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ZULMIERA, THE HALF-CARIB GIRL.
seen slowly advancing, in the direction of the harbour. As he gained the skirts of the hill, he reined up for a moment his prancing steed, and, looking towards the party, raised his plumed hat and bent forward in graceful obeisance. The dark eyes of Zulmiera sparkled with delight, and standing, as she did, behind the governor and his daughter, unseen by them, she raised her hand and waved a return, while, at the same instant, the rosiest blush sprang to the cheeks of Bridget, and crimsoned her very throat. The horseman again bent his head, and then, replacing his hat, shook the broidered reins and galloped off in the direction he had chosen for his equestrian amusement. Following with his eye the plumed stranger until he was lost in the intervening copse, the governor turned to his daughter, and fixing a steady, penetrating glance upon her, exclaimed, "Ha ! then the young malignant's designs appear to be more open than they were. But, mark me, daughter Bridget," and his eye became sterner and darker as the pupil dilated with his awakening passion, and his haughty lip curled with increased scorn—" mark me, Bridget, sooner than I'd see thee mated with one of his malignant race, mine own hand should stretch thee at my feet a breathless corpse ! —yea, as Jephtha slew his daughter, so would I slay thee !" The agitated and frightened girl threw herself upon her father's breast, and, amid tears and sobs, stammered out— " Father—dearest father ! think not so. Raphe de Merefield is naught to me ; he never spoke to me but with the most studied politeness, and, indeed, he shuns rather than seeks my presence.''—" 'Tis well, then, maiden—my suspicions are unfounded ; the wolf has not entered the sheepfold to steal the tender lamb ; but I have observed him lately wandering about these grounds, and I feared my daughter was the object. But listen !" and again his eye flashed, his lip trembled—" verily, I know that young man well—ay, better than he knows me—for his father was my neighbour and my deadliest foe !—and what was more, the foe of Cromwell ! He it was that assisted that tyrannical