dull enough and bitter enough. Straight down
before me I could just here and there catch a
glimpse o' the Serpentine; and beyond that,
here and there like a star, there was a lamp
shining; while heard, now and then, very
faintly, came sometimes the rumble of a carriage
or cab. All at once, close by, I heard a
regular " tramp — tramp," and before I could
make out what it was, it stopped, and then I
heard low voices talking, the rattling of rifles,
and then the "tramp— tramp" again; when I
knew it was the soldiers relieving guard, and
there seemed some comfort in thinking that I
had company not so werry far off.

Off to the left I could see here and there a
light in the top windows o' the tall houses in
Park-lane; and as the night went on, and I sat
half leaning there, for I could not sleep, tired
as I was, I could hear sometimes the distant
barking of a dog, or the howling of a cat, while
the noise of the carriages came now werry
seldom.

I was sitting thinking and thinking, when it
seemed to me that over Pimlico way began to
look werry light, and, sure enough, after a
time, the faint fight grew into a deep red glow;
and though I knew it must be a bad fire not far
off, I was too tired and worn out to get up and
see.

Soon after I counted no less than four engines
came rattling along; and it was easy to tell
them from the quick rattling noise they made
as the horses came galloping along as hard as
they could tear. Then all seemed still again,
and by degrees the bright light grew fainter
and fainter, till it faded all away, and with it
the stars went too, for it seemed, as though a
great black curtain was being slowly drawn
over the sky, till all was as black as ink; the
wind began to moan and sigh, and a few drops
o' rain to fall, while a regular shiver ran
through me, and I'd have given something for a
good warm blanket, or even a truss of straw, I
was that cold and miserable. One time I
thought o' getting up and running about, but
didn't like to begin it, any more than if I'd
been in the warmest o' beds; and there I was,
curled up as closely as I could get, lying and
listening. to the soldier walking backwards and
forwards there by the powder-magazine, and
every now and then putting down his rifle with
a sharp rattle.

At last o' all, in spite o' the cold, and the
rain, and the moaning wind, I dropped off into
a sort of half doze, and began fancying I was
home again, and in great trouble. I couldn't
tell what it was, but I knew it was something
werry dreadful, and that I couldn't help it,
although I tried hard. It seemed to press
upon me and keep me down, just as if I had
the nightmare; and then, all at once, I beat it
off, and woke up with a start, scared and
alarmed, as if something horrible was happening,
when all was as still as could be; but
directly after I began to tremble, for one o' the
most dreadful shrieks I ever heard came ringing
through the darkness, and seeming to cut
through me as it made me shudder and shiver
from head to foot. Then, again and again,
thick and fast, shriek after shriek, as though
from some one in the most horrid torture;
and I could feel my hair quite begin to lift, as
though there was a cold wind passing through it.

I jumped up in a half-muddled, confused
state, and for a moment did not know which
way to run; but just then I hears the rattling
o' the soldier's rifle, and I runs up to him as
fast as I could.

"What is it?" he says, as I runs up.

"I don't know," I says; " I was asleep!"

"Run down to the water; it's there," he
says; and just then from down towards the
river there came the same shrieks again, but
fainter and more stifled; and for a moment I
felt as if I couldn't stir; but I rouses up, and
runs shivering down, though the noise stopped
before I got half way to the water-side; and
when I got there, and felt the gravel crunching
under my feet, everything was as quiet and
still as could be, and nothing to be heard
but the "lap-lapping" o' the water, and the
sighing o' the wind.

I walked some distance along one way, and
then back, and a bit the other way, and then
gave a start, for a queer cry came off the water;
but I knew that must have been made by one
o' the water-birds; and then I stopped short,
and wondered whether one o' them could have
made the horrible screaming we heard; but I
shook my head directly, and went on back to
the soldier.

"Well," he says, " what was it?"

"Couldn't see a soul," I says.

"Thought you wouldn't," he said. " It was
somebody a-drowning."

"What makes you think that?" I says.

"Shrieks sounded so gurgling," he says.
And I felt that upset that I took and sat on a
rail close by him all the rest o' the night, and
didn't go to sleep any more.

Two mornings arter there was me, and the
soldier, and a poor gal, sitting in the board-
room o' St. Griffin's workhouse waiting for the
coroner and the jury, as came straggling in as
if they'd no business there, and didn't belong to
nobody, and nobody didn't belong to them. And
there was a werry fussy chap there as seemed
to know 'em all, and fust he was talking to
one, and then another, till two gentlemen in
black came in, when everybody got up, and I
heard them whisper as it was the coroner and
the doctor, and they went and sat up a-top o' the
green baize-covered table in two big leather-
covered chairs, and all the jurymen stood looking
werry hard, and wondering what was to be
done next.

"Shut the door," says the coroner. " Have
you enough here?"

The fussy chap says as there was; and then,
the coroner says again:

"Answer to your names, gentlemen."

Then there was a bustle amongst the jury, as
if they was a flock o' sheep, and the fussy chap,
as was the beadle, looks just like a dog a-going