he beheld its gloomy front darkening in the moonlight, and resolved once again to enter. As he reached the avenue, a low groan, proceeding from the further end of the recess, arrested his attention. He listened in breathless anxiety, and, guided by a faint light that glimmered in the distance, threaded the winding labyrinths of the cavern.

A few paces brought him into the well-known vault, in which, stretched on a pile of straw and faggots, lay the extended figure of "Allan of the Moor." His countenance, at all times repulsive, was now strikingly savage. His eyes, deep set in their sockets, glared with sepulchral wildness; and a few lank hairs, twined round his sunken cheeks, seemed like worms coiling round a skull. On the entrance of a stranger he started from his couch, and stood in an attitude of defiance, like Cain, when the almighty curse first reached him. “Behold,” he exclaimed, as recognizing his former companion he rushed with him to the mouth of the cave, behold, all that remains of the weird Allan of the Moor. I have bled for my country, and see how it requites me. Wounds and old age are all that is left."

The cottager enquired how he had been disabled, and was told that he had been present at the late skirmish in Dublin, where he was wounded by a

treacherous pikeman of his own party, and with difficulty escaped to the cavern. "My days are finished," he continued; "friends, relatives, wife, children, have all gone before me to the grave, and I have nothing to do on earth. But for you, " he added," hope still remains, seize it then as the means of revenge. Already the British fleet floats upon the Western wave, and the blood-hounds pursue us to annihilation. But may my curse, a curse that has withered the blossom on the bough, and the child at the mother's breast, be upon them till they writhe in the torments of the damned !"

As he uttered these imprecations, he raised his arms to heaven, and shouted with a frantic yell of triumph. The sound attracted the attention of some horse patrol, who were scouring the country, and they galloped towards the cave. The wizard heard their approach, he beckoned to his companion, and together they retreated into the recess. Here having stretched himself once again upon his couch,-"Listen, fellowsufferer," he said, giving the expiring torch to his companion, "to the last words of Allan of the Moor. A train is laid through this cave communicating with my couch of faggots. When you entered, I was on the eve of firing it; but the spirits of hell are propitious, and the hour of retribution arrives."

The shouts of the approaching party were now distinctly heard; nearer they advanced, nearer, nearer still, and already their horses' hoofs clattered on the road that overhung the cavern. Allan grasped the hand of the cottager, and, pointing to the train, waved a mute farewell. Nerveless with awe, his companion rushed into the open air, and saw by the dim moon-light the figures of the advancing squadron. They beheld him from their elevated position, and called on him to surrender his arms. The moon beams shone full upon his figure; and as he stood in the defile below, with the torch in his hand, and the frown of defiance on his brow, he looked like Satan in the vaults of Pandæmonium.

"No nearer," he exclaimed, "on your lives advance no nearer.” "Forward," said the leader of the squadron, and the sword already glittered in his hand. The cottager marked his time, the whole troop had now reached the road that led above the cavern, and nought impeded their advance. "It must be so," he exclaimed ; "I warned you, but you derided my admonition, and your blood be upon your own heads." With these words, he stooped-he fired the train. A wild shout was heard, the earth yawned asunder, and the squadron vanished like smoke before his eyes.

For days, weeks, months he continued wandering about the country, a wretched blighted being. His food was the acorn of the wood, his drink the water of the marsh, for who will succour the outcast? At length, as the necessity for concealment abated, he resolved to return to his cottage.

It was dusk when he arrived, and the voice of wailing was loud within. He entered, and beheld his wife with a young woman seated by her side, and his daughter, the child of his pride, dying of positive indigence. Unacquainted, with the cause of her complaint, he turned an enquiring glance upon his wife, and was informed that neither herself nor her daughter had eaten any thing for the last two days. Her countenance darkened as she spoke, and with a grin of diabolical import she drew her husband from the room, and whispered in his ear that the young woman who lodged in their cottage, had saved up a guinea while at service, and proposed that it should be appropriated to themselves. The point was soon decided, and at midnight they entered the room where the two females reposed on the same truck. In order to ensure the destruction of their victim, they remarked that she was stationed nearest to the door, while their daughter slept contiguous to the cottage-wall. Having carefully ascertained this point, they en

tered an adjoining apartment, and conversed in an audible tone upon the way in which the murder should be perpetrated.

In the mean time the young woman, roused by the conversation, and overhearing the frequent repetition of her name, listened in breathless silence, and became but too soon acquainted with the proposed treachery. Not a moment was to be lost; she hastily changed places with her sleeping companion, and crept to the cottage-wall. All was now silent; but in a few minutes the door was lifted gently on its latch, and a head was thrust forward. The form advanced, and was succeeded by another bearing a dark lantern in her hand. They approached the bed in quiet, but in the agitation of their movements the light was extinguished. The young woman continued in the most fearful suspense, and could distinctly hear the sharpening of the murderous weapon. In an instant the bedclothes were drawn down, the neck bared, the knife drawn across the throat of the victim. The death-rattle followed, and a long deep sigh announced that the midnight murder was effected.

The wretches removed the body, and, followed at a slight distance by the young woman, who resolved to track their footsteps, bore it to the grave that had been dug for its reception. The night was