the slightest distress, and winning by about fourteen boats' lengths, hands down. From start to finish not for one minute had Cambridge the slightest chance; and though she sent up to town one of the finest crews in appearance that have been out of late years, in excellent condition, and by no means the worst, in point of fact, that has been seen among the Cantabs on these waters, they were outpaced from beginning to end. Since the race everybody has somehow discovered that the Oxford crew was the perfect model of what oarsmen should be in weight, size, length, and everything else. Had Cambridge been successful they would have found out the reverse. I do not believe that a stranger could have at all decided, and probably would have taken about four from each to make up as good a crew as ever bent a stretcher. Prophets, after the event, are always such very knowing cards. But when you had once seen them at work, when you watched the perfection of time of the Oxford boat, the regularity with which every blade rose and sunk with their stroke, the vigorous continuance of their work, and the wonderful finish of the whole collectively and individually, you could not but feel that it was odds against any other University crew beating them. All that Oxford had, by a critical comparison, Cambridge seemed to want-excepting the pluck and good feeling which always attends these matches, and which forms one of the happiest features of the contest. There is nothing like an excuse that has been offered for the Cambridge defeat. They were cleverly beaten on their merits. Stern truth forbids us to mince the matter: but if it be any consolation to them to know that we record their want of success with regret, for the gallant manner in which they took the defeat and acknowledged the superiority of their opponents, I can assure the Cantabs that they have the sympathy of every true sportsman in England. Better luck next time. Oxford is in form, and, if they mean winning, they must do their best. Odds on one University against the other before they come down to the ( scratch' is nonsense. The material must be equally good; and the form and fashion of it depend on the skill of the artificer. There should be a total absence of all favour in selection, and a forgetfulness of self in doing their duty by the rest of the crew. The credit of the University rests upon the shoulders of these men, and petty jealousies ought never to bias them. Get the best material, and the best workmen to put it into shape. It is said to have been one of the fastest races on record up to a certain point; but Oxford took it, to my mind, too easily to form an approximate calculation to the real time in which it could have been done. time, as given in the Times' newspaper, is 21 min. 48 secs. to the winning-post, and about half a minute in advance of the losing

boat.

The

According to custom they both paddled back to Putney, receiving on their way the heartiest congratulations of royalty, and preparing themselves for the dinner that awaited them at seven by a remarkably heavy luncheon at two. It has been conjectured, by their

performances in that line, that both crews have gone out of training

at once.

Aquatics has become a fashion, of late years, beyond all precedent, at the Universities. I endeavoured to explain that, as there are fewer hunting men than formerly, and as the system of discipline has become more strict, the water is likely to take the place of the field. It holds out a peculiar benefit in the consistency of its training, without which no man can be a first-class oar, and without which any attempt to pull in an University boat would be attended with serious consequences. It makes men depend upon one another, without, however, relaxing that individual enterprise which is the secret of real strength. I hope the Universities will stick to this match. There seems a disposition to branch off into rackets and billiards, which is all very well as a matter of amusement, but can no more be considered subjects of University competition than a small county Meeting in some village in Wales with an unpronounceable name can be regarded as a Grand National Hunt SteepleChase. There can be no doubt about its popularity after last Saturday's exhibition, either by land or water. Nothing comes near it but the cricket-match, and that is second to the match between. Eton and Harrow. It draws out for his single holiday many a musty old parson, who recalls the days of his ambitious youth at Ch. Ch., or Trin. Coll. Cam., as he sees the dark and light blue skimming over the water; when he regarded a bishoprick as within his grasp, or a prebendal stall and a fat living as a sort of compromise which he might be induced to make, but which have turned into a small incumbency with a large incumbrancy, both of which words have a more tangible connection with tax than income. The Temple sends forth from her gloomiest caverns that dusty conveyancer to enjoy the sunshine on Hammersmith Bridge, or at Mortlake, and to dream once more of dear old Cam., and the bulldogs, and Barnwell, when he hears the well-known war-cry from some infuriated horseman in light-blue, 'Well pulled, bow!-Bravo, six !-Go it, stroke! < -Now you're into 'em!' And his jolly old blood boils up, just this one twenty minutes annually; and he forgets his clerk, and his parchments, his statute of uses, and feoffment and livery, and family settlements, until he gets back to his chambers and consultations. There's the fast young curate who lays 6 to 4 in-shillings; and the City man who does it in pounds; and that pretty girl peeping over the garden wall, with the dark-blue snood, and the right colour in her bonnet and in her eyes, who does it in kisses; there are the masters from schools, looking over exercises in the moments of their leisure, for the sake of this one day's holiday, which they never miss; and there's our own reporter, a poor, unhappy little man, with a terrible female and some greedy children at home, who assures us that he was at Putney solely on business. Surely you won't deprive any of these of their great sporting holiday of the year!

17

PAUL PENDRIL.

CHAPTER III.

TEN days after the scene at the well, came at last the long-wishedfor letters from Bastia; and Pendril, looking forward to a speedy release from the ennui occasioned by his present inactive life, hurried away to the Préfecture to present his credentials and to obtain the necessary permis-de-chasse with as little delay as possible. Temple's conduct, too, filled him with anxiety and apprehension: on the previous day he had absented himself for several hours from the hotel, and had taken with him the two spaniels, Brush and Dingle, to draw the macchie or scrub-covers on the mountain side; and on this day, when the letters arrived, he was not forthcoming to accompany Pendril on his visit to the Préfet, an omission which that official was very likely to resent by refusing to grant a permis-de-chasse to a man who did not think it worth his while to make a personal application for such a favour.

Pendril's affable and straightforward manner had attracted the goodwill of the Préfet at their first interview; and when he again presented himself at the bureau, he was not only received most graciously, but was offered a letter of introduction to the military governor residing at Corte. Now, it so happened that Pendril had been strongly advised to make this little city his head-quarters; and, as it stands almost in the centre of the island and in the very heart of the mountains, a more convenient point could not have been chosen for pursuing the mouflon with success, and at the same time for securing some of those necessaries of life which even the wildest hunters cannot forego.

The Préfet's offer was of course thankfully accepted; and when the usual signes particulières had been taken down and the signature du porteur affixed to the document, it was handed to Pendril with best wishes that game might abound and that a magnificent chasse might be the result of his sojourn in the mountains. The goodnatured official also took the opportunity of warning him that this exceptional privilege would probably create some jealousy among the peasant-proprietors, and that he had better engage a trustworthy native guide to accompany him when he bivouacked in the forest. 'He should be a man,' said he, 'who not only understands the chasse and its requirements, but who has a good knowledge of the district and the character of the inhabitants among whom you hunt. If, 'when you arrive at Corte, you consult General de Leseleuc, who is a true Breton, and consequently a great chasseur, he will probably recommend a man on whom you may rely. The mountaineers,' he added, are, I regret to say, still as ferocious and still as vengeful as in the days of Pascal Paoli; if their jealousy be excited by any supposed injustice or affront, or, worse than all, by any love affair which is likely to invade the sanctity of their family circle, woe 'betide the offender: they will pursue him like a pack of hellVOL. VIII.-No. 50.

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'hounds, and be appeased by nothing less than his life's blood. That jealousy, which is but a demon in an ordinary nature, is a legion of devils when it enters the heart of a Corsican.'

It is not only true that conscience makes cowards of us all, but the ghostly monitor will arise and terrify us in behalf of our friends; and, when their fair fame is endangered, will bring a blush to our cheek or a pang to our heart in proportion as they are near and dear to us. Who is there among us who has not cowered under such apprehensions? Yea, there be many who have called on the hills to cover them in order to escape from so frightful an apparition. The stab inflicted by an indirect thrust is not the less painful on that account; nor is a trouble less felt because it befalls a friend.

The Préfet's earnest manner and words of warning bore, as Pendril believed, an ominous allusion to Temple's case, and seemed to convey more in their import than met the ear. If it had been his object to rescue Pendril and his party from an impending storm he could scarcely have used more emphatic language. So Pendril came to the conclusion, under a sense of bitter mortification, that the Préfet knew more of the matter than he did; that he must have acquired secret information respecting his friend's movements of which he was ignorant; and that, in all probability, Temple's implication already in this affair was far deeper than his best friend was aware of.

'I regret,' said the Préfet, observing the effect of his remarks on Pendril's countenance, that your compatriot is not present to sub'scribe his signature to the permis-de-chasse, without which the law 'will not suffer it to be issued. For myself, I have no choice but ' to retain the document until M. Temple thinks fit to fulfil that requirement. To-morrow morning I leave Ajaccio at break of day for Sarténe; therefore, if he means to accompany you and take part in the chasse, the sooner he attends the better; otherwise the 'maître d'hôtel will probably enjoy the benefit of his company at Ajaccio for many days to come.'

Here was a dilemma for Pendril, who, as the thought flashed across his mind, felt persuaded that Temple had purposely absented himself from the Préfecture in order to gain more time for the prosecution of his mad love adventure. It was in vain that Pendril tried to account for his absence from other causes: the truant knew full well his own signature was needed to render the permis-dechasse complete, and he knew that Pendril and M. Tennyson had made every arrangement for their departure from Ajaccio on the following morning; so, unless some accident had occurred to him, why was he not at his post now in compliance with Pendril's request and in fulfilment of his own promise to that effect?

In answer to the Préfet's inquiry, Pendril could only say that Temple had left the hotel in the morning, and had gone, he supposed, as usual, into the mountains, but in what direction nobody seemed to know; that either he had lost his way in the dense forest of brushwood with which some of the valleys were filled, or he had

met with some other unforeseen cause of delay which he (Pendril) could not explain.

'I only hope,' said the Préfet, for his own sake, as well as yours, 'that he has not wandered into one of the ravines south of the Gra'vone, or he may pay dearly for his intrusion into that quarter. Gio'vanni de Galofaro hovers like a vulture over that dark gorge, and pounces on his prey without inquiring whether the game be fair or 'foul; if your friend falls into his claws, deportation at least will be 'his lot, if not a more summary fate. However, my last accounts of the smuggler were that he had sailed for Carthage, and that his ship, carrying a valuable cargo, was well supplied with necessaries for a longer voyage. Although my douaniers keep a bright lookout on his movements ashore, yet he can baffle a bloodhound in these mountain gorges; and at sea, you may as well try to catch 'the phantom-ship as this "son of the whirlpool." His castle-if 'a massive one-storied granite building can be so called-looks more like an eagle's nest hanging in the cliffs than the habitation of a 'human being; and yet the fairest of Eve's fair daughters, Agnese 'de Galofaro, his only child, and the idol of his soul, occupies in his 'absence that grim tenement alone. Many a snare set for the father 'has been discovered by her watchful eye, and many a bullet that 'would long since have gone to its mark and rid the island of this 'desperado, has been turned aside by the influence of her surpassing 'charms.'

While the Préfet was proceeding to describe the almost miraculous contrivances by which the Captain had so often escaped from the fangs of the law-how, while he slept soundly and securely in his rocky retreat, the fair Agnese, like a ministering angel, watched over his safety through the live-long night-Temple walked into the bureau and brought all further conversation on that subject to an abrupt conclusion.

The clouds which had been gathering on Pendril's brow passed quickly away, and the pleasant greeting of Just in time, my boy,' was the only allusion he made to Temple's tardy arrival. The Préfet, however, who certainly had grounds for knowing what Temple's occupation had been for many days past, received him with an air of reserve, as if he had already given that official some trouble, and was destined to give him a great deal more before he quitted the island.

The permis-de-chasse being quickly signed, the document was handed to the owner without further ceremony; and, as he and Pendril took their leave, the Préfet, grasping the hand of the latter, remarked significantly that his letter to the military governor might be of use to him, and that he must not forget to deliver it on his arrival at Corte.

The next morning at break of day, being exactly a fortnight after their disembarkation at Ajaccio, the whole party, now increased by the company of M. Tennyson and the black Corporal, marched out of the town en route for Bocognano, a small village on the left bank