on the dangerous ground, whereon, of course,
they all had a half-delightful tingling wish
to perambulate, and to feel themselves liable to
be blown to atoms by a premature explosion.

Beneath the part marked off by the flag-
stall's and sentinels, at a great depth in the
chalk rock, were buried many thousand
(the Brighton Herald said twenty-seven
thousand!) pounds of gunpowder, distributed in
different chambers and galleries, one
communicating with another by means of a platina
wire. This wire was carried up through the
rock into a little wooden house, in which
certain chemical mysteries were being secretly
carried on by engineer officers. There was
a little window in front, out of which the
mysterious officer now and then half thrust
his head,—looked out with profound gravity
upon the belts of chalk on the space before
him, and, without appearing to see any of the
crowding visitors, withdrew from the window.
Presently another officer came, and did the
same. " Come like shadows," muttered Sir
Valentine, " so depart!"

But, wishing that they might "show his
eyes " the mysterious operations in the little
wooden house, however grievous it might be
to his feelings, our anxious knight hurried
round to the back, where he took it for
granted there was some means of entrance, as
he had seen no officer get in at the window.
He was right. There was a small narrow
door of planks, with a sentry standing before
it, who wore a forbidding face of much importance.
And now, a gentleman in blue spectacles
approached, and nodded to the sentinel, who
tapped at the door. The door was unlocked,
and the favoured man of science entered.
Through the closing door, Sir Valentine
caught sight of a sort of long, shapeless table,
covered with chemical instruments and utensils,
in short, an apparatus exciting great
curiosity. The door closed, just as Sir Valentine
handed up his card to the sentinel. The
door was opened again, his card given in;
somebody took it, and it seemed to fly over a
row of small white porcelain painters' pallettes,
standing mid-deep in water, and then disappeared,
as the door was suddenly closed again.
A voice within was heard to say, impatiently,
"I really am afraid we can't be disturbed!"

"Can't you! " exclaimed Sir Valentine,
addressing himself to a servant girl, with a
child in her arms, who was trying to get a
peep in at the door:—"Can't you, indeed!
What treatment do you call this? Do you
think gentlemen would take the trouble to
come down here, such a distance, and up here,
such a height, if they did not expect to see
all that could possibly be seen? Is this your
duty to the public who pays you? Why
should you conceal any thing from me? Am
I not a person of sufficient wealth and
respectability to be allowed to know of all your
doings up here! What brings you here but
the public service? Who is your master?
tell me that!"

"Edward Smith, of Seaford," answered the
girl, with an angry face; " but I don't know
as it's any business of yours!"

Sir Valentine brushed past the girl with
a " Pooh, pshaw!" Observing it was
announced, by a placard on one side of the little
wooden house, that the explosion would take
place at three o'clock, he took out his watch,
and found that it was already half-past two.
It became important to decide on the most
advantageous place to take up a position, in
order to have the best view of the grand
explosion. Some of the visitors in fact, a
considerable number had ascended to the
very highest part of the rock, which swept
upwards, with its green coating of grass, to a
distance of a hundred and fifty or two
hundred yards beyond the dangerous spot.
Another crowd took their posts at about the
same distance below the fatal spot, each
crowd being widely scattered, the boldest in
each being nearest, the most timid the
furthest off. Another crowd and this was the
largest by far had descended to the beach,
to see, from below, the fall of the great mass
of lofty rock. Many had taken boats, and
rowed, or sailed out, to behold it from a more
directly opposite, yet safer position.

Now, Sir Valentine Saltear, being an
enthusiast in sight-seeing, had not the least
doubt but the way really to enjoy the thing,
would be to stand upon the portion of the
cliff that was to be thrown down; and, leaping
from crack to crack, and from mass to mass,
as it majestically descended, reach by this
means the sea, into which a good dive
forwards would render your escape from danger
comparatively safe and easy. On second
thoughts, however, he saw that it was precarious,
because if the charge of powder were in
excess of the weight to be separated, a great
mass of fragments might fly upwards into the
air, and who could say but one of these might
be the very place on which he himself was
standing? He, therefore, contented himself
with advancing to the extreme edge of the
cliff, and peering over upon the beach below.
The height was prodigious; the crowds
walking about below were of pigmy size. The
boats that were hovering about on the sea
looked no bigger than mussel shells. Sir
Valentine once thought of going out in a
boat, but immediately recollecting that by
doing so he should lose the fine effect of the
trembling of the earth, he at once abandoned
the idea. If he mounted above the scene of
action he should lose the grandeur of the
descent of the mass; if he stood on the mount
at some distance below it, he could not see
the surface crack and gape, though he might
be exposed to flying fragments. He, therefore,
decided forthwith on going down to the beach,
and accordingly he hurried along the grassy
slope, and then made his way down a
precipitous zig-zag fissure in the sand hill below,
till he found his feet rattling and limping over
the stones of the beach.