ply at the
request which he had made.

"Good night, McElvina, my boy; this is the first night we pass under
this roof; may we live many happy years in it;" and old Hornblow left
the room, and ascended the stairs. McElvina had encircled Susan's waist
with his arm, and was probably about to utter some wish in unison with
that of her father, when the noise of a heavy fall sounded in their
ears.

"Good Heaven!" cried Susan, "it is my father who has fallen down
stairs."

McElvina rushed out; it was but too true. The stair-carpet had not yet
been laid down, and his foot had slipped at the uppermost step. He was
taken up senseless, and when medical advice was procured, his head and
his spine were found to be seriously injured. In a few days, during
which he never spoke, old Hornblow was no more. Thus the old man, like
the prophet of old, after all his toiling, was but permitted to see the
promised land; and thus are our days cut short at the very moment of
realising our most sanguine expectations.

Reader, let us look at home. Shall I, now thoughtlessly riding upon the
agitated billow, with but one thin plank between me and death, and yet
so busy with this futile work, be permitted to bring it to a close? The
hand which guides the flowing pen may to-morrow be stiff; the head now
teeming with its subject may be past all thought ere to-morrow's sun is
set--ay, sooner! And you, reader, who may so far have had the courage
to proceed in the volumes without throwing them away, shall you be
permitted to finish your more trifling task?--or, before its close, be
hurried from this transitory scene where fiction ends, and the spirit,
re-endowed, will be enabled to raise its eyes upon the lightning beams
of unveiled truth?

CHAPTER THIRTY.

And if you chance his shipp to borde,
This counsel I must give withall.
BALLAD OF SIR ANDREW BARTON, 1560.

Discretion
And hardy valour are the twins of honour,
And, nursed together, make a conqueror!
Divided, but a talker.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

The survey having been completed, Captain M---, in pursuance of the
orders which he had received, weighed his anchor, and proceeded to
cruise until the want of provisions and water should compel him to
return into port. For many days the look-out men at the mastheads were
disappointed in their hopes of reporting a strange sail, the chase or
capture of which would relieve the monotony of constant sky and water,
until