hurrying fast to the pier. Mat Smith's beautiful new schooner, the "Rose," was that morning to make her first trip. All was ready on board for sailing, and nought delayed her but the absence of Denis and the skipper. On all sides cries of approbation and delight arose. "What a tight little hooker! What a clean run along the bends; and then her yards and spars so all a taunto! If she don't take the conceit out o' the sharks, why, I'm blowed, that's all. Here they come! here they come !-Good luck attend you, Mat, 'tis you that's the glory of us! Ah, Denis, I give you joy; here's success to you, my lad." Many more uproarious congratulations of the same sort followed the Rose, even till she was far out of the harbour. Night came on, and found her about eleven knots to the southward of F. The opposite coast had been made, and the run as yet had been quite successful. Mass after mass of fleecy clouds flitted across the moon, their edges rendered luminous as they came within the influence of her rays. The wind was fast lulling; and the gentle undulating motion of the water scarce rippled against the sides of the schooner as she lay in the bight of a small bay about three hundred yards from the shore, casting her huge shadow to the foot of the hoary cliffs themselves. The stillness of the scene added greatly to its beauty. On her starboard side stretched the sea in its broad expanse to the gay shores of France. One sheet of radiance tapering from the extreme verge of the horizon, and gradually extending itself into one broad mellow light, fell across it, till it was stopped by the schooner, looking as she lay, her sides all silvered with the glowing beams, "the forest queen of the deep." On the larboard rose a high range of Here and there cliffs, which girt in almost the whole of the coast. some twinkling lights shone in the distance, marking the place "I say, where stood some lowly hamlet or more lordly tower. Denis, my hearty," began Mat, soon after the schooner took up the berth we have described, "I can't say as how I feel particularly pleasant this 'ere night, like as if somethin' had ta'en me quite aback, and almost, as it were, cut my life-lines adrift. Some harm 'll lay us aboard, I'm thinkin'. I wish those lubberly shore haulers would bear in sight, and we'd this cargo safe stowed, and us alongside o' Rose snug moored by a blazer, with a prime in our mauleys-eh, boy ?"-" Can't say as how, Mat, but that 'ere prime wouldn't be after being mighty agraable, or I'm thunderstruck— But what a't keeping them shore-goin' spalpeens? Thunder an' cuns, no one han't turned the snitch, an peached-eh, Mat?"— Hope not, boy; but may I go to Davy this moment, if that ain't the signal! All hands ahoy, and stir about, every mother's son of ye! Stop your pipe, ye snivelin' powder-monkey, or I'll stop it

with a rope, and be d-d to ye! Dost want to bring the lobsters

on us?"

The signal had been made from the shore that the party there were ready for the cargo, and for starting, and in a few moments they were all standing on the edge of the shore prepared for their share of the business. A number of strong roadsters stood by, ready to be off to the interior as soon as they were loaded. Most of the group were armed with some weapon or another, chiefly of a rustic kind. "Here, Neptune, here," shouted one who acted as leader of the land party; and a fine large Newfoundland dog, with a rope attached to his collar, bounded into the water, and swam straight for the schooner. A number of kegs and bales, well fastened and tarred to prevent the water getting in, were fastened to it, and immediately drawn ashore. The dog made two or three trips, and a great quantity of goods were thus landed. The ship's boats in the meantime were not idle, and, in an incredibly short time, the whole of the cargo, and Mat and Denis, were safely landed, and the schooner then stood out to sea. Six of the best armed men mounted, and took up their position in front, as the avantguard. Mat, Denis, and four more, formed the rear. The rest, with the cargo, were in the centre. The word was given to advance, and the party were just in motion when the look-out, who was stationed up the glen, through which they had to pass, came running in at the top of his speed, roaring out, "The sharks are on us, and the lobsters with 'em!" No time was to be lost. "Away with ye, every sowl!" thundering Mat and Denis together, "away!" And in a moment the whole were flying in every direction, still, however, retaining a hold of their loads, with the exception of our two friends, and the ten men with them, all bold and resolute fellows, and determined to the last to cover the retreat of their goods. In cases like this, when the free traders were met by the bloodhounds of the law, they were accustomed to separate, and by the thousand cross roads and hill-paths, to make the appointed place of rendezvous, which was always previously agreed upon. Thus, though a few might be taken, still the greater part escaped with the share of the run assigned to them. As the flying party disappeared one by one, in different directions, the picked, or head men, moved steadily onward. On reaching the mouth of the glen, they were stopped by about twenty man-of-war's men, ranged in line, and commanding the passage. "On, my lads, on for your own sakes!" cried Mat, putting spurs to his horse, and galloping forward, followed close by his men. On they went, and the pistols of the king's men were discharged in a volley, but fortunately, owing to the moon that instant having veiled her light behind an

obliging old gentleman in the shape of a dark cloud, the shots passed harmlessly over their heads, and before the smoke could clear away, horse and men were mixed together in the melee. Oaths, shouts, and execrations in every shape, from the simple d-n upwards, flew fast and furious. The free traders seldom, if they could help it, used their fire-arms, and consequently they were always at it hand to hand, tooth and nail. The kicking and plunging of the horses soon bore fright and dismay among the sharks. They began to waver, and Denis, that moment rising in his stirrups to make a cut, sung out with the whole force of his Stentorian lungs, "Give it 'em, my jewels! give 'em the laste taste in the world of the steel shillaly! At 'em, my Roses, asth!" he said no more for a back handed stroke of one of his antagonists that instant brought him to the ground.

When the dawning light of sense and perception returned and resumed her wonted seat, Denis found himself in the house of Smith, with Rose holding one hand, and his mother kissing and crying over the other. "Och hubbabo! mother, what's the row? What are you afther, keenin' over me that way for, agra?"— "Och, Denis, avourneen, a cushla machree, a lanna, hould yer tongue, and don't spake, for the docthur says ye'll kill yerself if ye do so. Aisy now, dear, and Rose, the darlin', 'll till ye all about it; eternal blassin's rest on her and hers, for it wasn't her maybe that watched ye all alongst!" The free traders had been triumphant, and had beat the sharks off. Denis was carefully raised up, the cutlass-cut across his brow bound up, and he was then carried to Mat's house in a state of insensibility. The operation for trephine was performed upon him, and for a month he was delirious. He then recovered, and, to use his own expression, "bore up from the lee shore of sickness, with every sail he could crowd, for the port of health and spliceation." A short time after, Rose and Denis became one, and two or three of the mayors of F. -were the lineal descendents of the Irish smuggler and his pretty Rose. The intervention of the king's men was owing to a rejected rival of Denis having betrayed them. He was discovered, and met the fate of a traitor. One misty night, soon after the run, he fell from a cliff seven hundred feet high. Not one atom of his body was found in its original shape. Rose had influence enough over her commander and father to prevail on them not to tempt the peril of the free-trade again, and accordingly her namesake was sold: And thus ended the Rose's "First and Last Run ;" and now the web of our yarn is wove, and, to conclude with the words of the Oriental sage, kind and gentle reader, who hast followed us thus far, "may your shadow never be less!"-East Lothian Journal.

THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.

"Veni, vidi, vici."

THERE is amidst the earth gone forth, to set the nations free,
A giant spirit, whom even Time seems half amazed to see;
His look hath power to scatter light, his touch to sever chains,
And tyrants tremble on their thrones, and bigotry complains.

Youth hath not lately tinged his cheek, nor his light ringlets curl'd,
His long experienced look reflects all ages of the world;
Before the flood his race began with mortal hopes and fears,
And he hath walk'd with christian men full eighteen hundred years.

He ever was the wondrous guest of all the wondering earth,
E'en when in boyhood mightily with truth he wander'd forth;
And when his guilty youth grew up with error side by side,
And when he pluck'd from Knowledge, leaves, his infamy to hide;

And when, as proud as Lucifer, he put the mitre on,

And trampled fair Religion down, and laugh'd at what he'd done;
And when he muster'd armed hosts in multitudes like bees,
And scatter'd them in death, as leaves are scatter'd from the trees;

Ah, then his footsteps sounded woe, his hand was red with crimes
And awfully polluted, stalk'd The Spirit of the Times!

At length he sought the cloister'd shade, and knelt him down a monk,
For ages drivelling and despised, with superstition drunk.

Till, warn'd by an ambitious dream, he arm'd again for fight,

And shouting-" For Christ's Sepulchre !" rush'd forth a Red-cross Knight;
But Heaven, in mercy to mankind, proclaimed his madness o'er,
And bade him go and bless those lands which he had cursed before.

A glorious scroll before him blazed, in which he read aright,
Words traced by an unerring pen, in characters of light:

Words, as pre-eminently true as wonderfully given;

Words which came down from, and led on through holiness to Heaven:

Words which proclaim'd 'twixt man and man, Truth, Mercy, Peace, and

Love,

Which chase the lion from men's hearts, and cherish there the dove.
And then the scene changed all around-and oh, how mighty then
The Spirit of the Times went forth, amidst the sons of men!

He went into the cottage first, and lo! as by a spell,
Sound Knowledge was with Piety constrain'd thenceforth to dwell:
His presence in the lordly hall astonish'd the proud peer,
But soon he grew a welcome guest, and gave his lessons here.

Yea, with undauntea steps he strode e'en through the palace gate,
And soon-what will not spirits ?-stood before the chair of state!