They passed along upon the Horn. The galleys were now in motion, or getting into motion; as well as the deepening twilight permitted to be seen, the sails of some flapped lazily against the mast; those of others bellied out they were clearly going to take up a position nearer to the walls. Constantine pointed it out, and merely saying, "Does that betoken the work ?" passed on some distance in silence.

"What have we here ?" asked he, as, on arriving at the Fanar gate, sledges, chisels, and saws blended discordantly together.

"The smiths and carpenters are at work there, my liege; it was injured by a shot from the great gun this afternoon.'

The Emperor went up to the men. Here, for the first time, torches had been lighted. "A life may hang on every blow, good fellows!" said he.

"They'll hang safely enough, Sire, then," said the head smith, bluntly.

So, with a kind word here, and an exhortation to diligence there, praise for the deserving, and sympathy for all, Constantine passed on, till he came to the landingplace at which Zosimus had embarked. After a few inquiries had been made, "Your servant has not returned, my lord," said the guard to Phranza.

My servant returned ! How mean you, then ?" "He that your lordship sent to the Bucentaur,-Zosimus, my lord."

"I never sent him to the Bucentaur," replied Phranza. "Is he gone to it ?"

Nearly an hour agone, he came down and said that he had a message from your lordship to the Bucentaur ; so we helped him to a boat, and he promised to be back by the sunset gun, which he might have been. We saw him pull to the ship, and then he went on to the S. Francis, and a comrade of ours, who came along the wall not long ago, thinks that he saw him pulling on to the Turkish galleys at least, from what he says, I think that it must have been he."

"Was he by himself ?" inquired Sir Edward. "Yes, my lord."

"The boat painted green ?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Narrow built, and long ?" "The same, my lord."

"Then, depend upon it, that was the same man whom Nicephorus sunk. Some treason is hatching. I know the fellow, Lord Phranza, and should long ago have made you acquainted with some of his doings, had not weightier affairs somewhat put him from my mind."

"It looks like desertion, certainly," said the Cæsar.

"I always thought him honest," said Phranza; "but he lied most foully to-day, if he says that I sent him to the Bucentaur."

Well, the man is drowned, and there's an end," remarked Justiniani.

"I think not," replied De Rushton; "firstly, because, as our western proverb goes, he is fated to a drier death; and, in the second place, because I rather imagine that I saw him rise after the last shot and strike out; and he certainly can swim."

He can do us no harm," said Constantine. night, good fellows, and keep careful watch."

"Good

Love's Labour Lost.

WE left Zosimus at the moment that the evening gun' fired. "That is well," said he to himself; "now I am out of the way of danger, for no one will think of inquiring after me when the gates are double-locked for the night."

As he spoke, the heavy plunge of the discharged rock covered him with foam. He turned, and was near enough to the shore to distinguish those who surrounded the machine by which it had been discharged; and among them, to his horror and dismay, he beheld his master. Nothing doubting but that the whole sum of his treachery was discovered (how it could possibly be, he had neither time nor inclination to discuss,) he bent steadily to his

oars, and the boat danced over the puny waves into which the waters had been agitated by the fall of the mass of rock. Scarcely had he breathing time after the first danger, when the second missile deluged him with brine, and filled the boat so much, that he was in considerable apprehensions of sinking.

"Merciful Panaghia!" cried he, "they are determined to kill me! Only save me now, and I vow to say nothing about the business I came upon; no, indeed, I will get back as quickly as

Here there was a tremendous crash, and Zosimus was precipitated into the water. Sinking for a moment by the suction of the sinking rock, he soon recovered himself, and struck out boldly for the Turkish side. Just as he was beginning to congratulate himself on having escaped the worst, another rock narrowly avoided striking him, and a second time deluged him with water. Now he gave himself up for lost; a machine discharging missiles so continuously, he had never before seen, and how many more it might contain, he could not guess. Gradually recovering courage, as minute after minute passed away, he struck out with the more confidence, and in a quarter of an hour from the destruction of the boat, landed safe, but well-nigh exhausted, on the eastern side of the Horn.

His adventure had not been unobserved; and, as he scrambled up the shelving beach, a mounted Janissary rode down towards him.

"Your business ?" cried he, in a menacing voice.

"It is with the Lord Leontius," said Zosimus, boldly. "Conduct me to him."

"I shall take you to the guard-house," replied the Janissary, "and you may tell me your name. If he chooses to see you, he can; but you may mean mischief, for aught I know."

"My

"Well, well, do as you please," said Zosimus. name matters not; but tell him I come from the Lord Phranza's, and I warrant you he will owe you no great thanks for not taking me to him at once."

"I will run the risk of that," replied the soldier, "come you along with me." And accordingly Zosimus was conducted to the guard-house, a rude, log-built erection, not far from the water's edge, but nearer to Galata.

A regiment of Anatolian troops was quartered close to it. The soldiers were engaged in discussing the morrow's assault, or in cooking their suppers; and the camp fires began to glitter pleasantly here and there among the deepening obscurity.

The Janissary left Zosimus with his comrades, and went in search of Leontius; and they after one or two idle questions and sneers at his unfortunate plight, left him to dry himself at the nearest fire, only so far troubling themselves about him, as to keep an eye that he should not escape. Presently a dervish, tall, thin, and gaunt, approached the tents; his tall cap and loose vestments soiled with dust and sand; his beard untrimmed; his eyes glaring and bloodshot; his cheeks hollow; his feet bare he seemed rather a maniac escaped from chains, than a teacher come to instruct. The soldiers seemed to know him, and to view him with more awe than pleasure; the loud voice was hushed; the noisy quarrel was broken off; the unseemly story came to an end; and whispers might have been heard of "Peace! peace!" "Here is the dervish Solyman!" "What brings him here to-night ?" "Hush, he is going to speak!"

:

He began in a low, quiet voice; gradually it waxed louder and deeper; he worked himself up into a frenzy, he gesticulated, he raved.

"Moslems!" said he, “Allah has ordained the fall of yonder city. Its fate approaches, hour by hour, minute by minute; it has resisted Chosroes, it has laughed at the Caliphs. From all eternity has it been written that it should fall before Mahomet. Allah is great! Sons of the faithful! they that fall to-morrow shall die for Allah and the Prophet. The Prophet will intercede for them; Allah will reward them. Safely they shall pass over that dreadful bridge (and the dervish shuddered) that hangs between heaven and the seven hells, sharp as a razor, slippery as glass; that bridge whereon the tempest ever beats, to precipitate the trembling soul into the abyss beneath; that bridge whereon to stumble, is to dwell in darkness and fire for seven thousand years; that bridge which all must pass,-which none can pass so gloriously as they that fall for the faith. Allah is merciful!

For them that are destined to perish to-morrow, shall I bemoan them? Shall I not rather congratulate them ? Happy shall they be as the bird let loose from the cage; free as the wild goat on the Balkan. Even now are the houris beckoning to them; even now Tuba is stretching forth its branches of immortality for them; even now the Prophet, whose will is one with Allah's, foresees their victory and their reward. They, and they only, that fall for Islam, are admitted into the fulness of the Divine Beatitude; they only penetrate into the sixth heaven; they only taste of pleasures from which other believers are excluded as unworthy. To these joys Allah invites them that fall,-purchased by so short a pain,-enduring to eternity. For them that live, a Paradise upon earth, -for them that die, a Paradise in heaven!"

And he was proceeding in the same strain, when the Janissary who had gone to seek Leontius, returned with an expression of countenance which justified Zosimus's assertion with respect to the feelings of that nobleman, now an all-important personage in the Turkish camp; since it was clear that the city would never have been won, without the transportation of the galleys, and that transportation never devised, but by the brain of Leontius.

66

Sir," said he to Zosimus, "the Lord Leontius requests your attendance in his tent. Have the goodness to follow me." And he led him through one after another of the intersecting alleys that divided that portion of the camp, till they reached a tent of large dimensions and luxurious equipment. The Janissary entered; Zosimus followed.

My lord," said the former, "here is the Greek."

"You may withdraw, then," said Leontius, looking up from the table at which he had been engaged in writing. "Good evening, Zosimus; you wish to speak with me ?"

"I do, my lord. I have this afternoon become possessed of some information which I think your lordship would give something to know."

tell

"Tell me what it is," replied Leontius, " and I will you what it will suit me to give for it."