head, and strutted into the house, to show himself off in his finery, and boast of his bargain to his wife.

Reuben meanwhile, whose horse had gathered some additional strength and courage from his short bait, was enabled to pursue his rapid and aimless career, until he was nearly twenty miles distant from the fatal field of Sedgemoor, when the poor beast became so exhausted and distressed that his rider at length dismounted, took off his saddle and bridle, which he threw into a ditch, together with his sword and belt, and turning the jaded animal into a field by the road-side, struck across the country on foot in an opposite direction, taking care to conceal his pistols beneath his horseman's cloak. He now proceeded for some time along an open champain tract, in a state of cultivation, although the respective properties were only divided here and there by hurdles, or marked by boundary stones, neither of which would serve his purpose of concealment, should it be rendered necessary by the appearance of his pursuers. At a small distance from him, he at length ob

served two peasants at work, and feeling well assured that they could know nothing of the dismal overthrow which had converted so many gallant soldiers and gentlemen into fugitives and outlaws, whom it had become the duty

of

every loyal subject to seize or destroy, he boldly ventured up to them, and inquired the way to the sea-coast, or the town of Lyme. Expressing no small amazement at the latter

part

of the question, since as they told him, the place was "right clean away all across the country," they added that he was only a few miles from Pool, and pointed out to him in what direction it lay, for which information he thanked them, and continued his flight with as Still the counmuch speed as he could exert. try retained the same open shelterless character, until as the shades of evening began to gather around him, he observed with satisfaction that he was approaching a range of enclosures, trees, and plantations, crossed by lofty hedges, and dotted here and there with cottagers' hovels. As he drew near to this welcome spot, hoping that it might afford him

some secure hiding-place for the night, his heat and thirst, which the remainder of the landlord's tankard had been insufficient to allay, induced him to stop for a moment to gather some unripe blackberries from a low spreading bramble-bush. On leaning over for this pur pose, the earth gave way beneath his foot, and he fell suddenly forward, through the yielding bush into a deep hole, which had probably been a saw-pit in former years when timber had been felled in the neighbouring copse, though it was now so completely overgrown by the brambles which had struck root on either side, as well as by rank grass and weeds, that no one could have suspected its existence.

He had received no other injury in the fall than a few slight scratches, and was preparing to scramble out again, as well as he could, when it occurred to him that as the place was luckily dry, sheltered in some degree from the elements, whose assaults, however, were not much to be dreaded in the month of July, and afforded a better security against discovery than he would be likely to obtain elsewhere, he could not be

stow himself more eligibly for the present than in the lair upon which he had thus accidentally stumbled. Night, he was well aware, was the only season in which he could with safety steal his way towards Lyme, a point that on several accounts he was most anxious to reach; but he was now too much exhausted to crawl any farther, and had equal need of refreshment and repose. Moistening his mouth, therefore, with some of the green berries that formed a thick canopy over his head, and making a meal upon his biscuits, which hunger rendered palatable, he communed for some time with his own sad thoughts, and then wrapping his cloak around him, he stretched himself upon the bottom of the pit, where he presently forgot all his anxieties and dangers in a profound sleep.

At daybreak, however, he awoke, and immediately began to peer on all sides through the interstices of the bramble-bush, to see whether there were any appearances of pursuit. All was hushed and motionless, the cattle had not arisen from their grassy beds, there was no

smoke from the cottagers' hovels, even the lark had not yet sprung upwards from the dew; every thing seemed to be still sleeping in the grey twilight. After he had gazed around him in this manner for a short time, he observed a man in a peasant's dress creeping along one of the avenues, skirted with peas, oats, and fern, until he reached the outbounds of the enclosures, when he crouched down and threw a furtive glance over the open country, as if to ascertain whether he might safely venture forth. Stealthily as he had advanced, and scarcely audible as had been his footfall, it had occasioned a hare to start from her form beside him, and make her escape through the oats with a rustling noise; which so scared the scarer of the animal, that he slunk timidly back along the avenue, and disappeared ere Reuben could obtain a glimpse of his face. Not above ten minutes, however, had elapsed, when he observed the same figure stealing up another lane towards the outbounds immediately opposite to his place of concealment. Here he again stooped down, looking eagerly to the right and left, as