while his own orphan plight led him to sympathise by anticipation with Mick, outlaw as he was, should he be deprived of a mother who doated on him with a devotedness so intense. Seeing in her achievement a proof of courage and maternal heroism to which the Romans would have erected a statue, he could not reconcile himself to the idea of her imprisonment, still less of her punishment. His feelings in fact got the better of his judgment, and having convinced himself by his sensations, for the question would not admit of argument, that it was justifiable to attempt her rescue, he abandoned himself to the enterprise with all the generous ardour and unreflecting precipitation of youth.

The rustic inhabitants of the Green, and even the more wakeful inmates of the Cricketers, usually retired to rest at an early hour; but to make assurance doubly sure, he thought it better to wait till midnight before he began his attempt. The night was so far favourable to his design, that though the moon occasionally emerged and threw a glare of light upon the

earth, it was almost immediately obscured by
dark masses of clouds that were hurried athwart
the sky by a stormy wind. Stealing silently
from the house with a small flask of spirits in
his pocket, which his humane consideration had
led him to provide for Norry's sustenance in her
flight, he cautiously approached the cage under
cover of the temporary darkness, when, as he
drew near the spot, a short gleam of moonlight
revealed to him what seemed to be a soldier
marching up and down before the door. Dis-
appointment and alarm taking possession of his
mind at this unexpected discovery, he retired
behind an adjacent building to hold a parley
with his thoughts as to the possibility of perse-
vering in his design. With extreme reluctance
he had just decided upon abandoning it, at
least for the present, when the sounds "rub-a-
dub, dub! rub-a-dub, dub!" struck his ear,

and

upon taking a more accurate survey of the figure in question, he recognized the cocked hat and the exaggerated strut of his morning's acquaintance-Charley the idiot.

This was a welcome discovery, but still there

might be considerable embarrassment in his

presence.

He might own himself bound to support the character he had assumed of a soldier upon duty, and should he lend himself to this delusion, his bodily strength, to say nothing of his mopstick, or the means of raising an alarm, rendered him a very formidable antagonist. While pondering these points, Reuben recollected that in their morning's halt at the Cricketers, the landlord had given the idiot half a glass of Nantz, which he had eagerly swallowed, dancing and capering about with an extravagant glee. Hoping to obtain his services by the same means which enabled Trinculo to tame the monster of the Enchanted Island, he advanced towards him with the flask at his mouth, which no sooner caught Charley's eye than he threw down the mopstick, and ran towards him, exclaiming "Nantz! Nantz!" Reuben gave him a taste as a sort of retaining fee, and then making him understand that more was to be got, if they could liberate the prisoner, he instantly converted him from an imagined opponent, into

3

a zealous, and as it ultimately proved, a very

judicious co-operator.

A file with which Reuben had provided himself, was now produced, and he set to work with prodigious alacrity; but however easy may be to cut through a substantial iron bar in theory, or in the pages of a romance, he found it by no means so simple an operation in practice, his arm being completely fatigued before he had made any very perceptible impression upon the metal. The prisoner herself was repeatedly summoned to assist in the process, but no answer was returned, and he was beginning to have most unpleasant misgivings, both as to the cause of her silence, and the chance of his ultimate success, when he observed that Charley, who had clambered up to the roof of the little building, was very deliberately forcing off the tiles, and throwing them down upon the grass. As this seemed a much more hopeful method of proceeding, he climbed up to lend him a helping hand, and in a few minutes by their joint exertions an aperture was made of sufficient

So complete had been the prisoner's exhaustion, both from the length of the morning's march, and the sleeplessness of the previous night, that notwithstanding all the noises he' had been making, he found her extended upon the floor in slumber, though the moonbeams that now streamed through the open roof dis closed by the agitation of her features that she was not undisturbed by dreams." Now, Mick, now," she exclaimed in her sleep...“lape into the boat, pull away for the skiff, ma vournene; never fear the big brute with the slasher I've wing'd him any how-look how he hangs his arm-Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

There was something so horrible in the soundof this unnatural sleep-laughter, that Reuben hastened to awake her, which he found considerable difficulty in doing, and when she open ed her eyes, so as to recollect where she was, without immediately knowing Reuben or his purpose, she burst into a half frantic volley of imprecations for being thus "interrupted in her