up from below, and never a word he spake, as the sang says, but laid his hand on Paul's flag. I saw the bit bunting with the stripes and stars descending, and I heard the shout of the English. Weel, my hand was on a pistol,-so was Paul's,we fired together, and down Lucas dropt. But here lies the difficulty; no that he was innocent, deil a ane that saw him, and there were mony, doubts that he was a traitor or coward, or baith ;-ye see, I never miss my aim,-Paul as little misses his, and as ae bullet only passed through the body, the honour of shooting him remains a matter of uncertainty; and I think it might be safely conceded to me, since Paul has honour enough and to spare."

"This is a wily Scot," said the American to a member beside him," and I'll warrant him a good warrior with a cutlass and a boarding-pike. Lucas was a shallow ruffling fellow, and his death matters as little as a dull flint snapt on wet powder. But I make this din about him that we may keep foreigners at home. These cunning Scots wind themselves like serpents into every situation; and we must keep up this catching cry of the birthright of citizens, and the mysterious fate of Lucas, that we may put these intruders down."-" Thou hast spoken but the truth," replied Elias; " I shall join thee gladly in it,—and Elisha, and Abner, and Growingrace, and Abednego, will unite with us in maintaining the glory

of the pure American blood. At present Washington and his warriors are too strong for us. But when George is with his army and Paul's foot on shipboard, we will agitate the matter anew.' Their conversation wandered willingly away into the debateable land of liberty and slavery ;—they disputed, dissented, and dispersed.

CHAPTER IX.

Did that God

Form thee for peace when slaughter is abroad,

When her brooks run with blood, and rape and murder
Stalk through her flaming towns ?

SOUTHEY.

THE spirit of adventure seems as natural to the sons of Caledonia as flight is to a bird. In every land they strike root, and flourish like the native offspring of the soil. But the spirit of an Englishman droops and pines in foreign lands; he seems created for his island; he leaves it with sorrow and returns to it in joy. England, that populous hive, cannot shed off her swarms,-her numbers oppress her, she is half-devoured with her own teeth, and she welcomes war as a kind friend who carries off, like a waste-pipe, the foaming and overboiling natures which she produces. With a Scotchman for my hero, I have the wide world for a stage to display him on; but I am the slave of truth, and wish not to write fiction, but history.

Look on yon armed ship; her sails are filled

by a stiff breeze, and she goes snoring gladsomely through the foaming element with all her mariners on board. With her my story goes; and, though her canvass swells to the wind of a distant clime, and her anchor is about to be dropt in a remote bay, she bears the hero of my history. That sea is the Liman,-those are the Turkish towers of Oczakow; and the flag under which Paul Jones draws his sword bears no longer the stripes and stars of America, but the black eagle of all the Russias. What change of fortune and sentiment can have turned the lover of liberty and the warrior for human freedom into a servant of the Russian ? What can have induced him to forsake the banner of independence, and fight in aid of a barbarous despotism? Alas! a restless, a vehement, an ambitious man is seldom consistent. His chief desire is fame,-his love is to fill the world's eye and ear, and he is seldom anxious about the means if the end can be obtained,

But let me do Paul justice. France pleased him with fine promises; he ate baked meats and drank spiced wine with the princes and princesses of the land, and was dismissed with low bows and looks of cold civility. America profited by his valour; she owed her naval power to his skillher maritime laurels were all of his winning; but she was too poor in purse, or in spirit, to reward her benefactor. She threw suspicion on his integrity, that she might put the pension which he

merited in her pocket. The protection of Franklin was indeed effectual while he lived,-but Washington, and the generous Jefferson, sought in vain to find him a place amongst the worthies who planned and perfected American freedom.

The curse which those men deserve and find who fight against their country fell upon Paul. Paul. While the war raged, and hot blood was on men's brows, he was called a patriot, because he was brave, and a hero, for he was ever victorious; but peace brought soberer thoughts and more scrupulous judgments. He was looked suspiciously on by a people jealous of all foreign talent; and it was profitable to the government to slight a meritorious servant, since the post which he deserved could secure the affection of a man American born. The Americans, too, of Scottish extraction entertained scruples respecting the propriety of Paul's hostility to his native country; they tried him by their own hearts, and condemned him as an undutiful child. When the war closed he was thrown carelessly aside, like one of the weapons which helped to achieve liberty, to be consumed by neglect and rust.

Paul hoped, by a change of scene, to find men of a milder or less scrupulous nature. His haughty temper was soured by disappointment; his fiery impetuosity was not at all cooled by his intercourse with the world; and he found that a surly republican and a smooth courtier are the same