We left Estelle and her attendant on the lonely beach below the Headland, with the night coming on. They looked about themselves. At their feet lay the baggage, with no one near to take it away. Above their heads arose the steep cedar-grown bank, with no visible path up its ascent. Westward rolled the infinite sea, now fast darkening under the evening sky. Eastward stretched the impenetrable forest, falling into deeper gloom under the lowering shadows of night. From the sombre and solitary scene they turned to look into each other’s faces. “Blessed saints, my lady! what a savage coast! does any living thing inhabit it, do you think?” asked Susan, with a shudder. “Why, certainly, you know it, my girl.” “Beg your pardon, dear lady, but indeed, no, I don’t know it. I’m afraid the captain has put us ashore at the wrong place; and I, for my part, feel as if we were cast upon some desert island.” “But did you not see the house from the ship?” “Yes, my lady; but now I think of it, that makes the matter more frightful; for it must have been a bewitched house, and we must be on enchanted ground, else what’s become of it? I don’t see so much as a chimney of it!” “Because we are below the line of vision, being too close under the bank. The house is up on the headland, back among the trees.” “Then how shall I break a path for you, dear lady? for you can never get through these briars!” “There is a path broken, and well worn, of course. And there is an aged couple of servants somewhere near here, who, Miss Brande informed me, had the keys, and would show us up to the house, and open it for us. The path to their cabin starts from this landing, she said. Let us look for it, Susan.” “Holy saints, my lady, the sky is growing so dark that I could not see a conflagration!” said the girl, peering closely to the ground; “and the grass is so thickly strewn with fallen leaves, that——” “Sarvint, Mist’ess!” uttered a gentle, growling sort of voice from the bushes near her. “Ah-h-h!!” yelled the maid. “Sweet Providence, what is that? We shall be murdered by this savage,” and frantic with terror, she ran toward her mistress. Estelle laid her hand soothingly upon the girl’s shoulder, and turned to see what the cause of the alarm might be. It was the gentle-hearted old negro, Neptune, who now emerged from the bushes, and came into full view. And if the terrible sea-god himself had risen from the waters, sceptre in hand, he could not have stricken greater terror to the heart of the simple English maiden! And, in truth, the mistress also gazed upon the apparition in some doubt, as well she might, for the good old man was rather an awful looking object.