braced her mother in Christ with tears,

saying in lowly humility, "My prayer, has been

heard, I shall die in Risberga Kloster; but, good mother, grant that my short time here may be passed in penitence, and in prayer for the Riddar Barnard."

One other request Elisif made; it was that her consecration might be completed, that she might die a spiritual bride. Good Bishop Nils consented, and placed the crown of the nun on the head of the fair Elisif. They had told her that her father had fallen at Falköping, and all his riches were her's. But she answered, "The poor will want money on earth, but I shall need none if I enter heaven."

That day was a high day in the convent of Risberga. At its close, when the bell called the nuns to prayer in the chapel, they found the new-made nun kneeling beside the large cross; her arms were twined round it, and her head lay upon them. They raised up the head and untwined the arms, and saw that the maiden was dead.

The fair Elisif died praying for the soul of the Riddar Barnard.

The knight made his grave in the Baltic Sea, and Elisif found her's in the holy ground of Risberga Kloster.

So ends the story I borrowed from the learned Bishop Wallin and the folkvisor of Sweden.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE day after our return from the country there was a good deal of excitement in quiet Wisby, owing to a confirmation taking place that day in the old church of the Lübeck merchants, now both the cathedral and only one of the town.

The Church of Sweden holds the Catholic doctrine of baptism in its full significancy; but the succeeding rite of the Church Catholic, that of confirmation, has been imported into it from England at a rather recent period. The pastor of the Swedish Church in London having seen its use, was the means of getting it adopted by his country, where it now holds a somewhat

remarkable position, both politically and re

ligiously.

The State, indeed, makes a more decided use of it than does the Church. In all respects, however, the Church is here more or less the handmaid of the State, rather reversing the order of things, if Kings and Queens were meant to be nurses of the Church.

The Church of Sweden is not only united to the State, but is a part of the State. Its clergy have their appointed temporal duties as its officers; by their means a system of civil inspection is carried on throughout the kingdom. Thus, what with us is simply the religious and holy rite of confirmation is made in Sweden a state engine for securing that modicum of education or learning, which is more universal there than, I think, in any part of Europe; far beyond what it is in Scotland, where we generally suppose most persons learn enough to be able to read the Bible.

Confirmation is not optional, but obligatory, not only by the force of opinion, which makes it and a first communion the great religious duties of life, but by the laws of the State, which forbid any one without a

certificate from their parish priest testifying to the fulfilment of both, to hold any office, to enter as an apprentice in any trade, or even to be married. This certificate is, in short, required for all the purposes of lifeeven to be a soldier or sailor.

In order to be confirmed and receive the Holy Communion, it is necessary to read and write, and thus this amount of education is secured. The priests are obliged to give six months' religious instruction for the purpose of confirmation; this is the most important, and usually the most interesting portion of a young Swede's life; it is generally looked back upon with softened feeling: :-" going to read before the priest" interests children as it interested their parents.

The certificate of confirmation is taken by each person who removes from his or her parish, and besides this are the priest's lines, or certificate of character, without which the working classes are not sure of employment elsewhere, and by means of which a delinquent in one parish must be known in another. This is sad the lost character may be regained the false step retrieved; but if the