upon encountering the firm calm glance of eyes which had met his before, at a season he greatly disliked to recall. It cost him an effort to acknowledge the cold salutation of the chap lain, but when this was over, he resumed his usually courteous manners; pressing upon Mr. Moran offers of hospitality, and of procuring for him, through his interest with Ministers, a better appointment in our recently established penal settlements than that he had lost through the shipwreck, which Sir James considered to be inadequate to his merits. Their views and opinions, however, were so entirely different, that it ap peared, even from the few sentences exchanged between them, as if what to the one seemed gain would be to the other loss.

The pious self-denying man, whose best years had been spent in missionary labours, could conceive no object more important than the task to which he was devoted. Even the brief interval, during which he waited for an answer to the statement he had transmitted to the proper quarter in behalf of his companions in misfortune and himself, was not wasted. The rude quarry. men of the coast admitted him, under promise of secrecy, to their haunts, to visit one of their comrades who had been mortally wounded in the recent fray, and many hitherto reprobate sinners, among the wild population of the district, had cause to bless the chance that threw this earnest preacher in their way.

His presence was very necessary at Latimers, and his pious exhortations and warm but healing charity assisted to compose Lady Emily's sorrow more than the sympathy of her friends. She had resolved upon leaving for ever the scene of the late tragedy, and could not bear that even the inanimate bodies of her husband and son should rest in this unfriendly soil, where she felt convinced that she could never, at any time to which her own life might be prolonged, endure to look upon their graves; and the first wish she expressed was to bear their beloved remains away with her.

Preparations for this melancholy purpose were immediately

set on foot by her brothers; Captain Chesterfield being so wrapt up in the pursuit of traces which he believed himself to have discovered respecting the author of the crime all alike lamented, that he left to others duties not less sacred, but more capable, as he considered, of being performed by deputy.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE SEARCH-WARRANT.

"Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And he that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy :-how would you be
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are?"

Measure for Measure.

SIR JAMES LOCKWOOD did not keep his daughter in suspense, when, on his return to the Castle, he found Beatrice waiting with anxiety for intelligence on the subject which most occupied his thoughts. He no longer sought to persuade her that Admiral Chesterfield's death, like that of his son, was the effect of a dire accident, the result of popular excitement. Neither did he pause to inquire from what channel she had derived the knowledge of which he immediately perceived that she was in possession. The time allowed him for deliberation was indeed so short that it was a relief to pass on at once to the important matters on which he desired to consult her.

Beatrice listened in silence to her father's brief explanation of the steps he and Captain Chesterfield had taken for the detection of the criminal. She saw, from the first words he uttered, that he wished her to understand the charge had been brought home. Suspicion had, from the beginning, he told her, alighted on the revengeful old man who dwelt at the Friary, Admiral Chesterfield's determined enemy. Many features of the case had become manifest at the inquest, which testified to his having always entertained ill-will against his

neighbour. More than twenty times he had been heard to threaten his life; and almost the last action of the aged officer had been one calculated to irritate Andrew Rayner's inflammable passions.

Sir James paused for an instant, as if to give his daughter time to reflect; he then went on rapidly: "The house to which you were carried after the shipwreck-in which, whether wisely or unwisely, I will not say-it was your pleasure to abide till my summons brought you to Latimers, I entered today for the first time. I need scarcely tell you, Beatrice, it was with strangely mingled feelings that I crossed its threshold, and saw the rooms you had lately occupied-now quite abandoned-being searched for proofs of a crime I shudder to contemplate. Though the dwelling was filled with tokens that its owner had led a lawless life-almost every part of the furniture appearing to be the spoil of plundered ships--it was not until we reached this portion of the edifice, that any proof of the guilt we were seeking to detect came to light. The west wing of the Friary contained apartments fitted up, as you know, with articles of property belonging to Stephen Rayner; neither is it necessary to remind you of the early career of the man, who, in the opinion of Captain Chesterfield and myself, is the real, though it may be, the unintentional murderer of the Admiral."

Beatrice, while her father spoke, manifested little emotion: "I am quite aware," she said, "of the animosity you and Edward Chesterfield have always entertained against this man, -the carver of his own destiny-freeing himself but now from the encumbrances an unjust judgment once laid upon him. All this I know only too well. The place, as you describe it, rises before me now, with its simple furniture,-the seaman's charts hanging on the wall,-the wide stretch of sea and sky before its windows,-I have fancied that the waves rocked me, as I sat at the casement looking over the bay. What besides some books of devotion, and the records of a seafaring life, have you discovered? I am certain there were no spoils from

wrecked ships, not even the coral, sandal wood, and ebony, he might have brought home from his voyages, in Rayner's habitation. Marks of honourable poverty,-of a laborious life,-there might indeed be; but aught likely to brand him as the slayer of an old and feeble man,-one who had lately honoured him with a great trust, which he was strenuously fulfilling; this will I never credit !"

Sir James drew nearer to his daughter. In his manner, kind but firm, there were traces of the deepest sympathy. "Listen to me, Beatrice," he said. "Not with divided, incredulous attention; but bend the whole powers of your mind to follow the words it is my painful duty to utter. All that you have said I admit. The infamous old wrecker's animosity against Admiral Chesterfield, his inveterate habits of insubordination and defiance of the laws, do not apply to his son, with whom he ever lived at variance. All the circumstantial evidence adduced at the inquest, and tending to affix deliberate guilt to the charge of the elder Rayner, was, even so far as regards him, to my ear inconclusive. But in this room,-bare and poor as you describe it,-one memorable discovery was made in my presence. The companion pistol to the one I myself picked up on the beach, which undoubtedly fell from the grasp of Admiral Chesterfield's murderer, was found in the bureau containing Stephen Rayner's books and journals kept during his voyages. More decisive evidence could hardly be obtained, since the wound inflicted was not from a musket shot; and the ball extracted corresponds exactly with the bore of these weapons, which are too curiously marked and moulded not to attract notice. The contents of the bureau were, otherwise, quite insignificant.

Beatrice remembered, as her father spoke, the time when her own hand had placed in the seaman's cabinet the pistols she had taken from him. Sir James went on, with a slight change of manner, not waiting for an answer. "At that moment, Beatrice,-one of the most painful through which, during a trying life, I have passed-when my old friend fell

dead by my side, I saw, by the gleam of the lightning, the figure of his assassin. Though his person was disguised, I am certain that it was no drunken dotard like old Andrew, but a tall, vigorous man, who fired after taking a cool steady aim. Thus far I am confident, but I have mentioned to no one the latent suspicion which has now been so strongly confirmed. From the first I have believed that Admiral Chesterfield was not this man's destined victim; and if I am doubly determined to punish the foul deed as it deserves, it is from the conviction that my friend met the doom intended for me. Rayner is the only person living whom I can believe to be sufficiently my enemy to attempt to take away my life. He has many motives to arm his hand against me. Anxiety to shield your reputation, -not less great now than formerly,—has led me to thwart his ambitious views. Never, in my lifetime, shall his frantic pretensions be admitted. This he may know or guess, and that I stand as an impassable barrier in his way."

Beatrice's emotion, while her father spoke, had been excessive. The suggestion, made for the first time, of the danger he had incurred, agitated her greatly; but she was more than ever incredulous respecting the author, as he alleged, of the fearful and mysterious crime he had witnessed.

"My father," she said, "whether your impression as to this wretch's object be true or false, I know not;-but this I can prove. At the time when the glare of the lightning showed you the murderer's figure, Rayner was not upon the beach. This I say, and will, if necessary, vouch upon my solemn oath, for, at that dark, stormy hour, I was with him in his dwelling, beside his hearth, in the Quarries."

Sir James Lockwood's composure vanished. A very unusual expression of unrestrainable rage crossed his countenance. "Beatrice!" he exclaimed, angrily, "do not trifle with me. These are words which might ruin you, if they fell on other ears than mine. Hitherto, I have overlooked, or veiled in plausible disguises, your fearful imprudence in living in the house of Rayner's father; but I may not always be at hand to