but the faith of early years was coming back the intuitive belief of a future stamped by the almighty hands upon the soul was breaking through the chains of liabir and resuming its wonted sway


it will not do not now


and they seemed so itrong and so convincing he continued and he turned away from the inward struggle of his per verse reason and his early faith


the good priest stood silently watching the movements of his features and catching the half spoken words that ever and anon fell from his lips he saw with an eye that had seen many a heartrending scene like this tllul ituim wuuu gull lu viuiuijt ab lcuglll kilt


wretched man turned again towards him the blaze of pride that had flashed in his eye was quenched the resolved look had passed and for ever and a helpless and beseeching glance was bent in misery upon the minister of heaven


there is a god


he murmured in a hollow tone and then as the full consequences to him first broke upon his soul he clasped his hands upon his mutilated forehead and shrieked aloud in agony


father durand felt that the critical time had arrived and that he must now save the man from himself and from despair


my son


thy god is all good all merciful


re pent and hnpe in him


too late too late


he repeated in alow voice


noj my son never too late


the penitent thief upon tho cross he forgave


this day shalt thou be with me in paradise


for a moment the dying man was silent


repeat it again again good father


the priest complied and added


and if thy sins were dark as midnight the blood of him who died for thee would wash them whiter than the driven snow


for many minutes the good man spoke to him of the mercy of god and as the features of del mont became more calm he said my children let us pray


pray repeated delmont pray


i did pray once i was happy then


ah


those days passed passed and forever


a nan suppressea groan was nearo as tne group knelt down at the direction of the good priest and prayed


in the farthest part of the room nearly hidden by a heavy curtain knelt louis vallieve with the big tear drops stealing through his fingers that were vainly pressed upon his manly brow to restrain them and he prayed


who that has stood with a hardened heart by the j the bedside of death and hath not felt at one moment his whole soul changed by some instinctive impulse changed not slowly and painfully but at once and entirely so that no trace of past thought has been left upon it


thus it was with louis valliere in that moment he knew not that he had ever doubted but he prayed as he had prayed in his youth and all the dark years of his manhood were forgotten


j hey arose from their humble posture and all left the apartment but father durand who still knelt by the bedside of delmont


an hour passed on and they returned


the dying man had shown the wounds of his soul to the spiritual physician and the priest of the most high had applied the remedy committed to his charge the redeeming power of penance and consoling tears were flowing down the cheeks of the reclaimed


all day long the voice of prayer arose in that ilent room and ever and anon the still small foot of adele was heard gliding along as she ministered in charity to him who persecuted her all day long knelt the living reclaimed by the dying reclaimed the avenger praying fot the victim forgiving and forgiven


and as the sun went down casting his mellowed light through the darkened windows the calm mild voice of father durand arose in the solemn prayer for the dying catholic


depart christian soul


out of this world in the name of god the father almighty who created thee in the name of jesus christ son of the living god who suffered for the in thee name of the holy ghost who sanctified thee


let thy place be this day in peace and thy abode in holy sion through christ our lord


and the response came mingled with sighs and tears


as the last ray of the evening sun had passed the light of the blessed candles burned more brightly and casting a rich glow lit up the calmed features of the dying one


a cruoifix rested upon his bosom in his clasped hands and he repeated after the good priest those names so consoling to the dying catholic jesus mary and joseph


there was a convulsive heave of the bosom the lips still opened to perform their accustomed duty but the spirit had taken its flight


many years had passed away and a solitary hgure knelt before the altar in the convent of the trappists


he wore tlie dress of that rigid order and his pale cheeks and attenuated forin told how well he had carried out the spirit of self denial


as he raised his head towards the altar the ray of the solitary light which ever bums in a catholic church fit emblem of the undying faith fell full upon his features


the trappist was louis valliere


it was the anniversary night of the death of henry delmont and the reclaimed was praying for the soul of him whom he had slain


as the bright sun arose sending his glad rays through the dim old chapel he ended his vigil and wiping away a tear that had moistened his wan cheek left the sanctuary to mingle with his brethren in the per formance of their holy duties


adele valliere ever retained a sorrowful yet soothing recollection of the sad events that had marked the change of her brothers heart


in her morning and evening orisons she pouredforth her soul in grateful thanks to god that she had never forgotten the early lessons of truth which her pious mother had instilled into her mind and with marie never ceased to rejoice that her wander ing brother had been brought back by the force of those pious teachings once imprinted on the heart to be effaced no more but struggling ever onward to final conquest into the fold of changeless and un dying faith given to man by the god who worketh good out of evil and heareth those who cry unto him


the streets of sydney with some account of the houses thereof and the people who dwell therein


by hooke


y walker


a very extensive traveller


chapter xiv


i traverse georgestreet and am thrown into a state of mental bewilderment i visit a wellknown tobacconists establishment and partially recover


i am induced to enter the water police office and experience a relapse


georgestreet is like a right line it has length without breadth and its extremities are points and rather remarkable ones


the northern plunges itself into the waters of the harbour the southern dips down brickfteldhill into the haymarket then climbing the height beyond finally is taken charge of by the watchhouse on the crest of the hill


topographers may differ respecting these boundaries however i believe them to be correct and leave the point to be settled by those better skilled in such matters than myself


the infinity of subjects which spring up in this long narrow street really puzzles one which to choose so in order to recover time for re flection i will step into the cigar shop of mr nalldice and while inhaling one of his odo riferous manilas endeavour to concentrate my ideas


i acted immediately upon this mental sug gestion and produced the following pen and ink sketch of the worthy proprietor of the fumiferous palace in georgestreet


not that i prefer his present towering structure to the long low bit of humble bricks and mortar opposite where he amassed a fortune and i spent many very many pleasant hours


no far from it memory clings fondly to the past and looks at the present with a somewhat jaundiced eye


the little brook murmuring its melody to the flowers and trees which bend over it has a far greater charm for me than the brawling and turbulent river on whose waters the hissing iron monsters plough their rapid way belching forth their dingy smoke and clouding the bright azure of the sky


the whirl of progress dizzies a dreamer like myself and the jostle and elbowing of the hurrying crowd make me sigh for the quiet nook and corner my proper sphere


thus do i prefer the old shop to the new


there was greater com fort about it and a napless garment felt itself more at home than amid elaborately moulded cornices richly pateraed ceilings and crystal palace windows


the change however has not made the slightest difference in nalldice


his countenance preserves its primitive ruddiness his eye gleams as kindly and brightly as ever and round his mouth lurks the same quaint bit of satire and incredulity which was wont to curb longbow stories and munchausen memoirs


his indeedyou dont say soreally nowmost surprising were bits of comic acting worthy of the departed litton and reeve and nothing but the most unblushing effrontery and brazen impudence could withstand them


i remember once hearing him put down a tyro in the men dacious trade most effectively


the young one had been going it most terrifically and his in cipient moustache actually curled as he related the accidents which had occurred to him by flood and field


he was staggered with the magical how singular


why mr nalldice you dont meant to in sinuate that you doubt me


doubt you


really now


how strange of you to entertain such an idea


what you have stated is reasonable enough and highly compli mentary to me


you shot a bunyip on the murray one blazing hot day and on dissecting him discovered in his abdominal regions a gross of my pipes six pounds of barretts twist with a hook no twas a hookah


precisely now these facts being clearly es tablished evidently tend to prove that a bunyip like other beasts and fishes will smoke in hot weather


how singular


give me a bundle of your best cigars im in a deuce of a hurry exclaimed the tyro who succumbed to the effectiveness of the nalldice fire


he could not stand it for the life of him


frequent little contests occur between him and the man of letters who really is a most ex traordinary person in his way a species of ad mirable crichton to whom nothing comes amiss in science literature or art


he has argued abstruse points with learned doctors beaten porson in his greek tumburini in italian arias and angelo with the foil


his dramatic powers surpass those of shakespere and his blank verse outvies miltons


compared with his lyrics those of moore melt into nothingness and his political writings throw junius into shadow


even pennyaliners cannot hold a pen with him his alarming accidents contain a whole chamber of horrors and his sudden deaths are intensely rivetting enough almost to make readers expire over their perusal


in fact meta phorically speaking from the hat to the shoe tie the man of letters is the man


a world of letters comprised in one single volume bound in calf


it may readily be imagined how frequently nalldices indeedyou dont say so really nowmost surprising are brought into play by the recitals of this wonderful col lection of human talent who sprang from the womb ready armed like minerva


to witness such contests is worth a long pilgrimage


on emerging from nalldices i encountered a legal friend who gave me as his opinion without fee that if i wanted amusement blended with instruction i could not do better than visit the water police office where a great question of ships articles versus spoiled wittles was about to be tried by that eminent salt water judge mr teal trenan assisted by as many j ps as might find it convenient to make a har monious concert with him


as i had not pre viously witnessed the proceedings of this marine areopagus i accepted the advice and dared all the perils of the stormy ways of the wapping of sydney


the court itself had a tarry kind of scent about it which distressed my olfactory nerves for a time but i soon lost my sense of smelling in the intense heat of the small box in which the maritime proceedings were conducted


there really was not room to swing a cat in it and bystanders complainants defendants constables lawyers reporters deposition clerks and ma gistrates were jammed up together into a species of human olla podrida calculated only for ravenous cannibal appetites


silence in court belay your chatter shouted a stout man in blue with a breezy voice not unlike the blowing off a column of steam


his worships a coming


if so be he is a man i spose may speak when his corns is bein trode on grumbled out the corrected one


whats the first case on the list mr sullins enquired mr teal trenan blandly yet dignifiedly


ships articles versus spoiled wittles replied the clerk


is there anybody in it asked his worship


the whole ships crew and the captain your worship


yes i know that but any legal gentlemen i mane


mr henry verdant your worship for the complainant


very good


mr verdant be pleased to open your case


may it please your worship i appear in this case for the especial purpose of upholding the rights of man against the tyranny of power


my client mr bilgeman although not a soyer is an excellent cook and can turn out a seapie twicelaid peasoup pickled pork corned beef carrots and hot rolls with any doctor in the maritime marine of great britain or owhyhee


i mention the latter locality particularly because one of the greatest cooks the world ever pro duced was dished there


it it a question of ideality


asked his wor ship


not at all only a question of wages said mr bilgeman


its a question of spoiled wittles shouted mr diehard captain of the haughtygal


i object to this interruption continued mr verdant but i will not be put down or swerve one iota from the duty i owe to my client in this matter


he was hired at a certain rate of wages and there is a balance due to him which he must receive from the scales of justice


he shipped on board the haughtygal upon the principle that england expects every man to do his duty and he did it as i shall be able to prove not withstanding the attempt which i am informed will be made to flyblow his evidence and spread a taint as it were over him


call benjamin bilgeman


that person having made his appearance in the witness box mr verdant proceeded to ex tract his testimony in the usual manner


your name is benjamin bilgeman i be lieve


leastways father mother and the parish clerk said as much


in your presence very good evidence in deed


further nor thatmy socks is marked with a b b which stands for benjamin bilgeman all the world over i suppose


excellent corroborative testimony no one can gainsay that


hes entered on the ships articles as blower bilgeman said captain diehard


thats what my shipmets crissenad me be cause i had to blow the fire


you want to prove a halibi captain do you


silence shouted his worship annoyed at the turn matters had taken


attend to me mr bilgeman said mr ver dant testily unless you wish to conduct your own case


answer my questions and in as brief a manner as possible


what were you on board the haughtygal


doctor


in other words you attended to the wants of the stomach of the whole ship you were cook in fact


youve hit it


were any complaints made against you dur ing the voyage


bowel complaints dye mean


no


that will do doctor


allow me to ask him one question said captain diehard and permission having been gracefully conceded by his worship the captain enquired whether several complaints had not been made against him since the ship was in harbour respecting his neglect of the fresh meat c fresh meat be blowed growled out ben jamin bilgeman


ah that was precisely the case remarked the captain by reason of which inattention all on board the ship have been put to serious in convenience


could i keep such a man on board


what could i do with him


vy you cooked my goose by discharging me replied mr bilgeman


true and employed a cook who can make turtle soup out of pickled pork and haricot mut ton from shins of beef


a cook your worship who taken in an animal or vegetable matter sense can achieve more than the illustrious ude and can flavour his dishes so delightfully that one scarcely is able to tell what he is eating


of course not edged in mr bilgeman he takes snuff your worship and allers keeps sniffin over the stewpans


these observations will not do your case any good said his worship


is the man drunk


not at the present time i believe but since he reached sydney he was seldom sober on board the haughtygal


ah i observe said mr teal trenan precisely similar to the great cause of rum puncheon v staggers


i submit that this case does not run on all fours with that your worship in the former rumpuncheon was knocked on the head where as my client was laid by the heels remarked mr verdant


in the watchhouse which constitutes the gravamen of the captains charge


im no gravyman in the captains charge grumbled the complainant looking a hundred kettles full of hot soup at the bench not for getting the captain in his visual survey


its high time to cut this matter short thought mr sullins whose gastronomic cravings pointed to the hour of lunch


are there any more witnesses to call


quite unnecessary the affair is perfectly clear lucid very


the complainant is entitled to something it is therefore meet


i shant take my wages in meat i never deals on the truck system interrupted benja min manfully


will nothing keep this fellow quiet


ex claimed his worship wrathfully


the bench therefore order that he be docked of twothirds of his claim


which is laying me up in dock altogether


when ive paid my lawyer that werdict will just leave me enough to buy a box of matches to light my next galley fire


howsoever im no ways parteklar unship the browns and let me steer my course somewheres else im tired of this craft said benjamin bilgeman


i am not in a position to relate the precise manner in which the pecuniary claim was set tled as feeling equally tired of the human bakehouse i rushed into the open air


the light breeze played over me as refreshingly as a zephyr cooling the parched brows of desart wanderers


to be continued


tfto xxrtii ifeirfjm florence obeien an irish tale


continued from our last


on the morning following the arrival of


the party at yougall florence awoke by sunrise from a refreshing sleep with the light spirts and renovated hopes which in youth seek no better nufcnre and as she knew it would be


some hours before the officials waiting orders from cork could stir she proposed to indulge in a ramble around the town which in beauty of situation she fondly likend to her native portmullina


no one was yet stirring about the inn save a young girl and she found the doors guarded one outlet ihad however been forgotten and biddy conducted her through scullery and cellar until they fairly emerged in the kitchen garden


wllfiilflr witli sttriilf if tint vaiv lntoiliinnin hrnnfirma clir tnim jher way under the better guidance qf her own eyes and ascend ing the hill often paused in her desultory pi ogress where at any new turn a yiew was afforded of the bay its billowy high tide


shimmering in the silvery haze of infant morning


sad must the young heart have jbeen which could have remained insensible to the animating charms diffused around every object how wearing like a garment the beauty of the m orning and wakening into buoyant hopes joyous life beneath its inspiring breath


having watched one or two boats pushing ont into the bay and sauntered forth some time in the grounds of the college the mysterious name given to so many pieturesque ruins find beautiful od sites in ireland and in scotland which probably in the former times wei echapels or preceptories florencewas slowly proceeding homewards probably to await for hours her husbands appearance ut unvilling to risk the slightest chance of his disappointment at her temporary absence when a young mail suddenly started in iher path from behind a crumbling mass of the dilapidated town wall


she instantly recollected him as the escaped prisoner of the former day


both stood


there was neither time nor place for ceremony


and did you escape


i am truly glad of it


was jier exclamation


didnt j your honour


we can no more tell why the irish apply the epithet to ladies than could boswell why dr johnson sometimes called females by the manly epithet of rascal


didnt i handsomely trick the tories anu am here for your honours service


he offered a folded paper to


her acceptance which florence would have opened


nob now your ladyship not now and haste back to his honour who has friends unknownst in them parts who have lain on their tril thetory yillians for ririlea back


and if they take him by cork the red coat yagabones let his honour keep a sharp lookout for a mighty big beirin about


castle martyr or thereaway or if to northward then say for a a large lot of boys in a field near a place they call keshs mill who will be turning the sod this blessed sunday morning for a poor widow whose husband suffered for the country are you not felix said florence the orphan boy who wont o visit us


every summer from tipperary with his little sisters and his grandmother


how long a journey you must have had yesterday


the same your ladyship and proud you remember us replied the hid as we do you


the ginrous heart never lost as poor grandmother says but in doing the churl kindness and the tangs business may lie in the beggars way


gch if


his honour were in it there instado of your ladyship the boat is hi the creek ami the boys in the bay would now carry him safe off in spite of jthe murdering theives and their bloody troopers


before florence could reply he had started off and was again lid by the masses of ruined wall which covered his retreat


the object of his sudde n terror appeared to be two troopers who probably abroad on a gallop of inspection around the town were ascending the hill


florence walked hastily on concealing the paper in hersleove


on reaching the inn a dragoon guard of six men with a sergeant were found posted at the door and triphook the dublin thief taker was already lounging there looking even more scowling and brntal than usual


your ladyship has been early abroad in a strange place maam was his observation made in n tone which would have prevented florence from replying had her life depended upon it


she passed haughtily on her features taking that expression of calm disdain which had succeeded the beautiful scorn which too often sat upon them in her girlish days


with a superfluity of those phrases which gave energy to the eloquence of genuine blackguardism the fellow swore that if any thing came of nil this colloguing mhaister gorman who gave himself mighty fine airs to be sure should answer for it to major sirr


an authority more potent as well as terrible in this mans idea than that of all the government besides


the orderly had returned from cork directions for the journey whatever their nature might be were received and tho party were now making a hasty breakfast before setting out


tho prisoner had several times on tho way ordered refreshments for jiis military guard at his own charge but at this tinio the order was surlily countermanded by major si its subaltern no by


will allow no more bribes either of mate dhrink money or fair speeches


none save for yourself perhaps retorted sergeant whitby but you say well mr oatchpole my men shall not feast at the irish pemmans cost king george iii god bless him


hand somely maintains his own soldiers


speak for yourself sergeant muttered one of the troopers his own sergeants niayhup he does


can ydutim see the harm a drop of liquor would do us this sanie sharp morning before mounting


but if a noggin of whisky is rebellion so be it


mind your boasts and your arms gentlemen cried the smart and civil sergeant in that


pereniitoryitone which had lately gained his worsted epuilotiind sleevebars


eyes and ears vpliarp and tongues mute arc myoiders for this dayrs march florence was pining for opportunity to peruse the billet delivered to her by felix but uone occurred so affectionately was she either beset by the compassionate and overcivi landlady or so closely watched by the vigilant mr triphook


she could only at one glance when descending the stairs perceive that it was written in tho peculiar handwriting acquired by such irish ecclesiastics as have been bred in spanish colleges and that it bade mr joyce be of good courage and prepared to seizo any opening of good for tune


his friends were more numerous and alert than he could guess and at the present crisis his personal freedom was con sidered of such importance to tho cause that no effort would be wanting to effect his deliverance at all risks


many mysterious intimations were given of succours from abroad of organizations in distant and most unexpected quarters whero a sudden rise or a feint mnst


appal the distracted government aud permit the patriotic to aid with effect


compliments which at this moment sounded hollow to the throbbing heart of florence were paid to the patriotism and spirit of mr joyce who it was confidently believed would rather animate the courage and confirm the reso lution of her husband then seek to withdraw him from the active service which the country now demanded from all her true sons with one injunction of this agitating epistle florence felt bound in honour and in wisdom instantly to comply


she tore it up in very minute bits and running back to tho parlour they liad occupied strewed them in the fireplace among its


unprofitable gay furze decoration afraid to ask for a candle lest her purpose should be suspected by the dragoon who now watched her every motion


he had noticed her hurried retreat up stairs and she had no sooner entered the carriage then he went back into the house and with the keen eye of a thieftaker prowled about for his prey


he wa soon overheard in loud altercation with the chambermaids and the landlady who like most other women girls and lads in ireland at that period were all for the prjsonor arid the kiiigdom and most disloyal to the castle and the prison


sorra bo on the poking spogues of the dirty baste


exclaimed the brisk kitchenwench


huaich then


are them the best of your dublin manners to be rummaging among a ladys bits of curling papers


give it myself then


and without waiting permission the scraps from which some word of treason or con spiracy might have been divined to commend the zeal of mr triphook at headquarters were dexterously whipped out of his hand by the active lass who ran laughing out for refuge among the crowd which in spite of the troopers had now collected round the inn door


mr gorman triphooks principal was appealed to and galled upon to quell the row between the functionary and the girl and probably as much from displeasure at the imper tinent and intrusive zejil which reproached his own leniency he ordered the fellow to mind his duty and florence who had bitterly regretted her halfdone incautious work was relieved from alarm


meanwhile the crowd rapidly increased j and neither the threats of the sergeant nor a few slaps with the flat of his sabre could hold back the obstreperous multitude or silence their blessings and prayers


sure his honour is a great squire from tho west suffering fon his kingdom


cried a patriotic beggar woman whose eloquence was no whit damped by the alms which florence bestowod


and her ladyshipthe daughter of a grand rich squire true old irish took up a buccough great luck to them both and deliverance in the lords good time


and the crowd huxzaed


while such observations were made in the front ranks keen looks and eager whispers passed amoug the boys whose shilellaghs were already vibrating in their hands as if instinct with life


if an open rash and mad attempt at a rescue was not made it was certainly in contemplation


the thundery or grim and earnest visages of another description of persons more advanced in life who looked one of these men who appeared a person of some importance among his neighbours authoritively coniiuanded hilence and respect to the law


yes in troth lave the sogers to keough lave them to the governorgiheral of avexford


i cried one reckless fellow whom the former speaker threatened to throttle for his folly


many a bog and crook o the rqad satire between the blackwater and the liffeyt


wliat do you say fellow


cried the sergeant knitting his brows to a martial frown as he curbed his curvetting cliarger


och ouly how brave the army is when eight men and horses are enough to capture a whole irish squire


this sally was received with a hurst of genuine irish mirth sucqeeded by racing scamperingj and yelling among the women and boccoughs as the horses pranced on striking fire froin the pavement with their hoofs


come boys cried the orator one cheer more for the squire and his lady and a groan for the sogers


and the cheer which rose for the sufferers for the country shook the welkin


to the infinite disappointment of joyce it was not by the cork road that they quitted the town and he feared that he was johe hurried at once to the capital as o


gorman had at all times assured him that the country was now open and safe alld the insurrection in wexford and wicklow coltipietely put dovn


as his questions on former days had been evasively answered ho for bore questioning more about the route but on advancing a few milesj ho recollected whereabouts they were and informed florence that he believed


they were advancing towards dun garvari


not to cork nor yet to vvaterford breathed florence her distracting agitating iopeoi speedy deliverance becoming more precious as it receded


yes my florence probably to waterford by dungarvan but


mr ggorman he added laughing does not seem to admire his pupila studying the localities of the coast


so i have perceived bnt in a traveller so ntv as myself surely a small degree of curiosity is pardonable particularly in so charming a country as that we have been traversing


ah florence false already to the shannon continued joyce in the same lively mood


i deny tlie imputation though that magnificient blackwater might shako fidelity but a degree less warm than mine


the shannon is our irish ganges and no mere river


well btay florence until i shall have the pleasure of shew ing you that cove one day or say that wild land of lakes cunnehiara which would hit your taste still better


oh that we were already there


cried florence fixing her expressive eyes upon him


she would have given worlds at this time for a private conference of but one minute to warn joyce of the best and worst lihe knew and put him upon his guard and probably in consequence of his quarrel with his colleamie appeared for the first time somewhat sullen


a halt was made to procure water for the horses and some miles farther on it was found their original postilion had dropt off and that his place was sup plied by another boy dressed in his topcoat caubeen and muffling knit worsted cravat


the discovery was np sooner inade than the


change was sharply challenged


sure would you have a boy come on and him roaring in the cholic when myself was so obliging as to take the ribbons not to delay the gentry and knowing the way of the bastes was care lessly said in the voice of felix


the heart of florence throbbed and it required her utmost resolution to maintain composure


threats of pistoling tho lad on the spot if he dared to trifle with them enforced by fierce and foul imprecations were parried in tho same seemingunconscious and careless tone


sure your honour lias better prayers than that same in dublin city to give a poor boy like myself


didnt i tell yon tim was roaring like a stuok pijjf and tho grandmother pouring a naggin of whiskey punch in him screeching hot wfyh a taste qf black spice in it


i advise your honour the first time you take the cholie just to try that


the soldier laughed and mr triphook became more avigrv


great luck ye were in to be sure gintlemen that got me continued felix


just


as like i had been far on the highway to cork by this time to a big berrin


of a friend of mine as driving bastes to vaterford


but hark


the hounds are abroad


ho drew up his horses affecting to listen and florence fancied this intimation intended for her enr


the new postilion deserved any praise hut that of a steady driver


now he galloped putting the horses to their full speed now ho loitered and again where a point of vantage discovered moro of the country made


a dead halt as if to reconnoitre his way


the shouts of the soldiers would again make move but at every acclivity of a few feet he would protest against bursting the winds of the poor craturs in the mountain with so loug a road before them and like to bo hungry and droutliy both


now and then a peasant in his sunday clothes or mithagreat coat covering all infirmities either passed or dropped out upon the road from some gap in a fence or the boshcen leading to a farmhouse and a hasty mystical interrogatory was often put and answered in irish and sundry grimaces were made which looked not unlike signs of secret intelligence


to one of those men who stood aside to let the party pass triphook called out what have you got there under your top coat you spalpeen


what should i have returned lhe man covering his imple ment and leaping back but tho bit spade to turn up the field of a lone widdy lord look down her


and sure no fitter work for a blesaed morning like this than that same


the lord reward you daceht man


whined the postboy halting his horses and nodding emphatically but hist


did ye not hear the hounds out


a steeplechase of squire power and the parsons i dare say


the man listened or pretended to listen i do hear them far enough off though the wind rather again them eff


thp scent maybe


iut if you get in time to iceshs mill their hon ours in the coach may catch a sight of lhe fox yet


come come mr driver said the sergeant with an admoni tory slap from the flat of his sabie look to your cattle


you see mr triphook is black in face with rage at your play


w must have no more of this hopskipandjump hurryscurry driving


and how came you to think of the hounds being out of a sunday


papist as your country is you dout hunt on sun days


nothing but poor christians replied the lad making a great flourish of getting on as his worship there from dublin city can tell you


belike being an englishman you know less of tlie sport


tell you what you rebelly rascal


vociferated triphook ill stand this tomfoolery no longer


look to your prisoner mr ogqrman riding at your ease there in your chay mind your duty i warm you sir


mr gorman fired at theinsolence of his colleague and replied in no measured terms


he however rated the crackbrained postboy roundly for his tltisteady pace and commanded him in future to observe silence and favour them with no more of eiher his jokes nor yet his remarks


gorman on whom the party depended had by this time a secret cause of perplexity which neither pride nor prudence permitted him to acknowledge


the road with which he had fancied himself well acquainted had put on a quite new appear ance


the very face pihhe country seemed changed since he had travelled that way


but this might be owing to the advance o cultivation the growth of woods and other natural causes


the lad could have no motive to mislead them and at the peril of his life durst not attempt anything so daring


the prisoner so vigilantly looked after couid have had no communication with any one and their desultory route must have baulked any scheme of rescue had such beep in agitation


he resolved to betray suspicion but to make secret inquiry personally at the first house or hamlet that offeiedl the roads had now become exe crable and the horses began to shew symptoms of fatigue upon this interminable stage


the undulating country wild and bare might rather have been called lumpish than hilly though an outline of mountains seen at a considerable distance in the line on which the party was proceeding strangely puzzledthe kings messenger


he durst not think these were a shoulder of the galtees yet why was no chance glimpse ever obtained of tho coast or the sea


v how far may we be friend from this same dnngarvan said the sergeant addressing a countryman who when overtaken halted to reconnoitre the military array


arrah yes dungarvan cried the quickwitted postboy


didnt ye hear man vhither we are carrying squire joyce of the west to send him round to dublin castle to suffer for high treason insurrection and rebellion


hold your peaco rascal


cried several voices


but the peasant interrogated now examining the face of felix alias coii shee had not yet replied stupidly muttering diingarran was it your honour said


and he scratched his mass of hair look ing to con for his cue much as may a witness suddenly called to give evidence for z friend in distress to the leading attorney of his party in the case


are you dafe this same holy morning screamed the per tinacious lad whose yiracions features gave the cud which the other could not seize


sure didnt the gintleman tell ye we ore driving hard with a rebble squire joyco of the south to rend him and his lady round by say to be beheaded for high trasori nd as we left youghall by


the screech we must be near it now


say another word you rebelly villian and ill cut your throat


exclaimed triphook choking


sure your honour will be quate then and not mnrder a poor ignorant cratur axing a decent man for a proper direction that we may keep off the way of them desperate vagabones who last week captured lord kingsboro and hung fifty sogers over wexford bridge ayj and would sarvo us with the same sauce the bloody rapparees once they could rescue the squire and catch us


but sure honest fellow we are out of all danger of eiri and near the blessed uny now


though unusually slow of apprehension for an irishman the man at last replied


from tlie say


och not far to speak of now though you have beeii


all round about like the town oi ferinoy as the folks siiy


so top of the day to you gintlemen follow on theres a clover boy in it to drive ye


we are all poor hardfrdrking christians on tliis side scbking a bit and a sup for our poor families arid a rag of clothes in pace to kiver them and not thinking of ructions andrisenes of


rubble squires


the man rapidly struck into a side path ahd disappeared while tho dragqons looked as if they would have been delighted to send a bullet after him


they wore now about to descend into the lvollow in which lay the oftenmentioned hamlet of keshs mill in which there was ii a mill and a few cabins scattered over a narrow strip of rushy meadow ground intersected by minikin fields and potato gardens


the dell in the centre of which the lyiralet stood was crossed by


the road and a imrrdvir bridge lay over the stream which ran through it


the banks of tho dell for it was rcarcely entitled to the name of glen of valley weresteep but shelving clad in brnsh wbod aiid almost rich with blossomed furze and broom and fern waving round jutting banks of sand and masses of reddish rock


there was no remarkable feature in the iiarrow landscape but after the desolute tract they had passed the sequestered hamlet with its stream and sylvan banks looked soft and fair and the gabble of unseen children and domestic fowls which told that tho afternoon meal was preparing gave it a heightening touch of lifo and interest


if the road leading down to keshs mill was steep and crooked that ascending from it on tlie opposite side was yet more precipitous from the lower ground which they had reached it appeared to the dragoons unaccustomed to the ojlical illusions presented by straight monntainous roads almost perpendicular and impossible to be travelled on horseback


yet at that mo ment a black cloud of human beings appeared on the uminit releived against the sky some of


them mounted arid looking iik tall spectres


ftiu jorge alahoneys berrin cried the postboy who died last week of the fever lie


caught


at cahir and no wonder it should be


nbig one for living or dead jorge had


a strong back


the sergeant took the liberty of laughing at this


very irish reason of a strong back procuring a dead man a numerous


attendance to the graro and con or felix allowed the man to enjoy his triumph and heartily joined in the laugh against him self


i mean mhaister mahoney was well friended


he added


at last which you english gentlemen dont understand


in the meantime mr mahoneys strong back had excited some un easiness in the breast of g g orman and his friend triphook


and when the latter who it may be remembered rode outside with


the postiliqn accidentally looking back descried another largo party following hard upon the track of the carriage he started up shouting by j


veresouldi and drew his pistols from his belt


hist


man cried felix dont


you gee its thecraturs were


toiling for the widdy coming this way with their spades and achthes on their shoulders to meet theberrin and convey it to the churchyard


the excitement and anxiety became general


the prisoner nwho though still unconscious yet could not suppresshis curiosity


rrwas ordered not to attempt to


stir or look put at the side win dowa which were instantly drawn up and the blinds closed while


o


gforman leaped to the ground


the womans heart of florence fluttered and became deadly faint


here then the attempt was tobemado vhero lurked the ambush in this sweet and


peaceful


dell which might in another minute be the scene ofa sanguinary struggle of violent death


of


barbarious murder the spot where


she might see the being to whom she clung in the


strong travail of her soul perish before her eyes


the rush


and hasty patter of running


feet the tramplingof the horses and the distracted and discordant voices of the dragoons together with the previous cir cumstances had by


this


cqiiveyed the tputh


to the mind of the t prisoner


florence i he cried eagerly surely friends are near us perhaps a party of the insurgents of the patriot army may have intercepted us


look up dearest


where is your high cour age


oh that my hands should be fettered in an hour like


and he pressed them together in anguish while florence once


again elasped them to her


side exclaiming ihave no courage none to meet scenes like that approach i ing


calmly could


i meet death but not sit here


oh


no v tamely by the helpless witness of brutal violence of savage j butchery perhaps to see you


oh let me not think of it


to be continued


imp darker


jcv chapter n after jienry nad retired to ms room mr tucker stood for some minutes gazing vacantly at the table now and then uttering a bitter im precation on henry consigning him to an unmentionable abode of misery and swinging to and fro with a sort of involuntary motion no doubt caused by the copious libations in which he had indulged during the evening


tis bedtime i think he soliloquised but this fellows ranting has quite upset me


i shall not sleep if i go to bed


as he spoke he poured a large portion of brandy into a tumbler and adding about an equal quantity of water swallowed half of the mixture then with a heavy sigh he flung himself into an armchair near the table with his glass before him and sat for some time in moody silence


at length he started up and emptied his glass exclaiming hang the fellow


i wish he had cut his a noise in an adjoining room startled him and prevented the completion of the sen tence


eliza is that you


he called i thought you had gone to bed long ago


come here


the door opened and his wife entered partly undressed but wrapped in a large woollen shawl and as she seated herself in a chair she shivered with cold although it was the summer season


she had left the room during the early part of the discourse between henry and mr tucker which we have described in the preceding chapter to attend to one of her children who was sick in an adjoining room nevertheless she had overheard all that had transpired for they had each spoken in very loud tones


mrs tucker was a delicatelooking woman of small stature with mild soft blue eyes and a pensive and thoughtful expression of face


she was suffering from a chronic disease as the transparency of her complexion and her general appearance too clearly indicated


the voices of gossips had long since assigned the cause of her ill health to unkind treatment from her husband and to her determined custom to sit up for him on the many long nights of his absence from home


frequently has she sat at her open window till long past midnight watching with eager eyes for his figure to turn the corner of the street and too often report saidhad she been repaid for her watchful solicitude with hard words from him or a sullenly ex pressed threat to continue to absent himself from home till a later hour every night until he had cured her of her fancy for spying over his actions


the poor woman bore all his unkind ness without a murmur and although when speaking of him the tears might be discerned standing in her eyes no person ever heard her speak an upbraiding word to him and her ever ready excuse for him showed how anxious she was to keep his failings secret


her children were the objects of her unceasing care and it was her constant study to lead them to that blessed saviour who was the only source of strength and comfort to her


she was conscious that she would soon be removed from them by the cold hand of death and that thought often bathed her poor pale cheeks with tears not that she dreaded death for she could long ago say i know that my redeemer liveth but she feared the effect of their fathers example on their young minds when she would not be living to guard them from its influence


often has she knelt beside their couch at midnight hour and bedewed its coverlid with the hot tears forced from her eyes by the wringings of her poor halfbroken heart whilst she has poured out her whole soul in prayer to the father of mercies to be their guide through life and especially to guard them from the dreadful evil of intemperance which she saw with indescribable anguish was too surelyserpentlikecrushing her once kind and loving husband within its fatal embrace


eliza said mr tucker with a thick husky voice and with that attempt at precision of speech which clearly marks a certain stage of inebriation did you hear what that fool of a fellow was saying just now


hell ruin us for certain if i dont stop him


why he has half emptied the cellar i expect the drunken young monkey


whod have thought it of him


and he vows hell tell mr green tomorrow all about it and is fool enough to think hell forgive him


hell transport him for certain


he has no more mercy for a drunkard than i have


i hate a drunkard especially a sly one


now if i cannot stop him from taking this course im ruined


i have helped myself pretty freely to the contents of the cellar and that he knows well enough or he would not be so ready to confess to me what he has done


mr t re plenished his glass as he spoke


but my dear timidly urged mrs t i do not see such great reason for your fears for henry


i was quite delighted to see him under such good impressions tonight


i am sure he will not injure you


if he gives over the evil habit of drinking altogether he would soon save money enough to replace the wine or spirits which he has so improperly and sin fully made use of and how much happier he would be and how much healthier i am sure i have been quite distressed about him for a long time he always looks so haggard and tremorous and more especially of a morning


he seldom eats anything for his breakfast and his hand shakes to such an extent that he cannot lift his coffee qup to his lips without spilling part of its con tents


oh i i do so much hope he will join the teetotal society as he proposes to do


i would then gladly plead for him with mr green


as usual eliza said mr tucker angrily and with increased difficulty of articulation always on extremes confound the teetotal society i say


i hate every one connected with it and so does mr green and he would be sure to find out that henry had been a drunkard if he joined it


why some of his membersaye scores of themhave been the greatest drun kards in town


yoa heard what the rev mr t said only last night about thstt society


did not he con vince you that it was founded on a wrong basis


i like the doctrine which he preaches and practices too moderation in all things


mr tucker slaked his thirst as he spoke and struck his emptied glass on the table to give effect to his argu ment with a noise which made mrs tucker start


pray do not be angry with me my dear said mrs tucker tremblingly but do you not know very many worthy men in that society ministers of the gospel and others who i am sure were never drunkardsmen who join it from a conscientious sense of their duty to set an example and to help those poor unfortunate victims and we know alas


that this city contains thousands of such to shake off the cursed yoke which binds them and is leading them body and soul to ruin


oh yes


that is the object which has induced hundreds of good zealous menand women tooto join that society which has been the means through the blessing of god of filling so many dreary wretched homes with peace and plenty and making so many poor wives and children happy and comfortable


i am sorry to say a word against the rev mr t but he really did not convince me last night that the teetotallers were not right and i had nearly told him what i thought in my heart whilst he was speaking


i should be delighted if you would allow me to join their society


i really cannot understand what he means by moderation


i have often seen him drink a bottle of wine at his dinner at this table and last night the decanter which was full of brandy when you two sat down just after tea was empty when you arose


now do tell me my dear what is moderation


mr tucker who had been sitting looking at his wife with a stupid stare peculiar to the state of positive intoxication his head falling from side to side with a sudden jerk thus appealed to with many strange con tortions of his features in his attempts to make his faltering tongue perform its officewhat is moderation


why hie why knowing when you have had enough hie that fellow has upset me so much tonight that i feelvery poorly


why modration hie is taking no more than will do you good hie never overstepping the bounds of propriety


thats mod


here mr tucker arose to snuff the candle but was incapable of keeping his hand steady enough for the operation so he extingushed it


he uttered an angry anathema and in attempting to reseat himself in his chair he missed his mark and sitting upon the arm of the chair it over balanced and he fell heavily to the floor in falling he grasped at the table cover and dragged it together with the whole contents of the table to the floor with a crash most alarm ing to poor mrs tucker


some minutes elapsed before she had power to move from her chair when she hastily procured a light and fearing the noise would alarm the servants or henry she fastened the door to prevent their ingress and then attempted to raise air


tucker who was now in a deep sleep and snoring loudly


all her efforts to arouse him however were ineffectual


he mut tered thats modmodration and snored away louder than before


she therefore placed a pillow under his head and taking the blankets from her bed she covered him over with them and then wrapping herself round in her shawl she reseated herself in the easy chair to watch beside him till mornings dawn and to indulge in her own bitter reflections


aqua


chapter iii


the police the gamblers that so daring an outrage should have been so nearly successful and then be passed over with scarcely a thought by the intended victim of the marauders will not appear strange to the citizens of sydney who have long known the value of a most expensive police force which boasts neither protective nor detective attributes but is mainly distinguished for its neatness in levying fines


within a few yards of the spot where eustace was attacked stands a little publichouse the landlord of which was fined a guinea on the morning following this very outrage because his lamp had gone out during the night the fact being duly verified by an indefatigable constable who was anxiously watching its last flickerings at the moment when lipey was springing from his lair in the paddock


now perhaps there are few cities in the world wherein fr the amount of its population are congregated a larger number of the profligate and vagabond classes than swarm the alleys and byelanes of sydney and assuredly there can be nowhere found so utterly insufficient a police


to lodge a few miserable drunkards in the watchhouse chiefly with a view of levying fines on the publicans in whose homes they may have been seen tippling seems really to be the sole end and aim of the force


the policeoffice it self is the fashionable morning lounge for the elite of durands alley and the like purlieus and the bandying between the bench and the witty advocates who plead in that court derive additional zest from the shouts of applause with which each smart repartee is greeted by the rollicking representatives of roguery who fill the boxes


if any thing were required to illustrate the inefficiency of the police the permitting a crowd of idlers scarcely one of whom has any visible means of livelihood to occupy the seats of this office morning after morning is one of the most convincing proofs of the delightful ignorance of their duty displayed both by the magistrates and their officers


this is a digres sion from the progress of our tale but in truth to the very laxity we are deprecating may be ascribed many of those mysteries to which it now is our province to refer


but a truce to philosophizing upon so hopeless a theme let us turn to other scenes which were enacting in other quarters on the night in question


if experience be dearly bought it is not the less worth the purchase


to grow old without realizing its benefits was the bitterest reproach which pitt could level against a political anta gonist


experience is the ripe fruit which is gathered among brambles the rose which springs in the midst of thorns


if our hands are stung and pricked in severing it from the stem they are made the fitter for endurance in all fu ture time


such were the thoughts which arose in the bosom of a young man who about oclock on the night of the already mentioned occur rences emerged from the door of the royal hotel and proceeded towards an obscure public house in yorkstreet


his age might have been about twentyfour or twentyfive but the hag gard expression of his countenancethe effect perhaps of long mental suffering or continued debaucherycaused him to look at least four or five years older


his dress of colonial tweed and jaunty cabbagetree hat proclaimed him to be of that anomalous class of australian colo niststhe squatter but with his reckless bear ing there were mingled traces of a more refined character than is often displayed by the roister ing denizens of the squattages who seem to think that in the bush they must do as bushmen do


as he stopped at the door of the house in yorkstreet he threw a close and scrutinizing glance around and observing that no person seemed astir he gave two sharp taps on the window shutter and to a query from within having given a password the door was opened and in a few moments he was in a large room on the first floor wherein around a table sat four teen or fifteen men watching with anxious inte rest the progress of a game of hazard whereupon some large stakes were depending


near the fireplace stood a showily dressed and rather handsomelooking woman who was alternately occupied in exchanging jokes with the chief player and attending the calls of such of the party who were drinking at the table


her complexion was pale and her hair black as the ravens wing was parted carefully over features of an attractive cast though she could not be termed regularly handsome yet the toutensemble of her face had a pleasing and striking ex pression


the person who was throwing the dice and joking with the landlady was a man beyond the middle age dressed in that peculiar style which the sons of israel are so famous for displaying on state occasions


a gaudy vest across which hung a massive gold chain diamonds glittering in his shirt and upon his fingers trowsers of a pattern perfectly outr in its extravagance and a coat of the finest texture formed a striking contrast to the careless and shabby dresses of the rest of the company


next to slasher for such was the name of the chief player sat an elderly man named wilson whose repulsive and heavy features were in no wise improved by a broad scar which extended across his face from the cheek bone to beneath the upper lip and next to him again sat another person of small decrepit stature and mean appearance whose deepset ferret eyes lean hatched face and low forehead expressed deep cunning and scheming trickery as the chief characteristics of his na ture


he was by profession a moneybroker by practice a swindler and thief and would stop at no crime to effect an object provided it could be committed with safety to himself for cow ardice and treachery had long set their mark upon him as their own


the remainder of the party consisted of petty shopkeepers professors of the fancy and hangerson of slasher who with a great com mand of capital seemed to take a sort of fiendish delight in displaying large rolls of notes of value before the greedy eyes of his very questionable associates


this sort of infatuation on the part of men of slashers way of life has been recently adverted to with much force by a london journal in re ference to the late bermondsey tragedy and a comparison between the fate of weare and oconnor has been well followed up by expres sions of surprise at the weakness of the victims inviting as it were their doom by unguardedly mingling with associates whom they knew to be needy and profligate and whose cupidity they were always exciting by an ostentatious display of ready money


so long as there are roderigos weares oconnors and slashers in society we may be assured that there will be iagos thur tells mannings and mrs millwoods to make a prey of them and scheme their destruction like the moth around the candle has slasher tempted his destiny


may he take warning ere its day be over


the play proceeded and was evidently in slashers favor at his elbow stood a man of gentlemanly address but whose costume was of the shabbygenteel kind


he was not playing himself but occasionally whispered advice to the thrower whose protege he appeared to be


the devil take oflaherty muttered the moneybroker let him keep to his law and let slasher keep to his play


talkin of laa said an anxiouslooking man whose accent at once proclaimed his coun try the deil spet mo if a dinna think that the auld deevil himsel hauds his pandemonium here


theres a gentleman at rome they ca the deevils advocate and am thinkin oflaherty yer standin aways at slashers elbow in thot capocity


oflaherty laughed and the speaker pro ceeded


a dinna muckle lak the laa mysel


am entirely of willie shokspurs opinion that a lawyers fine pates filled wi fine dert and am varra muckle o his mind when he talks o the laas delay the ensolence of oaffice the thousand sperns whilk patient merit o the unwirthy taks


confound your clishmaclaver said slasher attend to your game and the play pro ceededthe squatter whom we shall call ver non joining in it with painful anxiety


to be continued


the holy mountain of la s alette


a pilgrimage of the year


by the bight hev


dll


xjllathohne


chapter xi the miracles of la salette


the greatest miracle which has flowed from la salette is the miracle of grace


by all accounts nothing could be more desolate for a catholic country than the state of religion in the districts all round la salette at the time of the apparition


women advanced in age alone attended mass


this declaration of the blessed virgin was ad mitted to be a fact and was never contradicted


as a general affirmation it was but too true


yet a short time after the apparition took place ana in consequence of it the religious condition of the whole of that part of the country became entirely changed


the churches filled with people the sacraments were well attended and swearing avas put an end to


if one heard another swear he would rebuke him and say unhappy man


did not the blessed virgin


foibid it


would you bring the famine back again


and the other would answer i beg pardon i forgot myself


hundreds of thousands of persons have been attracted to the mountain of la salette as pil grims


let the reader reflect and consider well within himself what state of mind and what dis position of heart this attraction supposes and implies


there was nothing for earthly gratifica tion nothing to feed human curiosity on that mountain


quite the contrary


every one who goes there must give up for the tim the most ordinary conveniencies of life


the worldly spirit has never found its way there as yet


a strong religious feeling is manifested in all who ascend the holy mountain


and it is the impression of those who observe this pilgrimage in its daily progress that no one goes back without carrying away a certain increase of peace and a certain re ligious content


these at all events are facts which no catholic will think of attempting to explain by mere natural causes


they of necessity presuppose the intervention of the divine grace


nor will or dinary graces explain a course of conversion so extensive and so thorough as that rof which the pilgrimage and the devotion to our lady of la salette have been the instruments


the finger of god is here and the divine fruits of which so great an abundance is visible prove that a divine seed has been abundantly sown upon that holy mountain


indeed the conversions from a life of sin or of indifference to a life of piety which that pilgrimage has witnessed is one of the greatest religious marvels of our time


many hardened sinners have also been converted by the prayers the novenas and the pilgrimages which their friends have made to our lady of la salette on their behalf


numbers of these cases are known through private circles but it has been well ob served that they are of too delicate a nature for public authenticatibn nor are they susceptible of the same kind of proof which attends a miracle in the order of nature


i shall not therefore dwell longer on this part of the subject


but undoubtedly there have been wrought a considerable number of miraculous healings either on the mountain or in other places through the invocation of our lady of la saiette and by the use of the water of the fountain


and the three books of the abbe rousselot are a good deal taken up with narratives of these cures and with the documents drawn up and attested for proof of them


these proofs are not in all the cases of equal weight nor ave all the cures spoken of alike in their importance and gravity yet are there proofs abundant and beyond all that any one can fairly require to demonstrate that miraculous cures wrought in direct relation with the appari tion of la salette have been both numerous and striking


and here let me forestall a remark


all are not cured who go to the holy mountain with the desire of obtaining their restoration to health or who invoke their cure from a distance even with a strong faith


no miraculous intervention works by no such universal rule


this would be to change an exceptional order of things into a law


men would quickly proclaim it to be some occult power of nature and not a direct interven tion of the divine will


god has never at any time constituted an ordinance which like a sacra ment should on certain conditions invariably cure the diseases which flesh is heir to


when the angol descended into the probatica and stirred its waters the first who descended was cured and thus the chain of miracles was kept up to the time of christ in the jewish church


but it is only one who was healed and only at the time when the angel stirred the waters


it is neither in the order of god nor in the order of salvation that there should be certain means even with the exercises of iuitii and devotion to obtain a mira culous healing of our corporal miseries


those miseries are often the greatest blessings in dis guise and the occasion both of salvation and of sanctiiieatkni to the souls who are tried and puri fied through their instrumentality


but a sufficient number of persons and more than sufficient are healed to give an authentica tion to the apparition of a kind totally distinct from the testimony of the children


these miracles witness from heaven whilst the children witness on earth


but this is a fact of la salette which ought not to be passed over in the faithful testimony of a pilgrim


those who go there in quest of healing though they find it not return to their homes consoled and satisfied with their lot


i met several who had been healed and sought their cure and did not obtain it but i did not find one in all that number in whom the piety exercised in that hallowed sanctuary had not infused a certain holy cheerfulness and content


in fact when we look over the list of miracles which have been published it at once becomes re markable how evidently they are designed as testimonies


they are found in this place or that allover france


fortysix cures are recorded up to september and they are distributed over twentysix dioceses


nor is the diocese of gre noble that on whose subjects the greatest number of cures had been wrought


the diocese of arras digne and langres have had more than any other that is to say four in each


with relation to dioceses the cures stand as fol lows marseilles perpignan frejus avignon digne grenoble lyons valence viviers bourdeaux bourg rennes sens troyes langres blois quimper soissons orleans paris amiens arras cambrai namur in belgium lausannes in switzer land


it will thus be seen by glancing over the map of france how these miraculous powers have been exercised in favour of persons not more of the neighbourhood of the apparition than of any other portion of


france and it will at the same time become evident


how


widely extended is this devotion to our lady of la sa lette


i will now select a few examples of these mira iles and will give a brief account of them


lhose who wish to read the attestations may refer o them as they are recorded in the works i have io often quoted


sister st charles pierron of the hospital ieres of st joseph of avignon was reduced to he last stage of decline


for eight years she had een compelled to lie in bed and besides the evere affection in her lungs had violent pains of he stomach frequent spittings of blood dysentery nd a continuous slow fever


in december her sufferings became nuch aggravated her throat tongue and palate rew ulcerated and emitted a feticlodour she had jreat difficulty in swallowing as well as in speak ng so as to make herself understood and from that ime until the th of april the day of her sure she took no solid food and only a small quantity of fluid daily


in the month of february ler two physicians to quote the attestation of one f them gave her up to her sad destiny


the superioress of the community had a great desire to obtain a confirmation of the evidence of the iwo children of la salette and as the maladies f sister st charles had been long and publicly known she selected her case in preference to that af any other of the sick of her community


but when it was proposed to sister st charles that her cure should be sought through our lady of la salette this good religious declared that she had no desire to recorer her health as it would keep her from eternity


the superioress urged her proposal upon her repeatedly but as the sister continued reluctant the superioress used her authority and told her that she had no right to consider herself but only the glory of god and the augmentation of the honour of the blessed virgin


sister st charles then consented and expressed a conviction that she should be healed and a small quantity of the water of la salette was provided for her to drink


she was re quested to point out herself the exercises to be followed during the novena


each day of that novena a sister of the community went to holy communion in reparation for the sins of blas phemy and the profanation of the sunday which the blessed virgin has pointed out


there were three fasts for the same intention and each clay the community recited the salve regina three aves with the invocation mary conceived without sin c and the mater admirabilis


on the seventh clay of the novena sister st charles was not only worse but swooned and cast up a great quantity of bloud


seeing her condition the superioress said to her i think the blessed virgin is goina to cure you by send ing you to heaven


whereupon the sister re plied all my maladies do not weaken my con fidence as i have only three days more to suiter i pray our good mother not to spare me


in fact she would have everything made ready and begged that her habit and veil which had not been used for a long time might be put by her bedside


on the friday morning the day before the conclusion of the novena alter a very bad night she spat blood as usual


the community on that morning anticipated their general com munion for her as the bishop of chalon said the muss in their chapel


this was a trial to sister st charles a


she had hoped the following day to make her communion with them


she was planning in her mind to ask for a general com munion again for the following morning in which sha hoped to be able to juin and was full of this thought when she smmonly ieltagivat revolution in her frame her tnahulies ceased at once and she felt to use kev own expression as if an in visible hand hiui raised her up


she cried out i am healed


sister st joseph who was in bed in the same room did riot understand what she said and thought on the contrary that she was becoming worse she was the more alarmed as she was alone at this moment and too ill h er self to go and help her


sister st charles hear ing her weep quitted her own bed and went her self to console her


she did the same to the por teress who looked after the convent during mass and was terribly frightened at hearing some one running about the room in which she had only left sick people in bed


she came rushing in quite out of breath and feeling quite ill


sister st charles calmed her gave her something to drink as well as to sister joseph and assured them that she was cured


she then went down to the chapel and heard the remainder of the mass kneeling without any support


her two physicians were astounded when they saw her and declare in their testifications that they could not believe their own eyes she joined the labours of the community was as active as any other sister could carry heavy loads and remained in perfect health


this cure is declared by the physician inchief of the hospital of avignon to have taken place in a manner beyond the intervention of art and to partake of the natnre of a prodigy


it is certified in similar terms by two other medical men also by the three capituhr vicarsgeneral by one of the first barristers of avignon and by the su perioress and officials of the community


the next case i shall cite occurred at ayellon in the archdiocese of sens antoinette bollenat aged thirtythree had good health until the age of twelve years vhen she was thrown down and cruelly beaten by a woman who pressed her knee violently upon her chest and stomach


after that time antoinette constantly suffered the most dreadful pains for seventeen years she vomited whatever she took and was only able to digest a small quantity of milk or beef tea daily


for seven years she had an enormous tumour over her stomach on one side which was acutely painful and continued to increase


despite all the aids of medicine


for three years she had vain on her back without being able to move any of her limbs except her lower extremities slightly and she was almost entirely deprived of sleep


after her greatest agonies of pain she was relieved by a swoon


on the th of november s she exhibited all the signs of approaching death


but some time before she had proposed a novena to our lady of la salette


the archpriest procured some of the water from the fountain and during the novena she took a spoonful of it each day


but instead of amend ing her state grew worse until the st novem ber the feast of our ladys presentation and the last day of the novena when at halfpast four in the evening she suddenly felt her pains gone her tumour had disappeared and she arose quite in good health after making her thanks giving she joined the family table and ate a good meal and has continued without any return of her ailments


this miracle has been the subjeet of much and careful investigation


i will adjoin the judicial sentence of the archbishop of sens


mellon jolly by the divine mercy and the favour of the holy apostolic see archbishop of sens bishop of auxerre primate of the gauls and of germany


having regard to the report of the commis sion appointed by us the th of february s to conduct a judicial inquiry into the facts relative to an extraordinary cure which took place at avallon on the st november on the person of antoinette bollenat after a novena to the most blessed virgin likewise to the inter rogatories of the witnesses and the physician dated the th th and th of february likewise to the certificates and documents annexed to the interrogatories likewise to the report pre sented tous on the th of february by the abbe chanvau our vicargeneral charged with the examination of this affair and the dis cussion of the facts likewise to the conclusions drawn in the report after having taken the ad vice of our council and invoked the holy name of god


we declare for the glory of god the glory of the most blessed virgin and the edification of the faithful that the cure of antoinette bollenat wrought the st november after a novena to the most blessed virgin mother of god in voiteu unuer me name ot our lady oi jla salette presents all the conditions and all the characters of a miraculous cure and constitutes a miracle of the third order


given at sens under our seal and the counter sign of our vicargeneral the th of march in the year of grace


mellon archbishop of sens m martin a cleric in minor orders after long complicated and painful sicknesses was attacked with a sciatica which contracted his leg


this additional malady became so serious and was ac companied with pains so excessive and so lav beyond the power of his nervous state to bear that his physician had repeatedly declared that unless the pains could be diminished they would take him off


a novena to our lady ot la salette was commenced and on the first day of the novena at seven in the evening the sufferer re ceived some water from the fountain of la salette drank of it and was immediately restored to per fect health


this is attested bvtho superior and professors of the seminary and is authenticated in a formal letter of the biship of verdun who declares his conviction that it is very difficult to explain such a cure by the sole forces of na ture


i shall next select a cure through a pilgrimage to la salette


mdlle


lauzur of st cere aged is was placed at the pension of the convent the visitation at valence


from her childhood to her th year her eyes were affected from oph thalmia


the disorder then disappeared but from their defectiveness and weakness she still required the use of a pair of spectacles


on the th of april this young lady lost the en tire use first of one eye then of the other on the same day and was reduced to such a total blindness that she became insensible to the light even of the sun


her physician pronounced it to be a case of amaurosis and that both her eyes were completely paralysed


after every remedy which the science of medecine could apply had been tried without the least effect she herself proposed a pilgrimage to la salette


the youno lady resolved in her piety to walk the whole of the way from valence and she set out in com pany with and under the guidance of sister mary justine a member of the community


she travelled on foot the whole of the way em ploying her heart in prayer and from corps on the morning of the st of july she made the en tire ascent to the mountain still on foot


she reached the sanctuary wet to the sldn from the heavy rain and covered with perspiration


she hoped to obtain her restoration on the following day which was the feast of the visitation of our lady


she at once hastened to the chapel and as she entered she exclaimed how good it is to be here


a quarter of an hour afterwards father sibillat one of the anssioners gave her the holy communion on receiving which her sight instantaneously returned


after a few minutes of emotion in which she remained transfixed in her position she exclaimed i see


i see


after which she remained intensely absorbed in contemplation


meantime mass was said and after it was finished it required the authority of father sibillat joined to the entreaties of sister mary justine to induce her to return from her absorbed devotion and to show the pilgrims who filled the chapel what god had done for her through the intercession of mary


her sight not only remained perfectly good but she very soon found that her spectacles had become an embar rassment rather than a service and she ceased to use them


this cure is attested by the physician of mile


lauzur who calls it miraculos by fiftyfive wit nesses and also by all the community at valence and by all her fellowpupils


tne documents are legalised by the bishop of valence


the last case which i select shall be the re markable case of sister mary francis sales pro fessed religious of the first house of the visita tion of paris


it took place at the convent of the visitation at rennes


sister mary francis sales according to the deposition of her physicians had for several years been suffering from enlargement of the heart with injury of the valves


an enor mous projection extended fram the clavicle to the lowest rib


after her arrival at rennes from paris the malady continued to increase the at tacks of suffocation to whish she had now been subject for a long time reached to such a degree that she could no longer place herself in


a hori zontal position


the displacement of the ribs be came enormous the heart seemed ready to force itself through and the whole arterial system on the left side began also to enlarge


the legs swelled till the swelling rose above the knees and they became red and excoriated


a hundred and ten nights the sufferer passed sitting up in one position in a chair


cauteries cuppings and other violent remedies wwo tried but found in effectual to stop the rapid progress of this horrible disease


it was in the beginning of march j that the physician who iiad always affirmed that the disease of sister mary francis sales was beyond all remedy finding her much worse informed her family of her hopeless state


an elder sister then requested of the cure of la salette a novena of masses and sent to her dying sistev some of the water of the miraculous fountain begging of her that she vould use it and would join in the no vena


sister mary francis sales was with diffi culty induced to coiuent fronimiev ardent desire of dying


at length the voice of obedience de cided her and thenovena was commenced at la salette on the st march the family of the sufferer and three of the convents of the order joined in it


until the th she was not more than an hour in the day without an attack and it often returned in the night


the least movement gave her torture the beating of the heart alone caused her insufferable anguish


she could not swallow a drop of water or evcn her own saliva and was in constant expectation of her last mo ment


on the th march at halfpast six in the evening sister mary frances sales had an attack which to sill appearance would have boon her last


it was the si


th dj of the novena


she was delirious her eye


icod and she had all the symptoms of hy eatn she received extreme unction vmd f indulgence at the hour of death


the withdrew and prepared everything for h


i whilst the superioress with lour of the v nity watched by her


at midnight si w


xitd with the j deathsweat


they saw lur


k come stiffened


i tho mother superioress put a


ht to the eyes of her dying religious but she could not see it her eyes were fixed


they lit the blessed candle and began the prayers for the agonising


after a few minutes respiration returned she fell into a kind of doze the pulse grew intermittent sometimes it was several minutes without beating and then beat rapidly


the physician entered she did not know


him for her eyes were glazed and her de lirium continued


he said he could not answer for five minutes of life but she could not possibly get over the day


for the twenty hours of her agony she could not swallow a drop of water everything flowed back from her mouth as in the agonizing all they did was to apply the water of la salette to her lips


yet she ardently desired the holy viaticum and whenever they spoke to her of god he


reason returned


the physician recommended their trying an un consecrated host and she succeeded in swallowing


it


at four in the evening after she had been twenty two hours in her agony the holy viaticum was brought


sister mary francis sales must herself describe what followed


when they brought me our lord she writes i could neither see the priests nor the sisters nor the lights


i only knew i was going to communicate


as soon as i had received the holy viaticum i became conscious of myself and of my state


i felt my body burning all over


i understood that i had been very near death and said so to the superioress


our lord after having shewn me the state from which he was drawing me said to me interiorly it is i who can and will heal thee


i said to him fiat and i could not have said anything else for i had no other feel ing than to leave him to act


from the instant our lord said this to me a great change seemed to be working in all my left side my heart seemed to return and resume its place but with a movement so violent that it frightened me


yet not finding it followed by any suffering and a feeling of ease coming over my whole frame i per ceived myself to be cured


i was so effectually and


thoroughly


i had no more wish to make known this favour than i had previously had to receive it however after half or three quarters of an hour of thanksgiving i told it to our mother su perioress and my countenance also spoke for me for it had regained its natural appearance


i asked for something to drink and drank without difficulty


they offered me something to eat and i ate some soup with great pleasure


i walked about that same evening


my legs which up to that time had been so much swollen especially near the left foot which was itself much diseased had returned to their ordinary state as well as my side


the cautery which i had over my heart was healed


i slept well all night


i breakfasted at five the next morning


at six the physician came astonished at the state he found me in instead of being dead


he examined me with great care and said to me madam jrou seem to me like one from the other world


ever since i have been able to go up and clown stairs which i could not do for more than ten months before i can lie on either side i can use my left arm as well as my right


in short i am in perfect health and able to follow all the duties of the community


glory be to god glory to mary


i will add the conclusion of this interesting document from which i have given these ex tracts


all these depositions having been received considering the treatise of the messrs brute who attest


that the cure of sister mary ffancis sales could not have been effected by the reme dies employed which were all in vain


that the sufferer had been reduced to the last agony


that they had given up employing reme dies


that the cure was instantaneous


that the cure has now lasted ior four months considering likewise the account drawn up by the sufferer herself likewise the deposition of the religious sis ters who were in habitual communication with the sufferer likewise the deposition of the abbe cor vaisier the chaplain we have judged that the cure of sister mary francis sales was wrought in a manner altoge ther extraordinary and beyond the laws of phy siology and pathology and we have permitted the mother superioress in consequence to make known the facts above related as well as to deliver copies of the present procesverbal to persons interested in knowing them


signed by mm


frain vicargeneral superior the abbe cohvaisieh chaplain of the visitation brute sex brcjte jun the physicians sisters mahy teresa superioress mary elizabeth bassi assistant mary pauline infirmarian mary de chantal mary francis sales louisa frances stephana de gonzaga


the present iwocesvcrlml was seen and ap proved by us the bishop of rennes the nd august


g bishop op rexnes


it is worthy of notice that scarcely one of the miraculous cures of which i have given these brief accounts occurs at the time when the sick person looked for it


it is also deserving of re mark that many of the cures take place about four oclock in the evening this seems to have some relation with the time of the conclusion of the apparition which as the children suppose bagan between two and three oclock


the reader will not fail to observe that they have the most intimate relation with novenas and invoca tions of our lady of la salette and with the use of the water from what is so truly called the mi raculous fountain


a voyage ftom sydney to south australia and back again with mems social political agricultural moral and mining


chapter iv


by a sick man cruising for copper


in proceeding to an inspection of the town of adelaide i soon found that i could not do bet ter than rely entirely upon myself


i had not accompanied my companion further than about half way down the street viz to bentham nealesv corner or to the exchangefor they are both in one spot when i lost him in a kind of whirlwind of business which plucked him from my side and left me for the rest of the day to my own resources


a very interesting corner is this


take your stand here and you may at any time before noon meet with or easily ascertain the exact whereabout of almost any man of business in the place


vhere you may learn the latest news from the port or the mines and here also you may almost any morning behold plying his business one of the most interesting of auctioneers burly in his person sound in his lungs and compared with whose general professional demeanour our own stubbsis a decidedly retiring and somewhat nervous character


bentham neales the ade laide auctioneer has always plenty of mining shares to dispose of and if you only buy what he recommends you are a made


man


he seems to have dedicated his life towards the advancement of the fortunes and the allevia tion of the poverty of his feuowcreature


if the sisters of charity were ever to take any brothers into their pious connexion this great and philanthropic man would not be long out of it


nevertheless like every other remarka ble character of the same kind that has ever lived the philanthropie howard the good clarkson or the pious wilberforcebentham neales is certainly not properly appreciated in his own country


people have been heard to


intimate that he sells mining shares for his own benefit and not merely for the enrichment of others and this although he is constantly tell ing those who resort to him that it is quite in i durrent to him whether they take the shares or not


why is it sighd we to ourselves as we stood in this excellent mans auctionroom and heard him pour forth his profuse strains of


goodwill towards men that in all time our wretched race have turned upon and perse cuted their benefactors


what original dia bolical element is it in our vicious nature which thus always impels us to return evil for good


we found we were about as successful m answering these selfquestionings as other


moral philosophers had been before us and therefore as we had a gooddealof work upon our hands we contented ourselves with deter mining so fiar as our own practice went to do


justice on all occasions towards a great charac ter ancl involuntarily sighing to ourselves benevolence thy name is bentham neales we pensively walked out of the auction room for the purpose of surveying the town


the capital of south australia is divided into north and south adelaide by a queer locking crack or fissure in the earth with here and there a wet hole in it playfully called the river torrens in summer it appears that this river is never more than a series of water holes separated by long intervals of the dry


bed of the creek or crack buti believe that in winter the holes sometimes combine themselves into a ditch and rush along in such style as to j secure for themselves the reputation of a river i during all the rest of the year for people had not done speaking of it in this character even when i was there


there is even a tradition in the town that one or two ingenious persons have succeeded in drowning themselves in the torrens and to assist the imaginations of the residents bridges are built over it which how ever we never used as we found it more con venient to walk straightforward over the nearest dry part which lay in our way


it appeared to me that the colonists did not upon the whole like to hear light or irreverent criticism on this unimpressive feature of the landscape for they always spoke of lt themselves with respectful gravity


a friend dined with us one day who had come over from north adelaide to our inn on the south


on his rising in the evening to depart we pressed his further stay i really cannot said he thank j ou for you know


i have to cross the water before i can get home


s hiadleystreet in adelaide is what gedge


street is in sydney the chief business thorough i fare


indeed it is almost the only street in


which for any considerable distance there are continuous rows of buildings and even here they succeed each other in every variety of size shape and material from the weather boarded cottage up to ambitious attempts at stone and stucco fronted with plate glass and exhibiting here and there faint efiorts at ar chitectural adornment


in all other streets the buildings are every now and then interrupted by patches of vacant ground as in the less fre quented thoroughfares of sydney


there are indeed whole squares and streets with scarcely a house in them


whilst taking a pleasant walk as we thought in the suburbs we were suddenly pulled up by a fingerpost which informed us that we were in grote street and grotestreet as per map is about thc centre of the town and did not contain that i could ee a single brick erection


build ing however is going on very rapidly so that the supply of houses is fast adjusting itself to the additional demand arising out ot the great number of immigrants who are now flocking to the colony


there are not a great number of private houses at adelaide that can bear a comparison


with many of the best houses in and in the neighbourhood of sydney


but to this remark the adelaidoaians would justly oppose the com mentary well but sydney is sixty years old whilst our town can scarcely be called a sixth part of that age


bearing this fact in mind adelaide appears to me to be the more extra


ordinary growth of the two for there are cer tainly many good houses fit for a gentlemans family and many more are in course of erec


tion


these are chiefly to be found in north adelaideacross the waterthe wooloom ooloo of the south austialian capital although they are by no means confined to that polite portion of the town


the bank of south aus tralia is quite as handsome a building as any i the bye is managed by a very gentlemanly and j superior man whom we encountered and con i versed with mr edward stephens who is extremely active in advancing the interests of j the colony


there is another banking es tab


j lishment in the town which you might when j off your guard easily take for a lollypop shop i or a small store


if you were not struck re j spectful by an announcement thereon painted


in long letters a trifle smaller than the building itself that this little fiercejooking bit of red brick is nothing less than the bank of austral asia


the residence of his excellency governor i robe although not yet nearly finished accor ding to the original design stands in a tolerable garden and is a greatly superior house to the one so lately tenanted by the governors of new south wales


the legislative council cham ber on the other hand might be taken for an j insolvent methodist chapeltoo trim and prim and uniformly red in its bricks for a barn too mean for a church too demure for a theatre and too melancholy even for a private madhouse


astthe sessions had lately commenced i walked to the door this was about oclockv p m and seeing it open and no one to oppose my admission i entered and found myself in a miserable attempt at a lobby which was merely a thin chop cut off from the main building


seeing a narrow staircase to the right and left of this counterfeit lobby i struck up one side at a venture and following it to the top came out upon a small gallery in which was seated one reporter who stared to see me walking in as the audience for besides ourselves not a soul was present in the galleryi pursuing my investigations and looking down into the body of the house at rather a sharp angle of vision i discovered eight south aus tralian legislatorsbeing the whole legislative assembly of the provincefour on either side of an officiallooking table atone end of which sate one a stout and comely looking english man whom i knew from a portrait i had seen of him to be governor robe


the members governor included were very quietquiet as conspiratorsand were engaged in passing the clauses of some law apparently adapted from the new south wales impounding act for regulating the extravagancies of stray cattle in and about the streets pf adelaide


one rather lymphaticlooking legislator made a drowsy but elaborate exposure of some artful old cow apparently well known about town who had acquired the art of lifting up peoples gate latches with her horn and who seemed to require a clause or two for herself


the mem bers were all colloquial in their style at which however i was by no means surprised for it certainly is not easy to rise to the oratorial with an audience of eight and one reporter who is calmly cutting lead pencils all the time for the debate which is not to come whilst the governor evidently thought the whole thing as slow as i did


halfan hour of this j stood with great per severance at the end of which time seeing that the house could not go fer wrong for i thought i saw a volume of friend callaghansr acts lying on the table as a sort of young co lonial legislators vademcum and therefore creaking my boots as little as possible as i evacuated the gallery in favour of the reporter i once more regained the open air and took to the town


sydney morning heralw j


a private letter by the kingston informs us that dr murphy the roman catholic bishop of adelaide was on his way to ior thehead auarters of the society for the propagation of ie faith which it was necessary for hun to visit and that he had determined on extending hw journey to borne


in this case hs lord ships return can hardly be expected berow august


a new series


the mysteries of sydney or the revelations of sin shame and sorrow


chapter


the last


the closing scene


not long after the events recorded in our last chapter a happy party was assembled at the villa of miss winifred scrymgour


it was composed of that lady fanny earle frank earle and harry mordaunt the three last having at the elderly ladys earnest request taken up their abode at her house


there was joy among them but it was of a serene and chastened character showing that sorrow was not a stranger


the terrible ordeal through which frank had passed was peculiarly perceptible in him his countenance wore a grave and thoughtful expression more suitable to one of maturer years than to the young and buoyant heart rushing into the melee of life full of ardour and hope having courage for its sword and innocence as its shield


frank was smitten early and the wild exuberance of spirit oftentimes so fatal to its possessor was effectu ally tamed down and his ambitious day dreams were checked by the past


the lesson was bit ter but who shall say it was not needful


they were conversing earnestly about the eventful occurrences connected with kitely when the old butler who had nearly fallen a victim to bullys ferocity ushered jonas graham and richard into the apartment


the visitors were warmly welcomed and the utmost attention was shown to them


there was little alteration in the appearance of jonas but the son was completely metamorphosed and few could have recognized the humble drudge nips in the erect and grace ful richard graham


the lad observed the im pression he made and his eye twinkled merrily as he thought of the part he had assumed and the thousand bits of mischief of which he had been the perpetrator under the mask of stolidity and simplicity


a similar feeling occurred to all for there was a smile on every lip


your son said miss scrymgour to jonas graham performed his part well in the serious drama


were you not fearful of overtaxing his powers


no madam


there was a remarkable strength in his character from earliest youth and a quickness of perception upon which the fullest reliance might be placed


but when i add to these the deepest love for his parents and the most implicit obedience to their slightest wishes you will cease to wonder at his achievement


would his powers had been taxed in some other cause


father exclaimed the boy mournfully


true true richard replied jonas hastily we agreed to bury the subject in oblivion but when the hearts stream is stirred the bubbles will unconsciously rise


and now nipsi beg your pardon richard mr richard graham how are the worthy deni zen of migration lodge enquired mor daunt gaily being anxious to shift the sombre subject


richard instantaneously perceived his intention and entered into the spirit of it


he was once more nips to the life


vy you see mr mording our intercoorse of late has been rayther limited as the seedy gent


said to his pocket but ven i last called to pay my respex and leave my pasteboard things was pretty much of a muchness


the garding tools was stowed away so theres no fear of people as one dont like breakin their shins over em and theyve cotched a orphian a regular dozy one


i cultiwated an acquaintance vith the innicint young gennelman and gave him a few hints upon the domcstick duties of allvurks vich voke him up a bit


he vos werry grateful for the same and offered to tip me for my adwice


vith six mar