that at once soften and ennoble the man, and which make him more fit for that heaven, of which, by their means, he gains a foretaste on earth.

After this, Sir Hugh Eustace courted the hard and more glittering realities of life for his end and aim, and the mere pleasures of the senses for his enjoyments. He was a gallant leader in the battle, and a boon companion at the table, a sceptic to all the sweeter affections, and at the same time a scoffer at mortal and immortal love. He believed neither in woman's worth below, nor in heaven above. In coolly assenting to the established creed of his country, he believed that he had done enough for religion.

Such was the person who was now alone with the young, beautiful, and mysterious being who had so strangely made itself a passenger in the gallant frigate which he commanded. They were alone in the after-cabin, and though almost in contiguity with more than three hundred souls, no cavern of the desert could have afforded them a more isolated privacy. As Sir Hugh Eustace led the timid and trembling creature to a sofa, believing it to be woman, there was in his look the triumphant and passionate glance, so heartless and yet so bright, that tells of a soul that is steeped in sensuality. He gazed greedily into her large and holy blue eyes, placed his arm round her waist, and gently pressing her to his side, spake. How she trembled, shivered, and froze in that revolting embrace!

"And is it," said the bold bad man, "to mes beaux yeux that I am indebted for this little romantic adventure ?"

She struggled to free herself from his encircling arm; her face, her forehead, and her neck changed from a pure white to a flush of living scarlet; she attempted speech, but a suffocating gurgle in her throat was alone audible; at length, flinging up her arms, she uttered one wild shriek, and the next moment her complexion was as livid as that of the sometime dead. She had fainted.

The whole of this took place so instantly, that Sir Hugh Eustace found he had what appeared to him to be a corpse in his arms, before the libertine smile had left his countenance. It was horrible. He cowered within himself for very shame. A moment's reflection convinced him that there was some dreadful secret connected with this almost miraculous adventure, and it was this that prevented him immediately summoning one of his servants. In this perplexity he lifted the still inanimate body, and placed it gently on the sofa. He then hurried on deck, and beckoning the surgeon to him, they both hastened to the cabin, and to the relief of the sufferer.

"I rely on your secrecy and your honour, Mr. M'Quillet," said the captain, with an agitation that he had not felt for years. "My mind is oppressed with sickening misgivings. I feel that there is some connexion between me and this apparently lifeless body, but of what nature I am totally at a loss to conceive. I have been your friend, M'Quillet, be you; in your turn, mine."

During this hurried speech the surgeon was employed in the usual methods of recovering the patient, but without_success. His countenance grew anxious as he bade Sir Hugh Eustace assist him in moving the dress from the throat and chest of the sufferer. When

the neckerchief was withdrawn, and the front of the jacket opened, as was more than suspected, the beautiful bust of a woman of about eighteen years of age was discovered. Whilst the surgeon perceived nothing more than a model of feminine beauty, a mark struck the proud Sir Hugh that wrung his bad heart with agony, and made him pallid with apprehension and horror. It was nothing more than a violet-coloured stain upon the left breast, that shadowed forth distinctly a heart. Nearly twenty years before he had often fondly and rapturously kissed a mark precisely similar, and in precisely the same place, on a bosom as young and as beautiful as the one, that had so fearfully ceased heaving, before him. The master of the battle and the storm now trembled like a startled child. An ominous fear stole over him, and he too would willingly have taken refuge from the tumult of his painful feelings in unconsciousness. But still the unknown did not revive.

"This syncope is dreadfully prolonged," said M'Quillet. "Pray, Captain Sir Hugh Eustace, have the kindness to send for one of my assistant surgeons. It is necessary that we bleed immediately."

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By no manner of means, my dear doctor. I will assist you-I will-I must do all that is necessary. As yet, none must know of this."

"But you seem, pardon me, Sir Hugh, so agitated. However, you have but to get a basin, and hold it as steadily as you can. There, I am now ready. Thank God, the blood flows freely!"

With his eyes wistfully bent on the features of the female, and kneeling before her, Sir Hugh intently watched for the signs of recovery. At length, the breathing became regular; she opened her eyes, and fixing them on him with a mingled and mournful expression of fondness and fear, she tremulously yet distinctly exclaimed, "My father!"

Prepared as was the captain for something dismal and startling, this appeal totally unnerved him. He was so shaken and unmanned that in his agitation he let fall the basin, and his person was stained, and his feet dabbled in the blood of one who had just announced to him that she was his child.

"Regard me not," said the captain to the surgeon; and he made a dreadfully ghastly attempt at a smile. "I am a little moved at the suddenness of this appeal-at its improbability-at its impossibility. On my honour, doctor, I never saw this person before-never heard of her--never dreamt of her;" and then continuing with increased energy, "But have a care of her, dear, dear doctor, let her be very precious in your sight; see, her colour returns. She smiles-that

smile-avenging God! I bow to your just infliction. Smile on poor sufferer-though it is now a torture to me, I will become accustomed to it. Do not speak; attempt it not."

"Indeed, you must not yet talk, my young friend,” said M'Quillet, with all the kindness of a parent, to his patient.

"Yes, yes, the doctor is a good man-you will soon be well, and then you shall tell me all. Poor, poor maiden, you have strangely thrown yourself on my protection-you shall, henceforth, never want it; and though I am not, certainly, most certainly, am not your

father, in all honour, in all tenderness, I will be a good one to you, now and for ever."

The tears stole rapidly from under the closed eyelids of the young female; the gush was so abundant that the delicately-tinted cheeks were deluged with them, and trickling from thence they saturated the collar of the rough canvass shirt which she wore. This weeping with all her heart and all her soul drew the attention of Sir Hugh, and stooping over her passive countenance, he endeavoured to dry them up with his handkerchief, whilst M'Quillet was binding up the blooded

arm.

Taking advantage of this, the female quietly drew from her bosom a small cross, set with diamonds, and first placing it on her own lips as a token of silence and secrecy, she slipped it, unperceived by the surgeon, into the hands of the captain. He gazed upon it for a moment, then concealing it in his vest, he stooped more closely over the female; a single tear mingled with hers, and their lips met in the chaste and holy kiss of filial and parental love. This last act was not unnoticed by the doctor-a prudent man, who held his peace. But the effect of this kiss upon his patient was wonderful. Her countenance became radiant with an intensity of happiness that mortal features could never have been supposed to express, and thus, lapped in the bliss of her own emotions, she fell into profound sleep.

They immediately assisted her into the captain's cot, and, leaving her to her repose, they repaired to the fore-cabin. For some time the two officers stood opposite to each other; the man of medicine, quiet, grave, and taciturn-the man of war, excited, irritable, and eager for speech, yet at a loss for words. At length, still trembling

with emotion, he seated himself, and intimating with his hand that M'Quillet should do likewise, he exclaimed, "You saw me kiss the poor girl."

"Not precisely, Captain Sir Hugh Eustace. I could not testify upon oath to that same, in any court of justice."

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Well, well, my good cautious doctor; but you saw her put something in my hand."

"I cannot, Sir Hugh, aver as much."

"Come, come, M'Quillet-you must have observed my agitation.” "It did not come within the line of my duty."

"Pooh, pooh-what did you see? what did you hear? what did you remark ?"

"Just so much as my good friend and superior officer wished-no more, no more, on the faith of a Scottish gentleman, and the honour of an M.D."

"She is no daughter of mine, doctor--no relation-no connexion -no acquaintance, till I saw her this morning-I knew not of her existence."

"All of which, Sir Hugh, I most firmly believe." Why, then, the girl is nothing to me. There is, certainly, a touch in her features, a turn in her smile—that smile!—that have interested me much, deeply, very deeply. So we will use her well, doctor-we will, kindly and most honourably."

"It is nobly resolved-she is dangerously beautiful."

"Yes, and throwing herself so trustingly, so romantically on my protection. Men think me a stern and cruel man.”

"I beg leave most humbly to differ with you."

They do they do, doctor, and more ashore than afloat; but I will protect that girl from all injury, from all insult. She appealed to me as her father. You heard her-never shake your head-you did my heart has acknowledged the appeal; she shall be to me as a child, even before I know her story. I swear it."

"It is altogether amiable and right."

“And that I may be her friend, you must be my friend. I trust you, doctor. Come, man, we'll try the old East India madeira. I have some excellent Paté Périgord, and that with Stilton and anchovies will help us out with our lunch, and with some plan to keep this affair as quiet as possible."

During the repast that followed, which on the part of the medical gentleman was by no means a light one, the plan of operations for the present was adopted, and in the space of an hour Frank Flylightly and Mr. Flood, the first lieutenant, were sent for. As Frank carried weight, we must not be surprised that Mr. Flood arrived before him. The captain threw all the sternness of his character into his countenance, and regarding his lieutenant, without asking him to be seated, thus addressed him.

"Mr. Flood, I had imagined that, in commanding his Majesty's ship Amelia, I commanded one of the best disciplined frigates in the service."

"I hope, Sir Hugh Eustace, that nothing has occurred to make you alter your opinion-at least in my department," answered this officer most deprecatingly.

"Your department, sir! And thus it is, blame is shuffled off from hand to hand; responsibility goes about the deck begging for a master, and in the mean time occurrences take place that are bad enough to stigmatize the ship."

Mr. Flood looked all humility, and seemed to stand in much greater fear before his captain than if he had been placed before a loaded two-and-forty pounder, and then, with due hesitation, asked to what his commander alluded.

"To what do I allude, Mr. Flood? In the first place, to your special spleading about departments. Are you not, as my first lieutenant, my eyes, my tongue, my two hands? Is not the safety and the whole well-being of the ship, under me, committed to your care; and you talk to me of departments-a very pretty professional idea."

"With all submission," said the very visibly alarmed lieutenant; "with all the intuition of an angel, with the eyes of Cerebus, and the watchfulness of Argus-—

"The watchfulness of Cerebus and the eyes of Argus would have been more appropriate," said the seated doctor M'Quillet to the standing first lieutenant, quietly sipping his madeira.

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Though Sir Hugh is my superior officer, you are not, Doctor M'Quillet, and, let me observe to you, I think this interruption very ill placed. With all respect to Captain Sir Hugh Eustace, I tell you

sir, that I will not permit my inferior to take damn the eyes of Argus, and your own too. humbly beg your pardon, but the doctor is

saint."

me to task; and, sir, Sir Hugh Eustace, I enough to provoke a

"Two hundred and two eyes embraced in one damnation," said the doctor; "really this is cursing on a grand scale; how many bushels, think you, might they make together?"

"And it is in direct violation of an important article of war, this profane swearing," resumed the captain," and certainly no excuse or extenuation for your neglect of duty. Learn to keep your temper, Mr. Flood, and let me hear your defence."

"I stand corrected, Sir Hugh. But may I be permitted to ask if Doctor M'Quillet, who is sitting there so superciliously, were to administer a wrong pill, a thing likely enough to happen, whether you would make me responsible for the man's death, Sir Hugh?—which would be still more likely to happen, if he administered anything at all."

"That is a nice point. I don't think I could bring that home to you. What do you say, doctor?" said the captain.

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Merely, Sir Hugh, that Mr. Flood has supposed an impossible case," replied M'Quillet, helping himself to another glass of wine, and coolly observing the first lieutenant through the transparent liquid.

"But people do die, and dinners are badly cooked, and wads are sometimes out of order, and a rope now and then lubberly spliced; but, with all deference, Sir Hugh Eustace, whilst boatswains, carpenters, gunners, cooks, and doctors, are served out to the navy, the first lieutenant should not be blamed for these minutiæ."

"Whence got he that word, minutiæ?" mumbled the doctor; "Don't know the meaning of it, I'll answer for it."

"I will not be hard upon you, Mr. Flood," said the captain. (At this moment Frank Flylightly entered, all fear and perspiration.) "But you shall confess that I have good right to complain when I state to you the predicament in which you have placed me. I will not blame you, because that man suffered a person to come on board clandestinely" (here the man alluded to trembled violently)—" that is, if you please, one of the minutiæ. But I must severely censure and deeply deplore the discipline of that ship in which a stranger can be secreted for so long a time, with the knowledge only of the rascal who first smuggled him on board and afterwards concealed him. It is a yard-arm business, I can tell you."

All eyes were turned upon poor Frank. Heavy as he was, he knew that the yards were stout enough, and there were ropes on board strong enough, to do his business.

In reply to the captain, the first lieutenant began to say "that he would make inquiry, he was much surprised," &c. &c.

"Well, well," said Sir Hugh, unbending a little in his deportment; "I don't wish to commence this voyage disagreeably; at least with my officers. I dare say justice will be satisfied with hanging up that mountain of flesh; he will thus die for his country, and be of service to her as an example to evil-doers. Really, the character that he has taken on board in direct violation of his duty, of written orders, and