experienced-had ever deemed it possible to feel. This was his folly-his thoughtlessness-his deed. Thus had he repaid all of devotion, tenderness, and love, that it was possible for a woman to bestow. Now-now, she might be no more-perhaps even at that moment was expiring in some spot where, could he find her, she might still be rescued. Yet who could say where she might have wandered—or what might have befallen her? His own recent and unexpected dangers added a fearful degree of truth to this dread, and in the abandonment of his grief he could only convulsively grasp his lacerated hands, and groan aloud.

His companions witnessed his agony, but, still more ignorant how to avert it, stood sorrowfully around, in silence and surprise. At this moment an indistinct noise was heard in the distant recesses of the grove; a few of the leaves of the neighbouring forest were heard to rustle, accompanied by that peculiar brushing of the underwood in the distance, which indicates the passage or presence of some living animal.

Without thinking of or contemplating anything in the least degree unkind, or likely to wound the feelings of the agonised husband, the attention of the thoughtless seamen was at once abstracted.

Cooped up so long on board a small brig at sea, the least of the excitements of the shore became a matter of the greatest joy to them. Fully believing that the motion in the thicket was occasioned by some beast of prey, the natural impulses of the chase banished every other thought. Three or four muskets were in an instant levelled, their butts brought to the shoulders of their bearers, and fingers laid on the triggers.

Hallo, my boys! here's a shot!" was the immediate shout of all.

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Stay, my men-stay for your lives!" cried Ramsay, flinging himself before the threatening barrels,-"this is no beast of prey; this is something more than any beast I have ever seen in the island. Follow me one of youfollow me. See, here it comes. Ha! who's spaniel is this ?"

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Spaniel, sir! By Jove, so it is! I wouldn't the beast had been hurt for a week's extra pay. 'Tis the captain's pet dog, sir; she was under the stern-sheets when I left the boat. But there's something up now at any rate-Hey, Flora Flora !"

"Follow her, follow her with me, my man; she knows

you. Great God! she may have found my wife. Forward for your life, or we may already be to late."

With a short quick bark, that only ceased while the animal was endeavouring to make its way through the brushwood, the spaniel took a straight line with every mark of speed, as if it knew full well how great was the value at stake.

Every few minutes the sagacious creature made a pause, or retraced a few steps, when it found that the larger animals behind, with all their boasted reason, were unable to surmount obstacles as fast as its own small size enabled it to creep through them. Thus yard by yard it led them through paths that neither Ramsay nor any other human being had, in all probability, ever trodden before. At every step the agitated hopes of Ramsay grew stronger.

He was right in his conjecture. How indeed could he have mistaken the object that no gift of language could have more plainly declared? The spaniel suddenly halting beneath the boughs of a vast cedar, and barking vehemently as it reached its overshadowed trunk, Ramsay and his companion hurried up, and there, at its base, on the dried cones and branches, lay the senseless form of Angela just as she had fallen.

Long indeed was the suspense which Ramsay had to endure before he was blessed with the hope of her revival. By her side lay a fresh plucked branch of oranges: peeling one of these, and moistening her pale and delicate lips with the juice, and allowing the body to recline further back, that the blood, once more circulating in the head, might restore animation, with fear and trembling he awaited his doom, in the fact of her revival.

It was not until he had called frequently upon her name, with every endearing supplication that love in such alarm could suggest, that she showed any symptoms of returning life. Slowly, at length, re-opened on him those eyes, which, like Cornelia's children, were the dearest treasures life possessed. The rapture of that restoration seemed, however, a full atonement for all the horrors of the day, chequered only by the reflection that its consequences might not yet be fully revealed to him, or its evils at an end.

C

CHAPTER V.

Ah! who on gems of luxury or love

Can plate the worth they merit, save by loss?

WHETHER from exhaustion, or the delight of seeing Ramsay restored to her, Angela uttered not a word; and lifting her gently in his arms, on he bore her with the utmost care towards the cottage, forgetful, amid stronger feelings, of all he had himself undergone. Thinking it would be as well to prepare her for the sight of so many strangers, he on the road briefly related the circumstances which had restored him to some of his countrymen.

Having entered the cottage unseen from the rear, and taken the steps most likely to guard against the ills to be apprehended from her anxiety and exhaustion, he learned how correct had been his conjectures as to her course of conduct.

Alarmed by his absence, she had waited at home till her fears would allow her to do so no longer,-when she wandered out in every direction in which she conceived herself most likely to meet him; but not daring to proceed far, lest she should miss the object of her search, she constantly returned to the cottage, found it still empty, and with increasing grief set forth again, till, in utter weariness and despair, she cast herself down to die, and knew nothing more till she awoke to find Ramsay leaning over her.

We may well imagine the feelings of Angela, on hearing to what humble agency she was in all probability indebted for restoration to that life which for her possessed so many charms of unsurpassable interest, so many ties of the most tender and endearing kind. Folding the dumb and recently-acquired friend in her arms, it was scarcely possible that a being endowed with reason could have received more passionate assurances of gratitude. Smiling at this warmth, and glad to see the excitement of her mind finding relief in tears, Ramsay laid himself gently by her side, and ere long had the happiness of seeing Angela fall asleep on his arm; stealing gently away, he found the sailors, to whom he owed his life, busy laughing, joking, and amusing themselves in the best way they could. The plan on which they

had struck for this, was the scaling of a gigantic palm tree of the cocoa-nut species, which grew not far from the cottage, and towered above the surrounding forest, "like the mast of some tall admiral."

The only one of the party not engaged was the officer who had steered him ashore, and who was walking to and fro, looking anxiously towards the forest, into whose depths Ramsay had so lately plunged.

On seeing our hero reappear from a different quarter, he inquired for Angela with a degree of kindness and anxiety that gave Ramsay a very favourable opinion of his humanity. Having expressed his hopes that no serious illness would result from the alarm which his wife had so unfortunately received, Ramsay invited his rescuers to accept such refreshments as his lonely island could afford and spreading these forth in a marquée which he had formed from the Alcibiades' sails he gave the seamen such cheer as he thought would be most acceptable to them, and at length complied with the iterated request of the officer, that he would give some account of himself, and the strange scene they had witnessed.

As our hero proceeded in his story, he could not help thinking that his guest assumed somewhat more of the authoritative style of his majesty's officer than certainly was pleasant to his feelings, or necessary for the occasion. Knowing that this was a foible common to men in authority, when they met with one junior to themselves in any service to which both might happen to belong, his good temper and philosophy making allowance, refused to take offence at this want of good breeding.

His guest expressed himself greatly surprised and interested at the conclusion of our hero's narrative, and in return informed him that he was Captain Robinson, commanding the Spider brig-of-war-that he had made the island and anchored off a smooth sandy bay, not far to the northward, where, having watered, he was pulling along the shore in his gig, admiring the scenery of the island, when Ramsay's voice came to his ear, and, by inducing him to pull as rapidly as possible to the spot whence it proceeded, enabled him to save his life.

Captain Robinson then said that he had a message to send on board his brig before sunset, by his midshipman who was waiting; and that as soon as this youngster returned, he himself should go on board. On hearing this, Ramsay offered to walk down to the wreck of the Alcibiades with the captain, which he did, the seamen accom

panying them; and Captain Robinson, having walked apart with his midshipman, and given him his orders, sent his gig away, retaining only the coxswain with himself, and then going over the wreck of the frigate with our hero. It certainly did strike Ramsay as singular, and somewhat suspicious, that his new acquaintance should think it thus necessary to retain a guard for his person, as it were. Still more unaccountable in his eyes appeared the brace of pistols belted round the coxwain's body; for when the boatmen had saved him from the sharks, he saw none of them so armed.

Still it was just possible that, excited and occupied as he then was, such a circumstance might not have engaged his attention. Captain Robinson also wore a heavy serviceable sword; but Ramsay had taken off his arms, and, in the absence of any thought of violence on their part, seemed to be utterly indifferent whether his present companions were equally confiding or not.