Kate, at such times, would listen breathlessly, fluctuating between hope and despair. But the hoarse bay broke forth invariably again, at intervals greater or less; and always with a startling ferocity that sent the blood back in torrents to her heart. After thus recovering the scent, the cry of the hound would be heard almost incessantly, till the forest resounded with a hundred echoes, and the very heavens seemed to give back the sound. Though the pursuers now drew near, and then receded a space, as if following a somewhat circuitous path, the terrible bay of the hound plainly approached closer, with the lapse of every quarter of an hour.

There was but one hope now left for our heroine, which was that death would put an end to her miseries, before she could be dragged back to the outlaw's hut. Her efforts to escape had so completely exhausted her, that her heroic spirit would have been unable to force the weary limbs onward much further, even though the refugees had failed to track her. She felt satisfied that she could not retrace her steps to the cabin, and that she would perish on the way if the attempt was made to compel her.

But, hopeless as was her condition, Kate still remained true to herself. The fate which she could not avert, she resolved should be met with dignity at least. She abandoned, therefore, all further thought of flight, determining to face her inevitable destiny where she then stood. a Roman virgin, stout-hearted to the last, as became the daughter of illustrious heroes, she drew her garments decorously and proudly about her, and stood up to face the foe.

Like

It was not only on herself that she relied, however, in this most terrible of all extremities. The reader is already familiar with the fact that Kate was sincere and earnest in her piety; and now, when she considered death as imminent, she looked up to the Almighty for support in that dreadful hour. She had been educated in the liturgy of the Estab

lished Church, as her fathers had been since the days of the saintly Latimer, and though she worshiped with other sects as fervently as with her own, when the ministry of her church was impossible, her thoughts naturally turned, in this extremity, to the solemn words of that litany which she had learned first at her mother's knee.

As she stood, therefore, facing the foe, and bravely supporting her weak frame by leaning against a tree, her eyes were raised to heaven, and her lips moved in earnest supplications. We have seen somewhere a picture of a Christian virgin, bound to an oak by Pagan enemies, and about to suffer martyrdom by being transfixed with arrows as a target. So Kate looked now. Her hands were clasped downwards before her; and her uplifted countenance glowed with a fervent enthusiasm that proved the mortal part above the fear of death. Thus she stood, while the bay of the ferocious hound drew nearer, and shouts, mingling with the hoarse cry, showed that her pitiless hunters were now close at hand; yet not an eyelid quivered, not a muscle about her mouth twitched, not a shade of color rose into her composed, though pallid face.

"Remember not, Lord, our offences," she prayed, "nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins; spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood."

Again the hoarse cries of the bloodhound, nearer at hand than ever, woke the echoes of the wilderness, mingled with the exulting shouts of the outlaws; for the pursuers knew, from the rapidity and power of the dog's cries, that they were now almost up with their prey.

"By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation, by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision; by thy Baptism, Fasting and Temptation."

Again the ferocious bay of the bloodhound rose to the sky, and reverberated through the forests.

"By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost."

Still a third time the cry of the excited hound rung across the silence.

"In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment."

Still rose, as if in answer, that deep, hoarse bay of the bloodhound, which seemed almost to deny the justice of heaven.

But now the victim began to pray for others, and for her enemies even, as the litany of the Church teaches.

"That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men." The bay of the hound replied almost beside her.

"That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors and slanderers, and to turn their hearts.”

A burst from the bloodhound, at her very side, was the answer; and immediately the terrible animal broke from the undergrowth.

His reddish coat seemed more inflamed in color than ever; his open mouth, with its blood-colored tongue, was white with foam; and his eyes blazed with such fury, that they seemed to emit phosphoric light. He paused an instant, erecting his tall form, his hairs bristling with rage, for he did not immediately perceive his prey. His glance soon rested on her, however, when, with a yell that rung far and near through the forest, and startled the beasts of the chase from the noon-day coverts they had sought, he sprang at the throat of our heroine.

But, at that very instant, just as the hound was half way towards his victim, darting through the air with distended. jaws and eager fangs, a quick, sharp report was heard, a whizzing sound smote on Kate's unnaturally excited ear, and the dog, as if struck suddenly by a bolt from heaven,

rolled over on the ground, nearly at the feet of his intended prey, his head shattered to pieces by a double load of buckshot.

For a moment, our heroine knew not whether to hail this as a welcome relief, or only as a respite to a more miserable doom. Her first thought was that Arrison, finding that the hound had outrun him, had fired to save her from the fangs of the excited animal. This impression was fortified, by seeing the refugee himself dash upon the scene, almost before the single convulsive movement of the dog was over, after he had fallen.

But this belief was removed by the very first words of the outlaw. Without even looking at Kate, he rushed up to the hound, and first gazing hurriedly on his mutilated form, glanced angrily around the little open space where these scenes were being enacted. Discovering nobody, however, he seemed for a moment perplexed; but instantly suspecting it was some one who had oustripped him, he cried, with every feature working with passion,

"Who fired that shot? Who dared kill my dog?" And he concluded with a blasphemous oath.

An answer came sooner than he expected, for while he still scowled around, the bushes parted directly in front of him, and Uncle Lawrence appeared, his finger on the trigger of his gun, and the piece held ready for instant service.

"I fired it, you villain," coolly replied the veteran, placcing himself before Kate, but without looking at her, while all the time he watched the outlaw as warily as one would eye a panther about to spring.

"Keep still-don't touch me," he whispered to our heroine immediately, in a tone so low as to be heard only by Kate. "Help is near, if we can gain time. I'll die with you, my child, if I can't save you."

As he spoke, he still kept his eyes on Arrison, his finger on the trigger, his piece ready for instant use.

CHAPTER XL.

POMP AGAIN.

His hand did quake,

And tremble like a leaf of aspen green.-Spenser.

Still as he fled his eye was backward cast,

As if his fear still followed him behind,

As flew his steed as if his bands had brast,

And with his winged heels did tread the wind.-Spenser.

THE adventure of Pomp with the black bull, or, as his mother persisted in declaring, "wid dat ole enemy Satan," had no little influence on the events of this story, for it was partly in consequence that Kate received no succor sooner from either Sweetwater or the Forks.

Up to within an hour of dinner, Mrs. Warren felt no uneasiness at her niece's absence, but when the time for that meal came, without the return of Kate, the good dame began to be seriously alarmed. Our heroine had not only said that she would not be gone for more than two hours, but had never before protracted her stay to dinner time.

Another circumstance contributed to the fears of Mrs. Warren. During the course of the morning the quiet of Sweetwater had been suddenly disturbed, by the appearance of a body of cavalry, which, emerging from the woods in the direction of Mr. Herman's, had paused for awhile to water their horses at the head of the pond. Lying about under the trees, in a temporary bivouac, while their chargers cooled off, the dismounted horsemen had not, at the time, affected the good dame with any other feeling than that of admiration of their picturesque appearance. But when the

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