destruction of his property, came to the entrance of the store, seating himself among the rubbish. Other plunderers speedily followed the example of the marauding soldiers, but he made no attempt to stop them as they walked past him. My grandfather, passing at the time on his way home, was horrified at the sight of him. Flour from a splintered barrel had been scattered over his face, and blood from the wound in his forehead, trickling down, had clotted it on his cheeks and scanty beard, giving him an aspect at once appalling and disgusting. His daughter had waited at the door of the Fives’ Court till she saw Owen come forth in safety, and had then availed herself of the protection of the Major as far as her own home. Shrieking at the dismal sight, she sprang forward and threw herself before the Jew, casting her arms around him. This seemed to rouse him. He arose—looked back into the store; and then, as if goaded by the sight of the wreck into intolerable anguish, he lifted his clenched hands above his head, uttering a sentence of such fearful blasphemy, that a devout Spaniard, who was emerging from the store with some plunder, struck him on the mouth. He never heeded the blow, but continued to rave, till, suddenly overcome by loss of blood and impotent rage, he dropt senseless on the ground.

My grandfather, calling some soldiers of his regiment who were passing, desired them to convey him to the hospital at the South Barracks, and, again taking the terrified and weeping Esther under his protection, followed to see the unfortunate Jew cared for.

At the various parades that day Mr Bags was reported absent, being in fact engaged in pursuits of a much more interesting nature than his military duties. A vast field of enterprise was opened to him and other adventurous spirits, of which they did not fail to avail themselves, in the quantity of property of all kinds abandoned by the owners, in houses and shops where locks and bolts were no longer a protection; and although the firing, which ceased for an hour or two in the middle of the day, was renewed towards evening, and continued with great fury, the ardour of acquisition by no means abated.

About midnight a sentry on the heights of Rosia (the name given to a portion of the rugged cliffs towards the south and near the hospital) observed, in the gloom, a figure lurking about one of the batteries, and challenged it. Receiving no answer, he threatened to fire, when Bags came forward reluctantly, with a bundle in his hand.

“Hush, Bill,” said Bags, on finding the sentry was a personal friend—“don’t make a row: it’s only me, Bags—Tongs, you know,” he added, to insure his recognition.

“What the devil are you doing there, you fool?” asked his friend in a surly tone—“don’t you know the picket’s after you?”

“I’ve got some little things here that I want to lay by, where nobody won’t see ’em, in case I’m catched,” returned Bags. “Don’t you take no notice of me, Bill, and I’ll be off directly.”

“What have ye got?” asked Bill, whose curiosity was awakened by the proceedings of his friend.

“Some little matters that I picked up in the town,” returned Bags. “Pity you should be on guard to-day, Bill—there was some pretty pickings. I’ll save something for you, Bill,” added Bags, in an unaccountable access of generosity.

The sentry, however, who was a person in every way worthy of the friendship of Mr Bags, expressed no gratitude for the considerate offer, but began poking at the bundle with his bayonet.

“Hands off, Bill,” said Bags; “they won’t abear touching.”

“Let’s see ’em,” said Bill.

“Not a bit on it,” said Bags; “they ain’t aworth looking at.”

“Suppose I was to call the sergeant of the guard,” said Bill.

“You wouldn’t do such a action?” said Bags, in a tone strongly expressive of disgust at such baseness. “No, no, Bill, you ain’t that sort of fellow, I’m sure.”

“It’s my dooty,” said the sentry, placing the butt of his musket on the ground, and leaning his elbow on the muzzle. “You see that what you said, Tongs, was very true, about its being hard upon me to be carrying about this here damnable weppin” (slapping the barrel of the musket) “all day for fourpence ha’penny, while you are making your fortin. It is, Tongs, d——d hard.”

“Never mind; there’ll be plenty left to-morrow,” said Bags in a consolatory tone.

“What shall we say, now, if I lets ye hide it?” said Bill, pointing to the bundle. “Half-shares?”

“This ain’t like a friend, Bill,” returned Tongs, highly disgusted with this ungenerous proposal. “Nobody ever knowed me interfere with a comrade when I was on sentry. How long ago is it since I let ye stay in my box an hour, till ye was sober enough to walk into barracks, when I was sentry at the gate? Why, the whole bundle ain’t worth eighteenpence—and I’ve worked hard for it.”

“Half-shares?” reiterated Bill, not melted in the least by the memory of ancient benefits.

“No, by G——!” said Bags in great wrath.

“Serg——,” began Bill in an elevated voice, porting his arms at the same time.

“Stop!” said Bags; “don’t call the sergeant. Half is better nor nothing, if ye’re going to behave like that. We’ll say half, then.”

“Ah,” said Bill, returning to his former position—“I thought we should agree. And now let’s see ’em, Tongs.”

Muttering still his disapprobation of this unworthy treatment, Bags put his bundle on the stone embrasure of the battery, and began to unfold it.

Eighteenpence was certainly a low valuation. Bags appeared to have visited a jeweller’s shop. Watches, rings, bracelets, gold chains, and brooches glittered on the dingy surface of the handkerchief.

“My eye!” said Bill, unable to repress a low laugh of delight—“why, we’ll turn bankers when we’ve sold ’em. Tongs and Co.—eh?” said Bill with considerable humour.

Bags, however, told him he was altogether mistaken in his estimate—most of the things were pinchbeck, he said, and the stones all glass; and, to save Bill any trouble, he offered to dispose of them himself to the best possible advantage, and bring his partner his share of the proceeds, which would certainly be at least ninepence, and might perhaps be half-a-dollar. This arrangement did not, however, meet the approbation of the astute William, who insisted on dividing the spoils by lot. But here, again, there was a slight misunderstanding, for both fixed their affections on a gigantic watch, which never could have been got into any modern pocket, and whose face was ornamented with paintings from the heathen mythology. Both of them supposed, from the size and the brilliancy of the colours, that this must be of immense value. Finding they were not likely to come to a speedy arrangement on this point, they agreed to postpone the division of the spoils till morning.

“I’ll tell ye where to put it, Bags,” said Bill. “These here guns in this battery haven’t been fired for years, nor ain’t likely to be, though they loaded ’em the other day. Take out the wad of this one, and put in the bundle.”

Bags approved of the idea, withdrew the wad from the muzzle of the gun, put in the bundle as far as his arm would reach, and then replaced the wad.

“Honour bright?” said Bags, preparing to depart.

“Honour bright,” returned Bill; and Bags disappeared.

Nevertheless he did not feel sufficient confidence in the brightness of his confederate’s integrity