tried to sleep among the dry sea-weed.First there was that d-d fellow there with his broken back, sprawling as he did when I hurled the rock over a-top on un-ha, ha! you would have sworn he was lying on the floor where you stand, wriggling like a crushed frog ;--and then"

"Nay, my friend, what signifies going over this nonsense?-if you are turned chicken-hearted, why the game's up, that's all-the game's up with us both."

"Chicken-hearted ?-No. I have not lived so long upon the account to start at last, neither for deyvil nor Dutchman.”

"Well, then, take another schnaps-the cold's at your heart still.-And now tell me, are any of your old crew with you ?” "Nein-all dead, hanged, drowned, and damned. Brown was the last-all dead but Gypsey Gab, and he would go off the country for a spill of money-or he'll be quiet for his own sake-or old Meg, his aunt, will keep him quiet for her's."

"Which Meg?"

"Meg Merrilies, the old devil's limb of

a gypsey witch."

"Is she still alive?"

"Yaw."

"And in this country ?"

"And in this country. She was at the Kaim of Derncleugh, at Vanbeest Brown's last wake, as they call it, the other night, with two of my people, and some of her own blasted gypsies."

"That's another breaker a-head, Captain! Will she not squeak, think ye?"

"Not she-she won't start-she swore by the salmon, if we did the kinchin no harm, she would never tell how the gauger got it. Why, man, though I gave her a wipe with my hanger in the heat of the matter, and cut her arm, and though she was so long after in trouble about it up at your borough-town there, der deyvil! old Meg was as true as steel."

Why, that's true as you say. And yet if she could be carried over to Zealand, or Hamburgh, or, or any where else, you know,-it were as well."

Hatteraick jumped upright upon his feet, and looked at Glossin' from head to heel." I don't see the goat's foot," he said," and yet he must be the very deyvil! -But Meg Merrilies is closer yet with the Kobold than you are-aye, and I had never such weather as after having drawn her blood. Nein, nein-I'll meddle with her no more-she's a witch of the fiend-a real deyvil's-kind-but that's her affair. Don-. ner and wetter! I'll neither make nor meddle-that's her work. But for the rest why, if I thought the trade would not suf fer, I would soon rid you of the younker, if you send me word when he's under embargo."

In brief and under tones the two worthy associates concerted their enterprise, and agreed at which of his haunts Hatteraick should be heard of. The stay of his lugger. on the coast was not difficult, as there were no king's vessels there at the time,

CHAPTER XIV.

You are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bids you-Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians;

Othello.

WHEN Glossin returned home, he found, among other letters and papers sent to him, one of considerable importance. It was signed by Mr Protocol, an attorney in Edinburgh, and, addressing him as the agent for Godfrey Bertram, Esq. late of Ellangowan, and his representatives, acquainted him with the sudden death of Mrs Margaret Bertram of Singleside, requesting him to inform his clients thereof, in case they should judge it proper to have any person present for their interest at opening the repositories of the deceased. Mr Glossin perceived at once that the let

ter-writer was unacquainted with the breach which had taken place between him and his late patron. The estate of the deceased lady should by rights, as he well knew, descend to Lucy Bertram; but it was a thousand to one that the caprice of the old lady might have altered its destination. After running over contingencies and probabilities in his fertile mind, to ascertain what sort of personal advantage might accrue to him from this incident, he could not perceive any mode of availing himself of it, except in so far as it might go to assist his plan of recovering, or rather creating, a character, the want of which he had already experienced, and was likely to feel yet more deeply. "I must place myself," he thought, " on strong ground, that, if anything goes wrong with Dirk Hatteraick's project, I may have prepossessions in my favour at least."-Besides, to do Glossin justice, bad as he was, he might feel some desire to compensate to Miss Bertram in a small degree, and in a case in which his

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