The steamer has scarce reached her berth at the wharf, when the impatient lover springs ashore, dashes through the throng of spectators, and, bewildered as it were, and scarce knowing which way he is proceeding, hurries on, meeting no one he knows, and at length reaching Meeting street.  Here he pauses, and to his great joy meets an old negro, who kindly offers to escort him to the distant quarter of the city where Maria resides.  Again he sets out, his mind hung in suspense, and his emotions agitated to the highest degree.  He hurries on into King street, pauses for a moment before the house of the old Antiquary, now fast closed, and as if the eventful past were crowding upon his fancy, he turns away with dizzy eyes, and follows the old negro, step by step-faint, nervous, and sinking with excitement-until they reach the cabin of Undine, the mulatto woman, under whose roof Maria once sought refuge for the night.  Ready to exclaim, “Maria, I am here!” his heart is once more doomed to disappointment.  The question hangs upon his lips, as his wondering eyes glance round the room of the cabin.  Undine tells him she is not here; but points him to a light, nearly half a mile distant, and tells him she is there! there!  The faithful old negro sets off again, and at full speed they proceed up the lane in the direction of the light.  And while they vault as it were o’er the ground, let us again turn to the chamber of Maria.

With a sudden spring, Keepum, who had been for several minutes keeping his eyes fixedly set upon Maria, and endeavoring to divert her attention, seized her arms, and was about to drag her down, when Snivel put out the light and ran to his assistance.  “Never! never!” she shrieks, at the very top of her voice.  “Only with my life!” A last struggle, a stifled cry of “never! never!” mingled with the altercation of voices, rang out upon the air, and grated upon the impatient lover’s ear like death-knells.  “Up stairs, up stairs!” shouts the old negro, and in an instant he has burst the outer door in, mounts the stairs with the nimbleness of a catamount, and is thundering at the door, which gives way before his herculean strength.  “I am here!  I am here!  Maria, I am here!” he shouts, at the top of his voice, and with an air of triumph stands in the door, as the flashing light from without reveals his dilating figure.  “Foul villains! fiends in human form!  A light! a light!  Merciful heavens-a light!” He dashes his hat from his brow, turns a revengeful glance round the room, and grasps Maria in his arms, as the old negro strikes a light and reveals the back of Mr. Snivel escaping out of a window.  Keepum, esteeming discretion the better part of valor, has preceded him.

Tightly Tom clasps Maria to his bosom, and with a look of triumph says:  “Maria! speak, speak!  They have not robbed you?”

She shakes her head, returns a look of sweet innocence, and mutters:  “It was the moment of life or death.  Thank heaven-merciful heaven, I am yet guiltless.  They have not robbed me of my virtue-no, no, no.  I am faint, I am weak-set me down-set me down.  The dawn of my morning has brightened.”