curling hair; and that, after he had cut a quantity of fern, he gathered it up, and retreated cautiously down the lane.

"It be the Brummagem King, as zure as a gun!" cried the soldier, snapping his fingers all the way, as he hurried back to communicate to some of his four-and-twenty partners the important intelligence he had received; while Amy, unconsciously letting go the halter of the calf which she had come out on purpose to recover, walked slowly back to the cottage without it, lost in more delicious dreams of grandeur than ever delighted the imagination of the castlebuilding milkmaid in the fable.

In the conviction that the stranger she had seen in the manner described was indeed no other than the Duke, Reuben's heart sank within him; for he knew that the place had been since too closely beset by the troops to allow the possibility of his withdrawing himself, and he already gave him up for lost. Some hours of the most painful suspense ensued, during which his eyes were intently fixed upon the enclosures, in the vain endeavour to ascertain what was going

on within them. At about eleven o'clock, however, a shout of triumph from the interior of the covert announced the successful termination of the search. Stimulated at once by the love of Amy, of gold, and of glory, and furnished with a clue by the statement of his mistress, Henry Parkin had at last discovered the unfortunate prince lying in a ditch beneath a pile of fern, which might have effectually answered the purpose of concealment for which it was intended, had he not been overlooked while cutting it in the morning. Worn out with fatigue, hunger, and anxiety, human nature could endure no more: the wretched Monmouth, suffering himself to be seized without resistance by a single soldier, burst into tears, and fainted away!

Several of Parkin's comrades being summoned to his assistance, had set up the shout of triumph that Reuben had heard, and he now saw them emerging from the covert with the fainting Duke in their arms, whom they deposited upon the grass, and dispatched one of their company to inform the commanding officer

of his arrest. Lord Lumley, Captain Trevanian, and others, soon ran to the spot, when the former, ordering some water to be instantly brought to assist in the recovery of his prisoner, directed that his pockets should be searched and emptied. In one were found spells against danger, songs, and prayers in his own handwriting, papers indicative of the ambition, pleasure, and superstition, to which his mind was addicted. From another were produced affecting evidences of the extremes of human life to which he had been subjected; the green pease snatched from the fields, on which he had supported himself since the battle, and the diamond George, that had so often sparkled at his side when he formed the ornament of his father's court, and which he had last worn on the day of his triumphal entry into Taunton.

Parkin, the soldier who had been dispatched to procure water, ran to the cottage of his mistress, where, with infinite exultation having recounted his exploit, and stated the purpose of his present visit, Amy filled a small mug from the bucket, and hastened to the spot, upon

which a little band of officers and soldiers stood surrounding their still insensible prisoner. The sight of the Duke, however, stretched motionless upon the grass; the singular beauty of his features, which not even his temporary death could obliterate; and the diamond George, which, by recalling to her mind his royal dignity, seemed to render his seizure a species of sacrilege as well as cruelty, combined to shoot such a pang of compunction to her tender heart, that letting fall the mug of water, and grasping her lover with both hands, partly to support herself, and partly as if to arrest him, she exclaimed, "O Henry! Henry! thee hastn't been such a rogue as to seiz'n, hast 'ee ?"

""Odds pittikins !" he replied, "this is rare Didn't 'ee tell me thyself how to vind 'n? Icod! I should never have thoft he was in the ditch, if it hadn't been for the vern thee zeedst'n cut, and which was straw'd all over 'n."

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Well-a-day! well-a-day !" exclaimed Amy, "I never was adreamt of all this'n, or I would ha' bit my tongue off avore I told 'ee. Zuch a beautiful gentleman too, and zuch a white skin!

!

Poor creature! poor creature! what will they do wi' un, I wonder."

'Why chop his head off, to be zure," replied the soldier.

"Oh the blood-thirsty villains!" cried Amy, "would they dare to do zuch a thing as that'n ?" -She let go hold of her lover, and pressing both hands upon her bosom, exclaimed, "How my poor heart do thump and thump, as if it were gooing to break through!" For some moments she strove to suppress her emotions, but another glance at the wan, motionless Duke, and the self-reproaching thought that she had been the cause of his seizure, completely overcame her; she burst into a passion of loud ungovernable weeping, and walked rapidly back to the cottage, sobbing violently, trying in vain to dry her eyes with the corners of her apron, and utterly deaf to the consolations of her lover, who walked by her side, reminding her of the two hundred pounds he should have, and urging her to fix the day of their marriage.

A cordial having been poured down the Duke's throat, he soon recovered, and being