the suppressed voices of the assailants, exclaiming: "Strike her down! Beat her brains out!" Nigel precipitated himself upon the scene of action, a cocked pistol in one hand, a lighted candle in the other, and his naked sword under his arm.

Two ruffians were on the point of overpowering the daughter of Trapbois, whose resistance had evidently been most desperate, for the floor was covered with handfuls of her hair and fragments of her clothes. One villain was about to kill her with a long clasp knife, but was shot dead by Nigel, while the other villain leaped through the window and escaped. Old Trapbois was found murdered, and his daughter in agony threw herself upon his body, and discovered that he had been choked to death. She chafed his temples, raised his head, and strove in every way to revive him, but life was extinct. Clinched in his hand was a key and the piece of gold he had received from Nigel. Dashing them to the floor, Martha cried: "Accursed be both these articles, for they are the causes of his death."

VIII. NIGEL hastily re-entered his own room to reload his pistol in the event of the return of the escaped robber, and quickly came back to the apartment where the murder had been committed. He found the unfortunate woman standing like a statue by the body of her father, whose face she had covered. She said to Nigel: "My sorrow and my moan have passed; but I will have justice; and the base villain who murdered this defenceless old man shall not cumber the earth long after him. Stranger, go at once to Hildebrod—they are awake at his house all night at their revels-he is bound by his duty, and dare not refuse me his assistance, which he knows I can reward. Why do you tarry ?"

"I am fearful of leaving you alone; the villain may return.' "True," said Martha, "and may possess himself of what most tempted him. Keep this key and this piece of gold-they are both of importance-defend your life if

assailed; and if you kill the villain, I will make you rich. I will go myself for aid." She then hastily departed, leaving Nigel alone with the two bodies who had so recently suffered violent deaths.

In a short time, Hildebrod, accompanied by a number of armed followers, entered the house, and though somewhat stupefied by the liquor which they had been drinking at their revels, they seemed appalled at the scene which met their eyes.

Martha described to Hildebrod the details of the tragedy. She said that the faces of the assassins were blackened, and their figures disguised, hence she could not recognize them. Lord Glenvarloch then told his version of the affair. Hildebrod examined the premises. He found that the villains had entered by the window, out of which the survivor had escaped, although it was secured by strong bars, which old Trapbois always himself shut at nightfall. He noted down with accuracy the state of everything in the room, and examined carefully the features of the slain robber. He was dressed like a common seaman, but his face was known to some present. A surgeon was sent for, and the bodies examined by him. Hildebrod called Martha aside and asked her if she suspected any one. Upon her answering in the negative, the duke told her that he suspected Captain Peppercull, who wore a red sash like the one left by the ruffian who had escaped. "If it is he, he is far away from here ere this, and all who would assist me in capturing him are drunk."

"I will have revenge, "exclaimed she, "and take heed that you do not trifle with me." "I tell you, mistress," he replied, "be put patient, and we will have him. I know all his haunts, and he cannot keep away from them long. And now come to my house and get something warm." Calling Nigel aside, Hilderbrod congratulated him upon his part in the tragedy, as it would enable him to secure the daughter and her fortune, without being burdened with a father-inlaw. "Take the woman while she weeps. Let me hear from

you to-morrow.

I must seal and lock up this house. Oh, I forgot; here is a fellow from Mr. Lowestoffe who desires to speak with you."

A young man having the appearance of a waterman thereupon approached and took Nigel aside, while Duke Hilderbrod was fastening the windows and doors of the apartments. He told Nigel that Lowestoffe prayed him to consult his own safety by instantly leaving Whitefriars, as a warrant had been issued for his arrest, and would be put in force to-morrow by the assistance of a party of musketeers whom the Alsatians would not dare to resist. The messenger stated to Nigel that his boat would be at the wharf at the Temple Stairs at five o'clock this morning to enable him to give the bloodhounds the slip. The king, with the prince and the duke, was at Greenwich. "I will be ready to go at five, if you will help me with my baggage," said Nigel. Hildebrod, on departing, said to Nigel: "Mind your bargain, or I will cut your bowstring before you can draw it."

Nigel then returned to the kitchen, in which the unhappy woman still remained, her hands clenched, her eyes fixed and her limbs extended, as if she were in a trance. He told her that he was about to leave Whitefriars, and asked if he could be of any further service to her. "I will go with you," she exclaimed. "I will persuade father to leave this murdering den." Then she seemed suddenly to remember what had occurred, and burst into a dreadful fit of sobs, moans and lamentations, which terminated in hysterics.

"Do not leave me," she exclaimed, "and call no one. I have never been in this way before, and would not now but that he loved me, if he loved nothing else that was human. To die so, and by such hands!" Upon becoming somewhat more composed, she said: "Nature has power over us frail beings. Over you I have some right, for without you I would not have survived this awful night. You have saved my life, and you are bound to assist in

You are going hence-carry

making it endurable to me. me with you. By my own efforts I shall never escape from this wilderness of guilt and misery."

"Alas, what can I do for you?" replied Nigel. "My own way probably leads to a dungeon; I might take you from here to the house of one of your friends." "I have no friends," she exclaimed. "They have long since discarded us. A spectre arising from the dead would be more welcome than I at the doors of such friends. They withdrew their friendship from him who lies yonder. I have no friend. But I have that which will purchase many-and also will buy avengers. It is well thought of. I will not leave it to ruffians. Stranger, return to yonder room. Pass to his sleeping apartment; push the bedstead aside; beneath each of the posts is a brass plate, as if to support the weight. Press the corner of the left plate nearest the wall, and it will spring up and disclose a keyhole which this key will open. You will then lift a concealed trap-door, and in a cavity of the floor you will discover a small chest. Bring it hither; it shall accompany our journey, and its contents will purchase us a place of refuge. The secret passage is open, and you can take that route. If you are afraid, I will go with you; you cannot know the trick of the spring, and the chest will be too heavy for you.

She then led the way rapidly to the fatal sleeping apartment. On reaching the bed, on which the bedclothes were thrown aside in confusion, she sank beside it, clasped her hands, and prayed to Heaven for support in her affliction, and for vengeance on the villain who had made her fatherless. She also prayed for the soul of the sufferer, and invoked pardon for his sins. The small chest, when reached, proved to be very heavy. Between them the box was carried into Lord Glenvarloch's sleeping apartment. "It must pass," said Martha, "as part of your baggage. I will be in readiness as soon as the waterman calls.”

Glenvarloch covered the chest with a portion of the curtain of his room, wrapping it with a cord, the better to dis

guise its appearance.

He dressed his own person in a suit more becoming his quality, and then, exhausted with the events of the night, he threw himself on the bed to await the summons of the boatman.

IX. AT dawn the waterman and a rough companion knocked at Nigel's door. The latter, on attempting to lift the trunk containing the miser's treasure, pitched it down again in an instant, declaring with a great oath that he could as readily carry St. Paul's on his back. Nigel, who possessed great strength, attached a rope around the chest, fastened it to his shoulders, and, aided by the waterman, carried it to the wharf.

Objection was then made by the boatmen to taking the woman in their small boat, on the ground that they had no orders to receive her, and her additional weight might sink the skiff. By a promise on Nigel's part to pay double fare this objection was removed. The contrast between the extreme homeliness of Martha's features and the handsome figure and good looks of young Nigel provoked boisterous sallies from the occupants of small boats which they passed.

Meanwhile, Glenvarloch asked his desolate companion if she had thought of any place where she could remain in safety with her property. Martha confessed that her father's character had left her no friends; and that from the time he had betaken himself to Whitefriars she had lived a life of total seclusion. What she now wished was to obtain the shelter of a decent lodging and the countenance of honest people, however low in life, until she could obtain legal advice as to the mode of obtaining justice on her father's murderer. She charged the guilt to Colepepper, commonly called Peppercull, who was as capable of any act of treacherous cruelty as he was cowardly where actual manhood was required. She could form no plan of action for herself. So Lord Glenvarloch mentioned Christie, the ship chandler, and advised her to go to that worthy couple, who would either lodge her themselves or secure her a lodging else