if they ventured to arrest him, he determined to defend himself to the death: in either alternative he would be relieved from a humiliation and misery that began to grow intolerable. These desponding thoughts, however, were not of long continuance. The recollection of his lost parents, and the ineradicable conviction that it was his destiny as well as duty to live for the elucidation of their fate, reconciled him to the endurance of his lot; while the deep devotion of his whole heart to the beautiful, the sage, the magnanimous Helen, and the sweet hope, however vague and undefined, that at some distant period he might be permitted to approach her as a suitor, determined him to endure with fortitude any present probation that afforded him a chance of such a glorious reward in future. Painful too as it might be to creep about in disguise like a common malefactor, there was something cheering in the remembrance of the generous heroism evinced by all those whose protection had been hitherto extended to him, for it ennobled and endeared his fellow-creatures to his heart, and assured him that others would equally justify any confidence he might hereafter have occasion to place in their good offices. While he was thus walking rapidly forwards, too much absorbed in his own thoughts to notice surrounding objects, his attention was caught by a harsh and angry voice loudly ejaculating-"Oh, the blood-thirsty negers! the curse of Cromwell the whole gang upon of ye in this world, and brimstone and blue blazes in the next!"—and upon looking up he recognized the figure of his old acquaintance, Norry Molloy, tramping towards him with an infuriated countenance and wrathful gestures. So completely was she occupied with her execrations and her passion, that she passed him without even casting an eye upon him, or appearing conscious of his presence; but as Reuben thought he might depend upon her, and felt that she was the most likely person in the world to extricate him from his difficulties, he turned round to follow her, saying as he overtook her -"Surely this must be my friend Norry Molloy."-" Hooly powers!" she exclaimed, as she gazed upon him, with a countenance suddenly altered to an expression of compassionate delight; "Sure I can swear to the sweet voice of the young master, for it's himself that it is, though he's dressed like such a poor sowl. Musha! rest and pace, and the blessing of St. Patrick upon your head! and have I found ye at last?"-Reuben was about to bespeak her assistance in getting him on board some vessel, when she continued in an earnest whisper "Hould whisht! hould your whisht!" at the same time pointing to a cottage whose owner she stated had recently given up one of the fugitives to justice," one of the gentlemen who wud have payed gowlden guineas for a sail in Mick's cutter :" a circumstance which had excited her fiery indignation, either from the treachery of the act itself, or from its having deprived her of a good customer, or perhaps from a mixture of both feelings. When they had gained a safe distance from the abode of such a suspicious personage, Reuben was again about to explain the predicament in which he stood, but she interrupted him by exclaiming— “Avoch, poor boy! don't I know it all? didn't I carry over to Holland in our own laping cutter, your friend Fludyer; he with the goggle eyes that are always rowling, and the tongue that is never quite; and soon as I knew ye were in the scrimmage at Sedgemoor, and down in the black list, haven't I been bating the bushes, and tramping the baich, arly and late, fair and foul, sunshine and moonshine, and trudged round and round Goldingham Place till I knew the park-paling by heart, just to get a glimmer of ye, honey dear, that I might get ye out of the grip, and aboard the Greyhound, and so just pop ye down in Holland beside your friend with the goggle eyes?" "Truly, my good friend," said Reuben, “I am infinitely obliged by your kind intentions, and I wish to Heaven we had sooner encountered. But how came you to venture back, when you are yourself as liable to apprehension as I am ?" "Ah, botheration entirely! is it an owld woman, like me, they'd be looking after, when they're all hunting for rebels that they can sell for gowld? By my sowl! forgot all about the 'ciseman, the Devil may choke him, when I larnt ye were in trouble, and ye the same that did me the good turn when I was put up yonder." that Reuben was proceeding to utter his acknowledgments, and to pay her some warm compliments upon her generous and grateful feelings in his favour, when lifting up her voice and both hands at once, she interrupted him by calling out, “Ah now, will ye jist be asy wid your blarney? Hubbaboo! haven't, I tould ye once ye done me a sarvice I'd never rest in pace till I cried quits wid ye: and had done me an injury wouldn't I ha' gone through fire and water to have my revenge, plase God? So ye see it's just nothing at all at all but a dibt I'm paying ye. And now spake the word, honey dear, and tell me what was your schame for getting over the water to Hans Mundungus and your friend wi' the goggle eyes?" ye Reuben declared that he had not yet organised any plan for that purpose. "O wirra! wirra! my darlint," resumed |