soon forget you. As for this cheese-making snob, I have all the mind in the world to shake him out of his shoes."

Here I put my hand on Wigsby's breast, to show how easily I could carry my threat into execution; but he grappled with me in turn, and no longer master of myself, I shook him till his red wig and green spectacles fell off, and Adolphe Berton stood before me, while Harriet's shrieks brought in her mother and sister. The latter, exclaiming, "All is lost and ruined!" fainted in the arms of her lover.

For my part, I felt as if the crash of thunder that was pealing outside had fallen upon my devoted head; and I stood amidst the ruin I had caused, in mute astonishment. At length, Jane, having recovered from her swoon, threw herself at my feet, and implored my pity for her hapless lover and her still more unhappy self. Her mother knelt by her side; and finally Harriet, sinking on her knees, took my hand, and bedewed it with her eloquent tears.

I could hold out no longer: I grasped the hand of the young Frenchman, who had hitherto stood aloof in proud defiance, and said:

"Berton, my duty forbids me to assist you to escape, but I never, never will betray you."

"Generous enemy!" cried Berton, warmly pressing my hands in his, "I thought you had a noble heart. I now only hope that fortune may one day put it in my power to requite you for this, and I swear to Heaven that I will not let the opportunity slip."

Fortune did put in his power at a subsequent period in the Peninsula, and he nobly redeemed his pledge.

We all sat down now, to calm our agitated spirits, and wait the arrival of the mail, which was to bear Adolphe to London, where he hoped to conceal himself till an opportunity offered for returning to the continent. Meanwhile I was let into the secret of his escape.

When his fellow-prisoners were locked up for the night, he had contrived to evade the vigilance of the turnkey, who, as it very often happened, was somewhat fuddled; and he remained outside in the quadrangle, concealing himself, and awaiting a favourable moment to proceed. Another piece of good fortune was the sudden tempest that come on; for amidst the hurly-burly of the elements, he sawed through one of the palings without being heard by any of the sentries. He was now in the main central avenue of the prison, but still he had many barriers, gateways, and lines of sentinels to pass. Being furnished, however, through my unconscious means, with the countersign, he boldly proceeded, and passed all impediments without exciting the least suspicion. He then hurried down to the house of his mistress, which he entered in the disguise of her cousin, in order to baffle the surmises of all who might see him; and so well had he assumed the semblance of that monster, that the servant-girl herself was imposed upon : hence her confusion, and the squeak she gave on seeing me; expecting a disturbance, of course, when I should surprise Miss Harriet with her country beau.

The mail at length arrived; Berton departed for London, and I bade adieu to my sweet mistress, who said to me archly, as she pressed my hand:

"I hope you are now effectually cured of the 'green-eyed monster ?3

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.

WAKING happiness does not always produce pleasant dreams, otherwise mine that night would have been redolent of bliss; for I was conscious I had done a generous action, by which two deserving individuals were saved from misery, and I had a firm conviction in the attachment of my mistress. Still, however, the spirit, as if prescient of evil, struggled under its mystic conjunction with matter, and the result was nightmare, and all the hag's attendant horrors.

In the morning, I was roused from a deep slumber by the voice of Richardson, who rushing into my room, cried out in joyous accents:Well, Percy, my boy, you're in for a row at last, when you least expect it."

Good heavens!" I exclaimed, starting out of my bed, “what is the matter?”

Don't be frightened," he replied, laughing at my agitation. "It's only a small matter of fighting, which I know won't come amiss to you."

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"Oh! if that be all," I said, wonderfully relieved; for at first it struck me that Berton had been retaken, and a discovery made of my connivance at his escape.

The Lancashire weavers," resumed my friend, "are in open rebellion, burning power-looms, factories, and Cotton-Lords' palaces; and we are off, at a forced march, for the scene of action."

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Oh, Lord!" I exclaimed, sitting down disconsolately on my bed side, "what on earth am I to do?"

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What's the matter?" demanded Richardson.

My poor Harriet!" I exclaimed with a sigh.

Nonsense, man!" said my friend. "You take the distemper like a pointer pup,-pardon the simile; but 'twill go off after three days' march. Moreover, between you and me, you are not yet fit for marriage."

"You think then," I said slyly, "that I want a little more schooling at billiards."

"Well," he replied, "you may make a better hazard than matrimony just now; and, depend upon it, your church canons are by no means so pleasant as those of the Board of Green Cloth. But, come, dress and take your breakfast: your toast would have been all burnt to a cinder, if I hadn't ate it myself."

I got up with a heavy heart, dressed, breakfasted, and walked over

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to the orderly-room, where the adjutant was dictating to a dozen clerks and orderly-sergeants; and there I learned that we were to march at five o'clock the following morning for Rochdale in Lancashire. All the guards were being relieved, baggage waggons loading, mess-plate packing, orderlies running in all directions, and the quarter-master drawing sixty rounds of ammunition per man from the garrison magazine; it was, in short, the first outbreak of what has since been termed "the Luddite War."

There was now no time to be lost; so giving Tom King the necessary instructions to prepare for the road, I walked down to Stilton; ruminating all the way on the best method of communicating this sad intelligence to Harriet, and thinking how I, who so much wanted consolation myself, could impart any to her.

I found Mrs. Sibley and her daughters sitting at work, and all were very grateful to me for my conduct the night before. The two girls were sadly shocked, however, when I told them the news, especially Harriet, whose fine eyes kept filling with tears, till, at length, she was compelled to retire. Her mother, I fancied, bore the matter with great philosophy. Perhaps, with the calculating coolness of age and experience, she thought Wigsby, with his wealthy establishment, would be a more eligible match than Ensign Blake, with his shifting inheritance of barrack-yard, and his personal chattels of camp furniture. She was right, I have now no doubt; but, at that time, I regarded her in the light of a cruel and remorseless stepmother.

I shall not trouble the reader with all the tender misery of leavetaking, for love scenes are only interesting to the parties concerned. Suffice it to say, that Harriet and I vowed interminable affection, exchanged keepsakes, and promised to write to each other, at least, twice a week. We then kissed and parted; but such were the everspringing changes in my "strange, eventful history," that I have never seen her since. Time, the great soother of all human calamities, which has left nothing more in my seared heart than a tender recollection of my early love, has, I trust, been equally bountiful to poor Harriet; and if she still live, the happy mother of a host of young cheese-makers, perhaps her eye, as it wanders o'er my humble page, may yet drop a tear on this last sad tribute to her worth.

But, hurrah! the road is before us; the battle of life, the field of destiny invite us on; and the misty future, like Indra's heaven in the Hindoo mythology, spreads its banquets of delusions to our longing eyes. We commenced our march at daylight on the following morning; but before I quitted Norman Cross, I was gratified to learn that Berton had not left a single trace of his flight, and that he had every prospect of getting clear off to the continent.

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My first march from Chelmsford was mere child's play, compared to the one I was now engaged in forty miles a day, and this continuously for six days, tried our stamina very severely; but the weather was fine, and waggons were pressed every now and then to carry the men's knapsacks and give an occasional lift to the weary and foot-sore. At length we reached the lofty and rugged eminence

of Blackstone Edge, where we piled our arms and halted for half-anhour looking down upon one of those broad and verdant valleys of the manufacturing district, which would be eminently beautiful, if the gawky factories and smoky chimneys did not mar their picturesque outlines. As we again got under arms, and prepared to descend this lofty boundary between two such immense counties, a mad dog ran in amongst us; and while every one was endeavouring to get out of his way, as he gnashed his teeth and snapped at us with rabid fury, one of our mounted officers took a pistol from his holster and shot him; at the same time expressing a hope, that it would be the only blood we should have to shed in this domestic campaign. The omen, however, was not altogether vain.

On arriving at Rochdale, a large manufacturing town at the other extremity of the valley, the regiment was partly distributed in billets, and partly lodged in an old factory, where a miscellaneous collection of barrack furniture was supplied, for the nonce, by general contribution of the inhabitants. The officers were accommodated in the large private mansion of a great Cotton-Lord, who had quitted the country in alarm and disgust, when the disturbances had gained such a head as to threaten life and property. Here we had scarcely effected a lodgement, when we were inundated with visitors; the Entwistles, the Royds, the Walmsleys, the Vavasours, the Holts, the Smiths; in short, the heads of all the principal families in the town and neighbourhood called on us, and so overwhelmed us with civilities and invitations to dinners, balls, concerts, pic-nics, &c., that I began to fancy myself suddenly transported to my native land, in its palmiest days of prosperity and social enjoyment.

A great deal of this hospitable feeling, altogether so novel in England, must, of course, be ascribed to the disturbed state of the country, which invested the arrival of an armed force with so much real importance in the eyes of all who had anything to lose; but it would be unjust not to give the people credit for a great share of sincerity in the good feeling they professed. For my part, having been constantly received with almost parental kindness by many wealthy families, doubtless from a regard for my boyhood, for I was yet but sixteen, I shall ever entertain a grateful recollection of this my first and happiest campaign in the manufacturing district of Lancashire.

"And the Lancashire witches?" I think I hear a reader exclaim. Ah! thereby hangs a tale; and I fear it will not redound to the honour of my fidelity. But let me not anticipate, for I really did still adore my far-distant Harriet, and had already exchanged letters with her; giving, in return for her simple and natural effusions, a somewhat melo-dramatic history of my "moving accidents by flood and field" in the course of my northern peregrinations; descanting on the stubborn fortitude with which, in spite of tortured feet and muscular suffering, I had walked the whole way to set a due example to the soldiery, while the greatest veterans and hugest grenadiers had knocked up and been glad to take refuge in the waggons; how I waded through rivers and rivulets, and clambered over rocks and

mountains; how I volunteered to lead the advanced guard, and kept a sharp look-out with my Light-Bobs for lurking Luddites: in short, I fear my letter must have excited laughter instead of sympathy; for Harriet must have looked on her preux chevalier as a little of the romantic, and a great deal of the Gascon.

But the war is afoot, and I must sharpen my pen and nerve my style for the martial despatch rather than the effeminate love-letter. In one place, a steam-engine and a dozen power-looms are destroyed; in another, a factory with three hundred windows burnt to the ground; night and day we are on the alert, defending chateaux, extinguishing incendiary fires, putting mobs to the rout, apprehending Luddites, &c., &c. And then such scenes of squalid poverty and wretchedness as we had unwillingly to witness: fathers of families daily thrown out of work by the increase of steam machinery, incapable of earning food for their families by any other employment than the one to which they had been all their lives accustomed! Mothers with infants perishing at their breast, through the exhaustion of the maternal fount! Children in the agony of starvation gazing on their hapless parents with looks of mingled reproach and pity! Alas! alas! Holbein, to harrow up the soul, has painted the Dance of Death," but still more frightful is the Dance of Life! Meanwhile, unbounded hospitality reigned in the houses of the rich, and the gallant defenders of accumulated wealth were everywhere the welcome and the favoured guests. For them, the table groaned under its load of luxury; for them, beauty lavished its countless fascinations; for them, vocal and instrumental harmony filled the echoing concert-room, and the mazy dance spread its bland allurements. Billiard-rooms we had in abundance, and no markers to pay; horses we had to ride, preserves to shoot, and hounds to follow while the worthy cotton-spinners, smothering in a plethora of wealth, seemed delighted with the healthy drain of which we were the willing instruments.

On a day, "alack the day!" it should be blotted from the stainless almanac of true love, I had accepted an invitation to dinner at the princely mansion of a mill-owner on the outskirts of the town. I had been up all night with a party of Light Bobs, charging a gang of poor Luddites over moss and mountain, and had only got to bed at six o'clock in the morning, sleepy and fatigued beyond everything. I therefore did not wake till five o'clock in the afternoon; and as the dinner-hour was somewhat early, I had to hurry my preparations. Three or four others were also going, and we walked up together; but finding the time was rapidly decreasing, we set to and had a run for it. I distanced my companions; but, not satisfied with this, when I arrived at the entrance to the domain, I made a spring, and jumping over a very handsome gate of ornamental iron-work, about five feet high, found myself on the other side in the presence of a bevy of ladies, who had been screened from view by the boughs and foliage of a splendid acacia.

A general scream evinced the terror of these flushed birds of paradise; for they looked upon my saltatory entrance as the advent