skill and good offices to which he stood indebted for his recovery, as well as for the Father's devotedness in sheltering him at such imminent risk to himself; requesting, as a final favour, that he might be furnished with the materials for writing a letter, which was of the utmost importance, and could not be delayed. These being readily supplied, he endited a note, and having carefully enveloped and sealed it, delivered it to his companion, saying, "You will oblige me, good Father, beyond all expression, by delivering this with your own hands, a favour which I would not presume to ask unless its contents were of the deepest importance. Nor will it occupy you long, being addressed, as you may perceive, to Sir Halse well Tynte, a loyal magistrate, whose residence is within an easy walk. You need not await the return of Mr. Shelton, for this is an affair that will not brook delay; nay, prythee do not hesitate, but, if you wish to make an inestimable addition to the obligations you have already conferred, you will become the instant bearer of this letter. I

pledge my soul that it contains nothing to implicate you, but rather that which may prove of vital consequence to your common safety."

"I believe it, my son, I believe it; after what has passed, it is impossible that you could wish to injure us, and I will therefore comply with your request."

"Heaven bless you, good Father, for your kindness! Speed instantly, I implore you, and quit not his house till you have seen Sir Halsewell."

Father Bartholomew left the room, and Forester remained for some time in a state of high but glad excitement, watching from the window the progress of his messenger along the road, till the trees hid him from sight, when he returned to the sofa, and indulged complacently in the delicious hope, that whatever might happen to himself, the friends who had so generously protected him would now be skreened from all danger. His thoughts were reverting to Agatha, when she unexpectedly entered the apartment, and he started up, exclaiming with anima

ted looks, "Oh, Miss Shelton! how delighted am I to see you! Fortune is propitious to me this morning; I was just longing for your presence, and, lo! my aspirations are no sooner formed than gratified. If, in addition to your other manifold acts of kindness, you can favour me with your attention for a few minutes, it will deeply gratify me, for I have a communication to make, which it much imports me that you should hear, and my time is getting short, shorter perhaps than you imagine."

Surprised into some little fluttering of the heart at this exordium, and scarcely knowing what reply to make to it, Agatha drew a chair, bowed with one of her usual smiles of placid suavity, and seated herself in silence.

"I have this morning taken a step," resumed Forester, "that relieves me from much of the restraint and compulsory concealment which have hitherto sealed my lips. Nothing that I may now divulge can implicate you any farther. Thank Heaven! the generous inmates of Hales Court are safe-their loyalty cannot be im

peached, not even suspected. What may become of myself is comparatively unimportant; but I would not willingly perish with any unmerited imputations upon my character; I would not go down into the grave without at least vindicating my fair fame to Miss Shelton. You are entitled to this explanation; you and your most amiable friend preserved me, and brought me hither, under circumstances of mystery that might well have justified suspicion as to my real name and station. I might have been an adventurer, nay, a criminal-I dared not reveal who or what I was; but I am now free, and though, in the defence I am about to make, I may confess myself to be a political outlaw-if the sacred name of law can be applied to the monstrous tyranny of the present government-yet am I not without hopes that you will deem me a venial transgressor, entitled, perhaps, rather to rank as a patriotic benefactor than as a traitor to that country for which I have ever been ready to shed the last drop of my blood.Never, my dear Miss Shelton-pardon me that

inadvertent phrase-God knows you will always be most dear to me, and yet I meant not to use such liberty of speech:- Never, Miss Shelton, from the days of my youth upward, have I ceased to dwell with the whole intensity of an ardent enthusiastic heart upon the oppression and degradation of my beloved Country. That England, which Nature meant to be the glorious and the free, the queen of arts and arms, the regent of the ocean, and the paragon of the world, should become a scoff and a by-word to the nations; that she should be given up to the dominion of royal harlots and favourites until she was defiled with the moral leprosy of universal depravity and corruption; that she should be so crushed, so humbled, as to be invaded and insulted by those whom she once spurned as the weakest and most contemptible of her enemies: these, and the thousand other indignities she suffered, preyed deeply and incessantly upon my soul, depriving me of rest by night or day, until I made a solemn, irrevocable vow that I would dedicate my life, my fortune, and all the energies