1 8 THE OCTOPUS. 



Clubin's belt. The old man, wild with joy, confirmed his offer of 

 his daughter's hand to the man who had so nobly won his grati- 

 tude. But Gilliatt, to his astonishment, refused her : he knew 

 that her affections were pledged to another, and determined in his 

 own mind that she should marry the man of her choice. The 

 next morning he met the lovers, and, with feverish haste, insisted 

 on the immediate performance of the marriage ceremony; dragged 

 them to the church, where, by an artifice, he substituted his rival 

 for himself as bridegroom, and then hurried them on board the 

 packet-boat which was just setting sail. His work accomplished, 

 the desperate man locked up his house, and strode along the 

 shore to a point of land close to which the vessel bearing Ebenezer 

 and Deruchette must pass. At its extremity was a kind of "lovers' 

 seat," called the " Chaise Gild-Holm'-Ur," covered by the sea at 

 every tide, and near to which he had once rescued the young 

 cure from drowning. There he sat, watching the craft, on the 

 deck of which he could see the newly-wedded pair. It advanced 

 nearer ; the tide rose to his ankles : — it came opposite to him ; 

 the water reached his waist : — it passed : he watched and watched, 

 and the tide rose and rose, until, as the vessel was lost to view, 

 his head disappeared beneath the waves. 



