"" How

see the old stack of chimneys rising up, and looking black in the midst of the flames." very dreadful!" cried Ruth, as the flare of the fire filled the whole room with a stronger light than that of the pale and dawning day. It even woke the infant, as it glared in his face, and he lay with his eyes wide open staring at the red light. "Oh! James," cried Ruth, returning to the window, "the people are running backwards and forwards like distracted creatures. James, I pray God that you and your wicked companions have had nothing to do with this dreadful crime; but I fear that you have all been deep in the robbery and the burning of this awful night." She did not tell him what she had heard when watching for his return at the garden gate. The few words that had there fallen upon her ear made her more than suspect, when the fire burst out, where he and his wretched gang had been that night. What happened on the afternoon of that day, confirmed her suspicions. Ruth was baking her batch of bread for the week's use, when a party of constables, and the squire's eldest son at their head, came to search the house. Ruth was at first so terrified that all strength and nerve seemed to forsake her, and she almost fell to the ground. With a strong effort of prayer and exertion, she called up her presence of mind, and went through the trial with a calmness and self-possession that astonished herself. She felt, however, that though innocent herself, the master of the house, of which

she was mistress, was deep in crime. She could not betray him, but while the secret was locked up in her heart, she felt loaded with the guilt and shame of the sin, if not with the sin itself.

Bessy came to see her that evening, and told her, with blushes of shame upon her honest face, that it was supposed that James and Watson had been concerned in the robbery and the murder which had been committed the night before, as well as in the fire which had consumed all the stacks in farmer Brown's yard: the cattle and most of the out-buildings had also been destroyed, and all the old part of the farm-house burnt to the ground." "But the murder," said Ruth, "tell me about the murder, Bessy. All the rest is bad, but the murder is worst of all." The murder was supposed to have been committed, Bessy had heard, owing to the violent resistance made by Joe Ward. "By whom?" said Ruth, scarcely able to get out the words. "By Joe Ward," repeated Bessy. "He was to have been married to Mr. Brown's orphan niece next week, and he was sleeping in the house when the robbers broke in. It seems that an attack had been made upon the premises about a week ago, and Joe Ward offered to come and sleep at the farm as a guard. "This is bad news enough, is it not?" said Bessy," and that beer-shop, Ruth,-I may say it to you, now there is nobody near to overhear us,-that beershop,-father and mother's beer-shop,-is said to

be the place where the gang have met for the last few months."

As Bessy was taking her leave of Ruth, James Carter came in. Ruth felt her heart sink within her when she saw him gay and smiling, as if nothing had happened. They were no sooner left alone than he told her she was the best wife in the world; that it was all owing to her that they had not been found out, for had the stolen goods been found on their premises, it would have been all over with him. "I thought," he said, "and so did we all, that we could not have brought the things to a better place than this; for all round the country the people are afraid to come near the house because of the murder of the Scotch pedler, years ago, and I knew that no one would follow us here of a night, just out of curiosity." The joy and confidence of James Carter did not last long. Other circumstances had come to light, of which he was not aware, and the next morning he and the rest of the gang were taken up, carried before a magistrate, and committed by him to prison to take their trial at the next assizes. The officers of justice came to the cottage to seize James, but he was found at the Fox, his mother's beer-shop, drinking with Watson and another of his bad associates.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE assizes were to be held in a few weeks after James Carter and the rest of the gang had been committed to prison; and James had been scarcely a week in jail, when his wife, leaving her little boy in the joint care of Margery and Margaret, walked to Chester to see him. She found him looking pale and wasted, and the affection and gratitude which he showed towards her, affected her deeply. He attended to all she said to him when she spoke of his sin in the eyes of God; and after assuring her solemnly that he had had no hand in the murder of Joe Ward, he entreated her to leave no means untried of getting him off. Ruth felt that she was too ignorant of law affairs, and too powerless to be of use to him, but she promised to employ counsel, and to do all in her power to help him. As she was returning home, almost overcome by the fatigue of her long journey, for she had walked more than thirty miles since day-break, she met

the village school-master of Poynscourt taking his evening walk. He found Ruth sitting upon the rocky brow of a hill, over which the path led from Poynscourt to the Chester road. She had been the best and the most intelligent girl in Mr. Hughes's school, and few persons felt more grieved for Ruth than her old school-master. He sat down beside her upon the rocks, and listened to her account of her visit to her husband in the jail, and of all that James had said to entreat her to leave no way untried to save him. Mr. Hughes told her of what she had not been before aware, that when the prisoners had been committed none of the witnesses had sworn to the person of her husband; and he bade her remember this.

James did not fail to use all the means in his own power to create an interest for himself: he not only wrote to his mother to advance some money towards employing counsel for him, but he sent this letter to Mr. Vaughan :

"Rev. Sir,

i hop you wil cum and help me to git out of this horrid plas. i no that i as given them as luvs me a dele of grif, and mi ways hav been like other yung fellers in regard of swaring and runnin wilde and sich loik, and i ave bin a bit of a pocher chance times, and otherwise bad, but we are not our own keepers, and I hav bin lik many a poor yung cratur led a stray bi bad compani, but hi ham cum to se mi folle, an menes to