the chance of a reward determined them to have him arrested and examined; arguing that it would not injure him, if innocent, while it would materially benefit themselves if their misgivings were confirmed. Of this printed list Grace obtained a glimpse; and her faculties being quickened by the deep interest she now took in Reuben's safety, she watched the parties in whose hands she had seen it; and divining from their whisperings and gestures, as well as from a few words which she acciden tally overheard, their treacherous intentions, she communicated them to Reuben, urging his immediate flight from Harpsden Hall, and strenuously recommending her father's resi dence as being admirably adapted for his temporary concealment, while its vicinity to the sea rendered it no less eligible for his final escape.

Roused by this intelligence from the pleasant entrancement in which he had suffered his fa culties to luxuriate, Reuben, reproaching himself for his inertness, resolved to atone for his procrastination by tearing himself instantly away, without further implicating Helen or

Adeline, by making them acquainted with his present departure or future purposes. To avert suspicion, it was arranged that he should steal out of the house at daybreak on the following morning, which was Saturday, conceal himself in a particular plantation, and remain there till the evening; at which period Grace always had permission to visit her father, and remain with him until the Sunday. In her way home she promised to meet him at the plantation, and guide him in the gloom of evening to the farm, which was situated in a hollow of the Downs, at an easy distance from Harpsden Hall. All this was executed as it had been planned, Resuming the clothes that he had worn when he first betook himself to the Wood-house, concealing his pistols about his person, for he was still determined not to be taken alive, if he could avoid that fate, and carrying with him the Bible which he was to deliver to Grace's father, Reuben decamped from the house at the dawn of day, hurried to the specified plantation, secreted himself as well as he could, and patiently awaited the arrival of the pious and

enthusiastic girl, in whose hands he had now placed his life. Just as the sun was setting behind the trees in which he was embowered, he saw her approaching with a basket in her hand, and went forward to meet her as soon as she had entered the covert. She expressed great joy at seeing him, told him that his mys terious disappearance from Harpsden Hall had excited no small astonishment, and apprised him that they must remain where they were until it was quite dark, so as to elude all observation on their way to the farm. With the trusting confidence of a heart so utterly void of guile in itself as not even to suspect its existence in others, she sate down beside Reuben in that sequestered brake, while the night was closing fast around them, first putting up prayers for his safety, and then beguiling the time by giving her companion a brief outline of her father's history, invariably speaking of him in terms of the deepest reverence, and seldom mentioning his name without invoking a blessing upon his head.

Malachi Wardrop, though now living in a

cottage with his son-in-law, a poor sheepfarmer, had once possessed a competency which he had cheerfully sacrificed in the cause of the Parliament, at the beginning of the Civil Wars, and quarrelling with Cromwell on his usurping the supreme power, had disdained to seek any opportunity of repairing his losses. The Restoration found him broken in fortune, but not in his spirit, which was irreconcilably opposed to the new government, both upon religious and political grounds. Not that he was infected by any of the crazy dreams of the Fifth-Monarchy-men, and similar enthusiasts. Though an Anabaptist he was no fanatic, unless his political opinions might subject him to that imputation, holding, as he did, that a great and enlightened nation could never have been intended by Providence to become the patrimony of any particular family, however weak or wicked, and to be bequeathed from father to son like a herd of cattle. He was in fact a staunch Republican, towards the establishment of which form of government he had fought and intrigued from the time of Charles the

First, nearly up to the death of Charles the Second; for he had been more or less concerned in all the conspiracies of the latter plot-producing reign, provided they offered any chance, however remote, of subverting the existing tyranny. To most of the leaders of the different factions he was well known, with some of them deeply implicated, his long impunity amid such dangerous enterprizes being mainly attributable to his cultivating a farm in the vicinity of the metropolis, which he never quitted except at night, and to which he invariably returned before the following morning; so that in the country he was thought to be a plodding husbandman, while in London his face was unknown amid the daily haunts of the disaffected. This course of life he had pursued until, from some complaint in his eyes, originally contracted in his Parliamentarian campaigns, he had fallen totally blind, when he accepted the invitation of his son-in-law, a humble sheep-farmer in Dorsetshire, and took refuge in his cottage. Three children accompanied him; -Grace, Joel, and a poor idiot boy, with whom