which position she presently saw two men open the gate and advance along the footpath. Unfortunately, neither of them was her lover, a point upon which the broad light of a sunshiny day did not allow the possibility of a mistake. The path which they were pursuing would lead them up close to the tree where she was then standing, and as she began to doubt the intentions of these strange men, and had no wish to be discovered in so lonely a place at that unusual hour, she desired the maid to follow her behind a cow-shed, having a pile of faggots at its extremity, which promised to afford them an effectual hiding-place. Hither they accordingly retreated, unobserved by the approaching pedestrians, though a variety of chinks and fissures in the rude shed behind which they stood enabled them to obtain a perfect view of the two figures, who halted immediately opposite their place of concealment, and began a conversation of which only detached portions upon the eager ear of Adeline.

fell

"Where can they be ?" were the first words that she caught, and she observed that the

1

speaker looked up and down the field as if in search of some one.

"They cannot be far off," replied his com panion. "I have traced both their footsteps in the snow for some distance from the gate." At these words Adeline's doubts were con verted into terror. "Good Heavens !" she exclaimed in a low whisper, "to what strange fate am I reserved? They are indisputably in search of me: what horrid design have they formed ?"

The last speaker now turning suddenly round, revealed to her the mustachoed features of an offcer, who, after having gazed upon her at church on the previous Sunday in a very pointed and passionate manner, had picked up her prayerbook in the church-yard, and presented it to her with a high-flown compliment, a circumstance which to her prurient fancy seemed to develope the whole mystery of the adventure. He was violently in love with her, and had formed this plot for carrying her off, having pursued her from her own house for this espe "Wretched Adeline!" she whis

cial purpose.

pered to herself, "I shall be torn by force from the arms of the man I love, and hurried off by this odious stranger. It is vain to scream for help there is not a soul within hearing. If he discover me I am utterly lost-my only hope is in concealment." At these words she crouched lower down, making a signal to her companion to do the same.

Still, however, she continued peeping through the clefts of the shed, and her apprehensions rose to an agony of fear when she saw the same party draw from a small bag a pair of pistols, of which he opened the locks and examined the pans, while he exclaimed in an Irish

accent, As pretty a pair of poppers as ever

brought down a man. Never fear but they'll do their work as clane as a whistle. If he has a mind to run off with her, by St. Patrick! he shall run with a bullet in his body! And, faith and troth! here he comes his own self just in the nick of time."

At this moment Adeline saw two other persons approaching, one of whom, to her disturbed and agitated perceptions, appeared

to be her lover, who was ever uppermost in her thoughts, and the whole horrid truth seemed now to flash upon her mind at once. 'Reuben's intentions of carrying her off had been discovered the officer before her was his rival he had challenged him to fight a duel—and she would perhaps see her own dear darling Arcadius murdered before her eyes. clear-manifest-indisputable. She had been providentially guided to the spot for the purpose of saving his life, and, unable any longer to restrain her feelings, she rushed into the shed, fell upon her knees at the feet of the last speaker, and exclaimed in a terrified voice

spare

him! spare

It was

him! he is the chosen one of my heart-it is his Adeline who sues

for pity!"

The maid, at the same time, who knew nothing of what was passing in her mistress's mind, but had seen the pistols, took it for granted that the parties were robbers, and that she was begging for her life; in which belief she flopped suddenly down upon her knees,

held up a leather purse in one hand, a brass thimble, a needle-case, and a horn comb, in the other, and blubbered out, "Lauk love ye! koind gentlevolk, do ye take all our money, but gi' us our lives, vor the love o' Heaven!"

At the conclusion of this terrified address, two more armed strangers entered the shed, neither of whom, as Adeline could now perceive, bore the smallest resemblance to her lover, and the whole company remained transfixed in a mutual and utter amazement, that deprived them for some seconds of all power of speech. It may be hardly necessary to state, that the parties met there by appointment, for the purpose of fighting a duel. A very short explanation sufficing to undeceive Adeline upon this point, she arose, covered with confusion, stammered out an indistinct apology, and was hurrying out of the shed, followed by the maid, who repocketed her purse with considerable satisfaction, when one of the strangers, planting himself in their way, exclaimed, "By St. Jago! such a pretty face as that should never pass