sea were dead. There could be no long pause. The tremulous eddies of life's quick low breathing could distinctly be heard; and soon as this clue to the labyrinth of the dark windings was accurately known, the officers stood before the insurgent refugees, and demanded their arms. These were instantly surrendered. There was scarcely a word spoken at the capture. To the officers, who saw the black and damp vault in which not only gentlemen of the first rank in the county, but even tender and delicate women had lain so long concealed, the sadness of the occasion, and the melancholy of the scene, took away all desire for conversation, They had no power to promise even life; they were too solemnly impressed to feel an idle curiosity, and too humane either by words of illusive kindness to encourage hope, or by action, tone, or manner, to create a deeper terror than that which was natural to men, as it were, on the eve of execution.

66

Adrian lost not his fortitude or presence of mind. "I have no fear, gentlemen, for myself, whatever may be our fate to-morrow; but one favor I would ask, that we may not be separated." Emily scarce heard or saw any thing

H

as they slowly and cautiously embarked in the cutter, which bowed to the water's edge; but as they weighed from the fatal spot, her eye fell upon some of the black rose leaves as they floated on the water, and murmuring, "Those flowers! those flowers! they have destroyed my husband," she sunk on his bosum into a deep and long forgetfulness.

CHAPTER XIV.

WHEN Mrs. Harvey re-entered Barguy Castle, her mind was too much confused for resignation or despair. Her submission looked only to the Providence which orders the lifeless things of the universe; for she was now as if her heart had returned to its native dust, and were again without form and void, and mingled with the deep still earth, equally unconscious of the sunbeam and the storm. She was as if being had survived memory-as though feeling and thought were lost in a troubled dream, during which the scene was to change, and this visiontinted world was to offer in its fleeting future a succession of new and brighter imagery. If her fortitude had for a while forsaken her, it was not so much from the severity of affliction as from the effect of so many transitions from sorrow to joy, and then from joy to sorrow. Her

health had suffered in the struggle-the faculties of reflection became faint and troubled; but the power that exercised the languishing thoughts remained bright within, and must so remain were those faculties to perish like the heaven's burning scroll, and fail in their courses like the pale stars that shall die away into chaos, when the souls of men shall be the only surviving glories of a past and vanished creation. The scenery of the place, and its calm and holy associations, had a soothing influence. The soft breezes and low murmur of the distant deep came to the bosom of Emily, and she recovered her accustomed strength and resolution when the first shock of misery was past. She thought of the night when she had gone out without one visible hope to the prison of her husband of his deliverance, and their few happy days on the Saltees. The very trees uttered their sublime psalmody at night; and if they sung of her troubles, they sung also of One who had turned and refreshed her, and brought her out of her adversity. The flowers told to her heart their sweet and low breathing parables of a "mercy which endureth for ever." Her spirit came to her again; and

when the perceptions of nature revived, and the hopes and fears of nature, at first ebbing and flowing, became settled as before, they returned to the habitual subjection of a faith which brought peace, though they had been never so unquiet.

No

The trial of the insurgents was instantly to take place; and their relatives had left nothing undone which could give even a forlorn hope to their defence. They had the advice of the first counsel, and large sums of money were employed in the production of favorable testimony. Of the result, however, there could be only one opinion. The cases were too strong for the united power of gold and genius. more time was allowed for preparation than was necessary to the most rapid forms of justice; and the prisoners were interdicted from the society of their friends and families. Indeed, before the trial there were all the appearances that are generally seen after condemnation. All was sad and still, save where some pious clergyman watched and prayed with the penitent in his steeple cell, or some official received, as upon the eve of decease, the last will and testament of a sleepless and hopeless man. When