thrown back, and, instead of the benevolent features of Father Lungen, a glare of hatred

met them from the grim features of Lord Longvale.

"Love to the last!' he cried. Henceforth ye shall live and die together!'

"With these words he turned to close the door of the cell, when the priest himself confronted him.

"Hold, cruel man!' said he. "The union you would thwart is sanctified by Heaven. On penalty of the Holy Church's wrath, I charge you to desist from your inhuman purpose. Go! my children; none shall hinder you.'

"His intervention was too late. The shock of horror and surprise, occasioned by her father's presence, had snapped the feeble thread of life. Lady Maud pressed to her lips this little crucifix, which had been the means of restoring her to her lover; andwhen Boulton took it from her hands--she was dead.

"Upon his own death, not long after, he gave the cross and beads to Father Lungen and by him they were bequeathed, with a written account of the facts I have told you, to some member of our family; who preserved them and has handed them down to posterity as a memorial of the things that were."

Pierce thanked Lady Eda for the recital of a story, the more interesting to him because of the pleasure he took in listening to the voice of the teller.

CHAPTER IV.

EACH hour that increased their intimacy added to his anxiety. He could not make up his mind, whether to stay longer at Mona, or to leave it at once. If he stayed on, his fate was decided: if he went awaybut he could not bear to think of this. At one moment his passionate love saw no obstacle which he was not determined to overcome; the next, his poverty was an irremediable hindrance. At one moment he was convinced she loved him, and, mirabile

dictu-but such is human nature-his own passion cooled at the thought; the next, she had hinted at the shortness of their acquaintance, or had made some remark which left him equally certain she never dreamt of him but as a friend.

In this perplexing state of mind, he received a letter from London, which saved him the trouble of coming to a determination for himself. It was from the wretched woman who wrote to him the day before his departure from town. It ran thus:

"Sir,

"This is not the first time I have appealed to you. I wrote to you rather more than a week since. You cannot have received that letter, or I feel sure you would not have denied me at least one boon. I asked that you would come and see me on my deathbed. Once again, and for the last time, I ask to see you before I die. For me the

struggle will soon pass. But my childO God! the thought is worse than deathfar worse than death-what will become of my child? Before my illness, while yet I possessed some remains of those fatal attractions which brought this ruin on me and mine, I was allowed some small pittance; enough, at least, to keep me from starving. When poverty and disease robbed me of my beauty, that man-for whose accursed love I broke the heart of a fond father-I drove to madness, and death, a devoted husband — I brought dishonour, misery, and perhaps starvation on my babe - my orphanand for whom I have suffered years of agony, and remorse-abandoned me, left me to die penniless and alone. I do not weep, I do not suffer for myself, but for my child. O, help him! There is no one but you to help him. Come, with all haste come to see me! My father, my child's nearest relation, may yet be alive. He was a kind old man.