discovered among them some pieces of lime rubbish of that hard and compact kind peculiar to old buildings, which somewhat surprised me, as the cavern had ascended too much for me to suppose that the sea could have washed them in, which it otherwise might have done, on their falling from the walls above. This once more set me to work to examine the place in which I was enclosed, and, on peering behind a large slab of fallen rock, I thought I discerned the top of a kind of archway, which appeared the work of art; and on forcing myself round, I found that I was right in my conjecture, for it proved to be an entrance from the interior, which was nearly filled up by loose lime-rubbish,

that had fallen from within, which I immediately set to work to remove ; and indeed I soon found that my own weight contributed in no small degree to sink them so much, from the lightness with which they were piled together, that a hole was made sufficient for me to creep in at. Now I perceived that the space into which I had entered admitted of my standing upright; and, on taking my candle out of the lantern, that I might see the more clearly, I found myself at the foot of a flight of spiral stairs, which were partly cut out in the rock, and partly built, and that it was from the falling of partial pieces of the latter that the crumbled mortar had proceeded.

I began to ascend with alacrity, and choosing the firm parts which still remained of the steps, I quickly mounted to the topmost one, and arrived at a door, which, from its strong construction, appeared to have once formed a pretty secure defence against intruders, but, having lost one of its hinges, had become incapable of shutting, and therefore presented no obstruction to my entering a chamber about eighteen feet square, which, it appeared from an iron grating in the vaulted stone roof, had once been lighted in that direction, but which was now totally dark; I also observed a door-way, built up, nearly opposite to the one by which I entered; and, from the small vestiges that remain

ed of its last inhabitants, I immediately concluded them to have been smugglers. There were three or four gin-ankers, one or two of which had fallen to pieces; these had been apparently used as seats, for they were ranged round a part of the floor where the remains of some burnt sticks shewed that a fire had been kindled, the smoke of which had escaped as it might, there being no vent for it that I could perceive, save the iron grating in the roof. But what most engaged my attention, was a huge wooden chest, that stood in a recess of the wall. It was strongly secured by broad iron bands, that traversed it in every direction, and further fortified by three locks, each being, from the ap

pearance of the key-holes, opened by keys differing in construction from each other. Seeing the locks much decayed by rust, I imagined they might give way; but, on my endeavouring to wrench them from the wood, I found them still strong enough to bid defiance to my utmost efforts; and, on taking a more minute survey, I quickly perceived that I had been giving myself much unnecessary trouble, for I discovered that one end of the chest had been completely staved in; and, on putting my candle within it, I found that it only contained a number of papers and parchments loosely scattered on the bottom, perhaps left there by those who had abstracted from it some richer booty.