"Is there no one else in the house?" again

inquired Jocelyn.

“Not a soul, but yourself," answered the maid, "but we have sent for a nurse, and expect one this morning:" at which words she closed the door, and the conversation ceased.

However distressing it might be to leave the landlady and her maid in this piteous plight, he knew that any attendance or assistance that he might proffer, would only endanger himself, without availing the sufferers; such offices, besides, would come with much more propriety from the expected nurse; and this rapid increase of the danger only confirmed him in his resolution. of flying from it. Towards noon he heard the physician arrive, and go up-stairs, followed, not long after, by the nurse, who took her station in the landlady's room; but Jocelyn forbore from all inquiries, not expecting to receive any consolatory tidings, and anxious to avoid all communication with parties coming from an infected chamber. He had examined one of the windows,

from which he calculated upon being able to let himself down without difficulty; but to guard against every possibility of mischance or disappointment, he provided himself with a stout rope, long enough to serve his purpose, even should he be compelled to try one of the back windows, which were considerably higher.

Evening seemed to be unusually long in arriving, but it at length approached; and as he sate in his chair, he watched the gathering gloom with the satisfaction of one who is about to escape from a hateful imprisonment, that was to be quickly terminated by a death, at which the soul recoils. At last it appeared dark enough to ensure his escape without detection; and he was about to spring from his seat, and hasten to the window, when he was seized with a sudden vertigo, accompanied with an inexpressible nausea and sickness, and fell backwards in his chair. After a few moments it seemed, in some degree, to pass away, and he again attempted to rise, but he felt such a sudden prostration of strength,

that he found himself unable to stand without support, and utterly inadequate to the task of even walking across the room so that he again sunk down in his chair, the agony of his disappointment being aggravated by the dreadful conviction that he was smitten by the plague.

His voice still remained to him, and hearing some one passing down the stairs, he called for help. It proved to be the nurse, a forbiddinglooking hag, who shook her head when she saw him, told him the only thing he could do was to betake himself to his bed, which she assisted him in reaching, complained that she should have enough to attend to, since the second maid was ill as well as the mistress, and she was now likely to have the lodger upon her hands; and adding that she would send the doctor to him when he called next morning; she bade him keep himself quiet in his bed, and not ring the bell; and immediately quitted the apartment.

Nothing but absolute helplessness could have compelled him to obey this last injunction, for

such was his combined horror of the disease, and of the villanous physiognomy of the beldame who was to have the nursing of him, that he would have thrown himself from the topmost window of the house, rather than remain in it, had his will been seconded by his ability. But he continued powerless as a child, his body suffering from fever, giddiness, and intense head-ach, while his mind was a prey to forebodings that soon sank his spirit into the deepest despondency. Lying upon his bed in this forlorn plight, he heard, as night approached, the rumbling of the revolting cart, the tolling of the bell, and the doleful cry of "Bring out your dead!" It stopped at the door of the house; one of the buriers helped the nurse to carry down the dead body of the maid; he heard it thrown in, the bell again began ringing, and the vehicle was driven on, though the horrid sounds seemed to be still vibrating in his ears, long after the cart had quitted the street, and was beyond his hearing.

After broken and uneasy slumbers, he awoke the next morning feverish and unrefreshed, mortified at the continued debility that rendered flight impossible, and most anxious to see the physician, that he might know the exact nature of his complaint, and what fate he was to expect. Long and eagerly did he listen for the sound of his footsteps, and his heart beat rapidly as he heard him at length ascending the stairs. After having first visited the landlady, he entered Jocelyn's apartment, and standing at some distance from the bed, with a smelling-bottle at his nose, he inquired the symptoms of the complaint, and desired to see the patient's breast. This he had no sooner beheld, than, recoiling several steps, he exclaimed, "There are the blue plague-spots! Lord have mercy upon us! you are a dead man! I will send the nurse to you:" at which words he hurried out of the chamber.

Our hero, as we have before taken occasion to remark, was constitutionally courageous; his