the window. I had sufficient consideration for
her, to arrange the blind so that she might not
see me if she looked up; but I had no strength
to resist the temptation of letting my eyes, at
least, follow her as far as they could on her walk.

She was dressed in a brown cloak, with a
plain black silk gown under it. On her head
was the same simple straw hat which she had
worn on the morning when we first met. A veil
was attached to it now, which hid her face from
me. By her side, trotted a little Italian
greyhound, the pet companion of all her walks,
smartly dressed in a scarlet cloth wrapper, to
keep the sharp air from his delicate skin. She
did not seem to notice the dog. She walked
straight forward, with her head drooping a
little, and her arms folded in her cloak. The
dead leaves which had whirled in the wind
before me, when I had heard of her marriage
engagement in the morning, whirled in the wind
before her, and rose and fell and scattered
themselves at her feet, as she walked on in the pale
waning sunlight. The dog shivered and trembled,
and pressed against her dress impatiently for
notice and encouragement. But she never
heeded him. She walked on, farther and farther
away from me, with the dead leaves whirling
about her on the path—walked on, till my aching
eyes could see her no more, and I was left alone
again with my own heavy heart.

In another hour's time, I had done my work,
and the sunset was at hand. I got my hat and
coat in the hall, and slipped out of the house
without meeting anyone.

The clouds were wild in the western heaven,
and the wind blew chill from the sea. Far as
the shore was, the sound of the surf swept over
the intervening moorland, and beat drearily in
my ears, when I entered the churchyard. Not
a living creature was in sight. The place
looked lonelier than ever, as I chose my position,
and waited and watched, with my eyes on the
white cross that rose over Mrs. Fairlie's grave.

CHERBOURG.

III. AMONG THE SAILORS.

THE Port Militaire, which the reader is
supposed to be contemplating, is of later construction
than the Digue, and was a necessary complement
to that great work. The Digue once
established, the anchorage was, no doubt, protected,
and might protect a fleet. But how refit and repair
the fleet, or how add to it? A dockyard and
arsenal were necessary, and were resolved upon by
Napoleon in a decree dated the 15th April,
1803. The plan comprised an establishment of
the first class, with an Avant-port and two
basins.

The Avant-port (or outer basin, which you
find on your right hand on entering the
port) occupies a site which the sagacious
eye of Vauban had long before designed for
the same purpose. Its lines were traced out
on the 9th May, 1803, and the work commenced
with great spirit. Soldiers volunteered to labour,
in the antique Roman fashion. Workmen poured
in from all parts of France. The basins were
hollowed by mining: the rock, of hard quartz,
being blown asunder by repeated gunpowder
explosions, while the sea was kept out of it, till
wanted, by a special Digue. From 1809, more
than six thousand Spanish prisoners were
employed at Cherbourg; and, to the toil of these
poor fellows—drawn from their sunny land to,
perhaps, the coldest and most rainy town in
France—the port owes the fosse which surrounds
it, and the ramparts forming its inland girdle.

The Avant-port was an aflair of ten years' work
and millions of francs of expense. Napoleon
visited it in May, 1811; but its flooding in
August, 1813, was a spectacle reserved for
Marie Louise alone, his Majesty being at that
time at the head of the grande armée and too
busy. The empress descended to the bottom of
the basin, and was the last person inside it
before the immersion, which took place on
August 27th, in the presence of the Bishop of
Coutances (who said the benediction) and of
twenty-five thousand spectators, a squadron
manœuvring outside in the Rade the while.
One must read the publications in which the
French record all these fine doings, one must see
the animation with which they talk of them, in
order to appreciate the pride and joy which
Cherbourg is to the French nation. The avant-
port is thirty feet deep, at low water, during
spring tides, and capable of accommodating a
dozen sail of the line.

The story of the opening of the still greater
basin of Napoleon the Third is fresher in public
recollection. During the interval between the
Avant-port and it, was made the "Bassin Charles
Dix," already mentioned as lying to the northward
of the first-named, and which was opened
in the presence of the Due d'Angoulême in the
autumn of 1829. Blasting in rock was the
modus operandi here also. The two basins are
of the same depth, and are united by a turning-
bridge and by flood-gates.

Every French government has done something
for the Port Militaire, and none has pushed it
more energetically than the present emperor.
We all remember the spectacle of last autumn,
when the Bassin Napoléon III. received
within its granite-clad sides the eager sea; and
when the Ville de Nantes glided from her
building-slip into the water, amidst a cheering hardly
drowned by the cannon-firing. This basin
contains four docks and five slips. It lies
inside the Avant-port, and is capable of
holding a still larger number of vessels of
the line. The French writers calculate,
indeed, that, what with the Rade and the three
basins of the dockyard, a hundred line-of-battle
ships might enjoy the protection of Cherbourg
and its batteries. Yet, one still hears whispers
of fresh works there, to extend the accomodation
and resources of the dockyard. The bakery,
mentioned in my last, will be a very fine building,
and I believe that the barrack accommodation is
considered insufficient as yet. The present
barracks for gendarmerie, artillery, and infantry,