whisper, they seemed to lull the mind to rest. This is no trivial pleasure to a thoughtful man. My superiors enjoyed it before me; for Cicero counted the waves; and the spot I have described reminded me of Felpham, the honoured retreat of Cyril Jackson.

I had been near a week in the neighbourhood, and had one day straggled to a distance of several miles from the brown old castle,-indulging the contemplative disposition which had been growing more and more upon me, ever since I had left the paphian regions of London. It was one of those calms I have mentioned, and the stillness was only interrupted by small pieces of rock, which now and then, loosening from the parent mass, rolled down the declivities into the sea. I had watched these falls for some time, thinking of little or nothing-in fact, in a sort of contented reverie-when on a sudden I heard a gun fire in the offing, which in an instant broke the whole enchantment.

Two vessels appeared, one pursuing the other; and, as I presently observed, a boat, full manned, put off from one of them, and pulled with the utmost vigour towards the shore. It effected its purpose within a stone's-throw of the place where I

was sitting, while my groom led my horse along the strand. And now, about a dozen rough-looking men landed, leaving their boat adrift. They ran up a hollow way between the rocks, imperceptible before from the masses of sea-weed, mingled with furze, which hung over the cleft. The men ran faster when they saw me; but suddenly one of them, who did not at all seem to be of kin to the rest, stopped, then turned, and ran back from his fellows as eagerly as they were pursuing the upward path. He ran towards me, and judge my astonishment when I found it was Willoughby. He was, as may be supposed, in some little agitation, and seeing my surprise, said, "This must appear strange, but I have not time to explain. My confounded garb may get me into worse difficulties than I have escaped from. I see your horses. Perhaps you will let me mount one of them, and when I think myself safe, you shall know every thing."

It may be supposed that I assented, and making my groom dismount, Willoughby, to my great amusement as well as wonder, took his place on the saddle. My new livery was, to be sure, an odd one; a check-shirt, no coat, canvas trowsers, very much tarred, and a cat-skin cap. But I

could get nothing from him, from his eager watch of another boatful of men, that seemed to have pursued the first to the shore. A low promontory then screening it from view, he became calmer, and before we got to the small inn opposite Portland Castle, was able to give me a little insight into this mystery. As soon as he was there, however, he sent off immediately to Weymouth to get an equipment of clothes, but which he was forced to order from a slop-shop; his own being, he said, he knew not where.

From my knowledge of Willoughby's wandering and eccentric taste, I perhaps should not have been surprised at all this; but his eagerness to escape from the spot where I met him, and the joy he expressed at finding himself in security, made my curiosity on tiptoe. If the reader's is so too, it shall be gratified in the next section.

SECTION XXXII.

WILLOUGHBY'S ACCOUNT OF himself.

"Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slav'ry; of my redemption thence."

OTHELLO.

Ir may be recollected, that my wandering friend left me at Marlborough, meaning to cross the Wiltshire Downs into Dorsetshire, the coast of which he had never seen. This scheme he pursued with his usual activity; not, however, with his usual good fortune.

Having reached Dorchester without much to notice, he conceived the design of making a sort of steeple-chace diagonally to Lyme, and so return by the coast to Weymouth. This, he was told, would introduce him to a wild and picturesque country, rather savage and uncultivated in appearance, and full of heath-tracks, not easy to unravel with certainty, or leading to any abode but

that of shepherds. It was just the sort of expedition he wanted.

He had got safely and agreeably to Lyme, where, he said, he revelled in red mullet; and one of his horses falling lame, he would have been content to revel some time longer, but for his promise to me. So, leaving his man to watch his lame steed, and when he could travel to follow him slowly to Weymouth, he set off by himself coastwise, to keep his appointment. He was pleased with his road, which lay chiefly by the shore, through fishing villages, and almost always in sight of the sea, but sometimes winding inland, through very rough glens, or over steep and shaggy cliffs. His taste for deviation where anything was to be seen, induced him often to quit the beaten road; and at the end of the first day, he was so lost, that having in vain sought direction, he was absolutely benighted, without knowing where he was, and only guessing by its roar, that the hill he was mounting was not far from the sea. The moon, however, shone bright, showing every turn of the road as it wound up the steep. Not a breath of air, or the quiver of a leaf, interrupted the stillness; and a little past midnight he felt relieved by the sight of three or four cottage-thatches, which rose one