served the cause of humanity, than had I appeared directly devoted to it.» He ceased, and, as Minna replied not a word, both remained silent for a little space, when Cleveland again resumed the discourse: << You are silent,» he said, « Miss Troil, and I have injured myself in your opinion by the frankness with which I have laid my character before you. I may truly say that my natural disposition has been controlled, but not altered, by the untoward circumstances in which I am placed.» “ << I am uncertain," said Minna, after a moment's consideration, «whether you had been. thus candid, had you not known I should soon see your comrades, and discover from their conversation and their manners what you would otherwise gladly have concealed.»> «You do me injustice, Minna, cruel injustice. From the instant that you knew me to be a sailor of fortune, an adventurer, a buccaneer, or, if you will have the broad word, a PIRATE, what had you to expect less than what I have told you?» « You speak too truly," said Minna-« all this I might have anticipated, and I know not how I should have expected it otherwise. But it seemed to me that a war on the cruel and superstitious Spaniards had in it something ennobling-something that refined the fierce employment to which you have just now given its true and dreaded name. I thought that the independent warriors of the Western Ocean, raised up, as it were, to punish the wrongs of so many murdered and plundered tribes, must have had something of noble elevation, like the Sons of the North, whose long galleys avenged on so many coasts the oppressions of degenerate Rome. This I thought, and this I dreamed-I grieve that I am awakened and undeceived. Yet I blame you not for the erring of my own fancy. — Farewell, we must now part."> -- « Say at least, said Cleveland, « that you do not hold me in horror for having told you the truth." « I must have time for reflection," said Minna, « time to weigh what you have said, ere I can fully understand my own feelings. Thus much, however, I can say even now, that he who pursues the wicked purpose of plunder, by means of blood and cruelty, and who must veil his remains of natural remorse under an affectation of superior profligacy, is not, and cannot be, the lover whom Minna Troil expected to find in Cleveland; and if she still love him, it must be as a penitent, and not as a hero.» So saying, she extricated herself from his grasp (for he still endeavoured to detain her), making an imperative sign to him to forbear from following her. She is gone," said - « Cleveland, looking after her, « wild and fanci I ful as she is, I was unprepared for this.-She startled not at the name of my perilous course of life, yet seems totally unprepared for the evil which must necessarily attend it; and so all the merit I have gained with my resemblance to a Norse Champion, or King of the Sea, is to be lost at once, because a gang of pirates do not prove to be a choir of saints. would that Rackam, Hawkins, and the rest, had been at the bottom of the Race of Portland -I would the Pentland Firth had swept them to hell rather than to Orkney! I will not however quit the chase of this angel for all that these fiends can do. I will-I must to Orkney before the Udaller makes his voyage thitherour meeting might alarm even his blunt understanding, although, thank Heaven, in this wild country, men know the nature of our trade only by hearsay, through our honest friends the Dutch, who take care never to speak very ill of those they make money by.-Well, if fortune would but stand my friend with this beautiful enthusiast, I would pursue her wheel no further at sea, but set myself down amongst these rocks, as happy as if they were so many groves of bananas and palmettoes.» With these and such thoughts, half rolling in his bosom, half expressed in indistinct hints and murmurs, the pirate Cleveland returned to the mansion of Burgh-Westra. CHAPTER X. There was shaking of hands, and sorrow of heart, We do not dwell upon the festivities of the day, which had nothing in them to interest the reader particularly. The table groaned under the usual plenty, which was disposed of by the guests with the usual appetite-the bowl of punch was filled and emptied with the same celerity as usual—the men quaffed, and the women laughed-Claud Halcro rhymed, punned, and praised John Dryden-the Udaller bumpered and sung chorusses—and the evening concluded, as usual in the Riggingloft, as it was Magnus Troil's pleasure to term the dancing apartment. It was then and there that Cleveland, approaching Magnus, where he sat betwixt his two daughters, intimated his intention of going to Kirkwall in a small brig, which Bryce Snaelsfoot, who had disposed of his goods with unprecedented celerity, had freighted thither, to procure a supply. Magnus heard the sudden proposal of his guest with surprise, not unmingled with displeasure, and demanded sharply of Cleveland, how long it was since he had learned to prefer Bryce Snaelsfoot's company to his own. Cleveland answered with his usual bluntness of manner, that time and tide tarried for no one, and that he had his own particular reasons for making his trip to Kirkwall sooner than the Udaller proposed to set sail—that he hoped to meet with him and his daughters at the great fair, which was now closely approaching, and might perhaps find it possible to return to Zetland along with them. While he spoke this, Brenda kept her eye as much upon her sister as it was possible to do, without exciting general observation. She remarked that Minna's pale cheek became yet paler while Cleveland spoke, and that she seemed, by compressing her lips, and slightly knitting her brows, to be in the act of repressing the effects of strong interior emotion. But she spoke not; and when Cleveland, having bidden adieu to the Udaller, approached to salute her, as was then the custom, she received his farewell without trusting herself to attempt a reply. Brenda had her own trial approaching; for |