desired her:--so did Collyer and himself; and they beheld a tremendous flame, at two different points below, which threw a glare all over the plain. ‘There,’ said Howe, ‘these fires have cost a pretty penny:--that is all the corn that Humphreys reaped this season; and that, near it, is the last of Reardon’s property.’ Then said he to Collyer, ‘My boy, a toast:--Here’s success to the Bushman’s tinder-box, and a blazing fire to their enemies!’--I remember that Collyer smiled when Mary recited this before him.” [“Well, by the powers!” observed Corporal O’Callaghan, “I never hard o’ such a divil as that same Misther Howe. What counthryman was he?”] “A Yorkshireman: he was born at Pontefract in 1787, entered the merchant service at Hull, and then became a man-o’-war’s man; but he deserted, and robbed a miller; for which he was transported. Captain Cross of the _Indefatigable_, brought him out to Van Diemen’s Land: before he sailed, he tried to escape by jumping from the main deck over the vessel’s side; and Captain Cross said that he swam a quarter of a mile before he was retaken.” [“Well, did you bring in your prisoners safe,” demanded Sergeant Dobson.] “Yes,” replied old Worral; “we lodged them in Hobart Town jail, and they were both gibbetted along with Whitehead, Brown, and M’Guire.” [“And was Howe ever taken?” “I’ll tell you the end of the villain.” “Stop,--come to the end o’ _that_ first,” said O’Callaghan, handing old Worral the horn goblet.] Worrel proceeded:--“After this, Howe having separated from his few remaining associates, had art enough to obtain pardon from the governor, by humbling to him, and offering not only to give himself up, but to engage in annihilating the remaining bush-rangers. He was absolutely at large in Hobart Town--or at least, only accompanied by a constable--awaiting his pardon; and every body looked upon him as reformed, when he slipped off from his keeper, and took to his old habits: but he did not join any others; he wandered about alone, without any communication with mankind, except when necessity drove him to plunder an unguarded settler: totally shut out from man, he lived the sole occupier of an immense tract of the most beautiful country, as yet untrodden by any human foot but his; for the part he selected was the distant and unknown lands: there would he wander while his powder and shot lasted, and then return to replenish his stock by plunder, committing the most wanton acts of atrocity.