l seat; and the placidity of manner which
distinguished them from ordinary sufferers, spoke their usual obedience
to the Divine will.

"This day the property of Whitecraigs has changed masters!" said he.

"And who has purchased it?" inquired the mother.

"He who is now sitting before you!" replied he.

Alice turned her head to look at him; the mother sat mute with surprise;
while he rose and fastened the door.

"It is even so," he continued, as he again sat down; "David Scott, the
brother of your husband, and the uncle of Alice, has this day purchased
Whitecraigs."

A faint scream from the mother followed this announcement, and,
recovering herself, she again fixed her eyes on the stranger.

"It is true," continued he; "I am the brother of your deceased husband.
For two years after you were married to Adam, you would, doubtless, hear
him speak of me, as then engaged in a calling of which I may now be
ashamed, for I was one of the most daring smugglers on the Solway. The
29th of September, 17--, dawned upon me, yet with hands unsullied in the
blood of man; but the sun of that day set upon me as proscribed by God
and my country. My name was read on the house walls, and execration
followed my steps, as I flew from cave to cave. Yet who could have told
that that day in which my evil spirit wrought its greatest triumph over
good, was that whose evening shades closed upon a repentant soul!"

He paused, and placed his hand on his brow.

"These things are to me as an old dream," replied the widow, looking
round her, as if in search of memorials of stationary space. "My husband
never afterwards mentioned your name, save to inform me that you had
died in the West Indies; yet now I see the import of his devotion, in
the coming round of the day that shamed the honest family to whom he
belonged."

"And it was to save that shame, and to secure my safety under my assumed
name, that, after I flew to the islands of the west, I got intelligence
of my death sent to Scotland. What other than the issue of this day must
have been in the view of the great Disposer of events, when, in addition
to the grace He poured on the heart of the sinner, He invested the arm
that had been lifted against His creatures with the prosperity that
filled my coffers! But, alas! though I may have reason to trust to the
forgiveness of Heaven, that of man I may never expect."

"And punishment still awaits you?" rejoined she.

"No, no!" he cried, as he