where he slept, that he might indulge his own melancholy thoughts in solitude. One morning, when he was thus occupied, he was surprized by the cautious advance of a homely-looking young woman wearing the appearance of a maid-servant, who, after peering cautiously around to ascertain that they were unobserved, ran up to him, and in an accent that betrayed her to be an Irish woman, whispered in his ear,

"Master! Master! I come to tell ye to sham sick, and don't ait any victuals for a day or two, but swally these biscuits, which ye must concale about your clows, and ask to be removed to the hospital-room, and then we'll see can we get ye out of the grip, as I hope we shall do, more by token than ye once did the same for Norry Molloy, my own mother that suck'd me. But lose no time, Master, for if they bundle ye to the Castle at Dorchester, ye're just clane done for, and there's an ind on 't."-At these words she handed him a little packet of biscuits, and rapidly quitted the apart

ment.

By this most unexpected visit a sudden and

prodigious revolution was effected in Reuben's feelings. Naturally sanguine in his temperament, he was elevated at once from the deepest despondency to all the ardour of expectation, and leaping in imagination over the walls of his pri son, he already saw a visionary futurity gleaming before his eyes, wherein his union with Helen, the restoration of his lost parents, and the emancipation of his country, combined to ren der the remainder of his life an Elysium upon earth. Losing no time in following the kind injunctions he had received, he left the gaol allowance of provisions untouched, indemnifying himself out of his private store of biscuits, complained of constant sickness from the bad air of the crowded ward, and caused such representa tions to be made to the military governor of the gaol, who had been appointed since the rebellion, and who was the master of the woman by whom he had been so lately accosted, that he was shortly ordered to be removed to the infirmary. This was a sort of gallery forming the attic of the building, and at the moment of his be coming its inmate it contained no other occu

pant, a circumstance which enabled him to have frequent and unrestrained communication with his female friend, whose duty it was to attend upon the sick as a nurse. In these conversations she informed him that her name was Mary, that she was married to a soldier, who was also a servant to the Governor, and that her mother had charged her to supply him with a long rope that he might let himself down from the window in the night-time, as soon as she should have made preliminary arrangements for receiving him and conveying him over the water. Its great height from the ground having been considered a sufficient security for a hospital-room, the window was only provided with a single perpendicular bar, so that by removing one or two of the bricks on either side, a person of moderate size might easily squeeze himself through. By the assistance of tools which Mary furnished to him, this trifling impediment was soon overcome, and the bricks having been so loosened as to be taken out at pleasure, he impatiently awaited the time that was to be fixed upon for his escape. Mary 2

length presented herself for this purpose, instructing him to lower himself from the window that night, as soon as he heard the church clock strike twelve, not to fear the sentinel, since her husband had undertaken to keep him occupied in the front of the building, and to climb over the outer wall, by means of a ladder which would be let down to him from the top, when he would find Norry Molloy on the outside, and would only have to follow her farther

instructions.

Perhaps the midnight chimes had never been listened to with more intense interest than by Reuben on the night in question, and the last toll had hardly ceased sounding, when he had fixed his rope to the iron bar, squeezed himself through the aperture, and was dangling in mid air on his descent to the ground, which he presently reached in safety. No sooner had he done so than he glided across the court-yard in search of the ladder, which he presently discovered, fixed ready for his reception, and rapidly mounted to the top of the wall, where he found Norry Molloy crouching down like a cat. "Sate

yourself beside me, and howld your

whisht,

honey!" she whispered to Reuben, who obeyed her orders, when she drew up the ladder, placed it on the outside, and when they had both descended to the ground, again removed it, and committed it gently to the water of the harbour, which nearly washed the walls of the prison. No sooner had this been done, than she stepped without the smallest noise into a small boat, directed Reuben to lie down at the bottom, extended herself by his side, and carefully pulled a tarpaulin over herself and her companion. Sentinels were stationed every night on both sides of the entrance to the harbour, with strict orders to fire into every boat that might attempt to steal out, since it was known that some of the rebels had thus contrived to get away; while armed cruisers were directed to keep a sharp look-out in the offing, and overhaul any suspicious small craft that might appear to be making seawards. Norry Molloy well knew, therefore, that any attempt to row out of the harbour would be madness, and that their only chance was to float out with the ebb tide, as if it were an empty boat that had got adrift. In this manner their boat was presently making slow and