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CHAPTER III.

Who, gazing on impassioned eyes,
Measures half the time that flies?
Fascination still is near her,
Heaven itself is scarcely dearer :
Over paths with roses strewn
Half the night's already flown!
Must we part from one so dear?
Day is bringing grief too near.

A QUARTER of an hour flew briefly away to the young pair, whose joys were thus snatched from grief and danger; nor did either of them believe that more than a few minutes had elapsed. While yet, however, they were in the midst of whispering their mutual plans for the future, a loud cough from the adjoining cabin startled the lady almost to fainting, and did not greatly add to the comfort or happiness of the gentleman.

Anne, however, who had faithfully returned to her post, held up her finger to her fellow conspirator's behind, giving notice that Captain Livingstone had awoke; and while Angela, in excess of terror, pressed her cold lips to Ramsay's, the latter heard his superior seize the bell-pull that hung by the head of his cot, and ring for the sentry.

Conscious of that which, if not transgression in his eyes, would be greatly so in Captain Livingstone's, the lieutenant began to imagine that he had been discovered. Could their whisperings have been less guarded than he imagined? Perhaps the old officer might have been lying awake for some time. What would be the result? what had he better do? For the present, however, it required all his energies to prevent the timid girl that rested on his arm from going into hysterics: and if not found out already, he knew that escape would then be utterly impossible.

In the midst, however, of these torturing apprehensions, the sentry entered the cabin. For a minute or two Ramsay's heart seemed to still its pulse, give two or three successive throbs, and cease again.

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"Did you ring for me, sir?" inquired the marine. Yes," replied Captain Livingstone. "Is my son come on board yet?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then why, you scoundrel, was I not called?"

"I can't say, sir; Lieutenant Livingstone had been on board nearly half an hour when I relieved guard. I had no orders to

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"Right, right, I left none. How many bells is it?"

"Wants about ten minutes to four bells in the middle watch, sir."

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Yes, sir."

The marine here shut the cabin-door, ran upon deck, and having delivered his message to the officer of the watch, followed the latter down to the cabin of the father. James, at what hour did you come off from the shore?" demanded Captain Livingstone.

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"Twenty minutes to twelve, sir."

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Why did not you come in and tell me the success of your arrangements? I suppose every-thing is right?"

"O yes! everything is right, sir; and therefore, as I could not find that you had left orders to be called, I did not like to wake you."

"Oh! And how have you settled it, then?"

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Why, sir, directly he lands from the court-martial, after being broken and dismissed the service, I learn that we have power to impress him before the mast. The admiral had at first some scruples as to permitting the press-gang to be used, till I stated to him what you told me, and he then exacted a promise that we were not to attempt to take him till he had fairly landed."

"Ah, the old fool! he's always for marring any scheme that is'nt as womanish as himself. However, since you've promised, let it be so-and let me once get hold of him before the mast, where a cat-o'-nine tails can reach him, and if I don't cut his liver out, may I be d-d! I suppose the prisoner's all safe below?"

"O yes, sir!"

"Ah, very well; good night, boy, and to-morrow we'll do for that scoundrel at last."

"Good night, sir," replied the son, withdrawing from the cabin; and the worthy captain, having indulged in the

amiable feelings displayed by the above dialogue, turned round and addressed himself to sleep.

His mind had been too long deadened by the possession of power, to be able to perceive that the greatest scroundrel in the case was himself; while having purposely carried on the conversation with his son in a low tone, that would not have disturbed his daughter had she been, as he imagined, asleep, he had now little conception that the very vigilence of his malice, which in the dead of night had roused him to plan premeditated revenge, had been the means of putting on his guard the victim he wished to entrap and destroy.

Ramsay knew how fully he was abhorred. In defiance of both father and son, he had paid his addresses to Angela, who had come out in the ship from England for a passage -he had bearded them both-had braved all their anger and persecution, and successfully, till in a quarrel with the son he had lifted his hand to strike one whom a few months' difference in seniority had made his superior.

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Luckily the blow was arrested by the surgeon, who stood by, and loved him; nor did the offence take place upon the quarter-deck. But he knew, the moment the whirlwind of his passion had subsided, that he was a ruined man; the opportunity so long sought was gained, and he prognosticated but too surely the court-martial that was now about to take place; still he had believed that there his persecution must end.

Of an open, noble, and confiding spirit himself, he had not calculated to what extent the dastardly spite of the mean, the base, the cowardly, can go; and when he heard, for he could not avoid hearing, the conversation of Captain Livingstone and his son, he was equally convinced that it could relate only to him, and was thunderstricken at the brutal and perfidious cruelty that it displayed.

As to the poor girl beside him, it seemed to have deprived her alike of sense and motion. She neither moved nor spoke, and it was only from the wild beating of her heart, and the burning tears that trickled from her face on his, that he could tell she lived.

Anne had not only heard every word that had been uttered, but, in the bright moonlight of the tropics, saw everything that passed around her, and was terrified lest the further stay of the lieutenant should lead to his discovery. With all the persuasion, therefore, in her power, she urged him to depart. Nor, indeed, could he differ from her as to the expediency of his doing so. Gently disen

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gaging Angela's arms, therefore, from around him, he placed the weeping girl on her cot, and whispering consolation that he did not feel, and promising a return that he knew not how to bring about, he imprinted a last kiss upon her lips, and in a state of agitation that made light of all corporeal danger, he re-passed into the main-chains, and thence gained the main-deck, in the same manner that he had before quitted it.

Faithful to his post, he found Macpherson waiting, and having been absent for nearly an hour, he stole back to his cabin more dejected than he left it, to reflect on the beauty and sorrows of his mistress, as well as to devise some plan of defeating the machinations of his enemies, and warding off the evils of the morrow.

Nor had Macpherson much less reason to rejoice at his safe return. The existence of both hung on one thread: the grateful soldier was responsible with his life for the safety of the prisoner, who, guarded by a sentry throughout the day, was every night consigned to the corporal of the watch, in which capacity Macpherson now sat armed in the frigate's gun-room.

Up to this time the character of the latter had been a riddle, and his history a secret and a mystery to every one in the ship. The day before the frigate sailed from England he came on board, in Plymouth Sound, and volunteered for the marines. No vacancy existed in the ship's party, and the first lieutenant offered to place him in the afterguard.

This he refused. Unwilling to press him, if it could be avoided, the weakest and most inefficient of the party was sent off to the hospital, and his berth given to Macpherson. The commandant of marines at the barracks ashore objected to this, saying that they ought to supply the place of the invalided man, and drill the recruit themselves. But to this the volunteer was as obstinately opposed as to the other arrangement.

While the first lieutenant was debating what should be done, and wondering what could be the motives of Macpherson, the captain brought on board his daughter and her lady's maid, as passengers to the station for which his ship was ordered. The frigate sailed at daybreak the next morning, on a four months' voyage to one of our distant colonies, which had been thrown into a state of uproar and confusion by the appearance on their coast of what they termed 66 THE FIYING DUTCHMAN." As several piracies had been perpetrated at the same time, and even descents made VOL. I.-C

upon the island for pillage, and persons so carried off from it, the government had ordered out Captain Livingstone's frigate to discover what was the roguery in operation. She sailed, and Macpherson seemed to have gained one step towards his strange object, whatever it might be; while the colonel of marines was left to fume at the contumacy of topsail-sheets.

But if the surprise of the officers was excited by the Scottish stranger so pertinaciously choosing the marines for his service, the wonder of the jollies and crew in general was not less called forth by the manners of the man. Gloomy, mysterious, associating with no one; harsh, proud, and evidently acting a part far beneath some former station of life; his only pleasures reading every book he could lay hands on, and smoking by himself. At every turn peeped forth knowledge which none could learn how he acquired, while every attempt to scrutinise his former actions was met by impenetrable silence.

Within a week after leaving the English Channel, he fell overboard one morning, in drawing water to wash decks; and Ramsay leaping after him-for he was unable to swim-seemed to have secured a faithful, however humble, friend for life. On this lieutenant, and the daughter of the captain, seemed to be fixed every kind of interest he took in a life, where otherwise he seemed to bear neither share nor part.

On the reducing of a corporal for neglect of duty, Macpherson received the promotion; and the first deviation from the strict fulfilment of its trust was that this night displayed towards the preserver of his life. In many ships the corporals as well as sergeants of marines are emancipated from keeping watch as sentries. The over-caution of Ramsay's enemies had left the usual course for additional security: how much of this they gained we have already seen.

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