a fellow in the offing who may prove a friend."

Merry waited the result of the lieutenant's examination with youthful impatience, and did not fail to ask, immediately

"Can you make it out, sir? is it the ship or the cutter ?"

"Come, there seemeth yet some hope left for us, boy," returned Barnstable, closing the glass; "'tis a ship, lying-to under her main-topsail. If one did but dare show himself on these heights, he might raise her hull, and make sure of her character! But I think I know her spars, though even her topsail dips, at times, when there is nothing to be seen but her bare poles, and they shortened by her top-gallant-masts."

"One would swear," said Merry, laughing, as much through the excitement produced by this intelligence, as at his conceit, "that Captain Munson would never carry wood aloft, when he can't carry canvass. I remember, one night, Mr. Griffith was a little vexed, and said, around the capstern, he believed the next order would be, to rig in the bowsprit, and house lower-masts!"

"Ay, ay, Griffith is a lazy dog, and sometimes gets lost in the fogs of his own thoughts," said Barnstable; "and I suppose old Moderate was in a breeze. However, this looks as if he were in earnest; he must have kept the ship away, or she would never have been where she is; I do verily believe the old gentleman remembers that he has a few of his officers and men on this

accursed island.

This is well, Merry, for should we take the Abbey, we have a place at hand in which to put our prisoners."

"We must have patience till the morning," added the boy, "for no boat would attempt to land in such a sea."

"No boat could land! The best boat that ever floated, boy, has sunk in these breakers! But the wind lessens, and before morning, the sea will fall. Let us on, and find a birth for our poor lads, where they can be made more comfortable."

The two officers now descended from their elevation, and led the way still further up the deep and narrow dell, until, as the ground rose gradually before them, they found themselves in a dense wood, on a level with the adjacent country.

"Here should be a ruin at hand, if I have kept a true reckoning, and know my courses and distances," said Barnstable; "I have a chart about me, that speaks of such a land-mark."

The lieutenant turned away from the laughing expression of the boy's eye, as the latter archly inquired

"Was it made by one who knows the coast well, sir? or was it done by some school-boy, to learn his maps, as the girls work samplers ?"

Come, younker, no sampler of your impudence. But look ahead; can you see any habitation that has been deserted ?"

"Ay, sir, here is a pile of stones before us, that looks as dirty and ragged, as if it was a soldier's barrack; can this be what you seek ?"

"Faith, this has been a whole town in its day! we should call it a city in America, and furnish it with a Mayor, Aldermen, and Recorder-you might stow old Faneuil-Hall in one of its lockers."

With this sort of careless dialogue, which Barnstable engaged in, that his men might discover no alteration in his manner, they approached the mouldering walls that had proved so frail a protection to the party under Griffith.

A short time was passed in examining the premises, when the wearied seamen took possession of one of the dilapidated apartments, and disposed themselves to seek that rest of which they had been deprived by the momentous occurrences of the past night.

Barnstable waited until the loud breathing of the seamen assured him that they slept, when he aroused the drowsy boy, who was fast losing his senses in the same sort of oblivion, and motioned to him to follow. Merry arose, and they stole together from the apartment, with guarded steps, and penetrated more deeply into the gloomy recesses of the place,

CHAPTER VIII.

Mercury" I permit thee to be Sosia again."

Dryden.

WE must leave the two adventurers winding their way among the broken piles, and venturing boldly beneath the tottering arches of the ruin, to conduct the reader, at the same hour, within the more comfortable walls of the Abbey; where, it will be remembered, Borroughcliffe was left, in a condition of very equivocal ease. As the earth had, however, in the interval, nearly run its daily round, circumstances had intervened to release the soldier from his confinement-and no one, ignorant of the fact, would suppose, that the gentleman who was now seated at the hospitable board of Colonel Howard, directing, with so much discretion, the energies of his masticators to the delicacies of the feast, could read, in his careless air and smiling visage, that those foragers of nature had been so recently condemned, for four long hours, to the mortification of discussing the barren subject of his own sword-hilt. Borroughcliffe, however, maintained not only his usual post, but his well-earned reputation at the table, with his ordinary coolness of demeanour; though, at times, there were passing smiles, that