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the wood, so was my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. A wise son makes a glad father, and shall I not rejoice that mine who was ever wise upon earth, is now with the Lord in glory ?" He then called upon Reuben to recount minutely all that he had seen of his boy's exploits in the battle, and to recapitulate his dying words, to the recital of which he listened in silence, but not without deep emotion, for a fierce, and almost terrible energy sat upon his features while his guest related the progress of the fight. Had he been present at the scene described, his countenance could scarcely have responded to it with a more vehement agitation. With these stern and lofty feelings Grace sympathized, as she had done when she first heard her brother's valorous achievements; again, however, melting into tears when the course of the narrative brought him before her prostrate and bleeding, and with his last breath transmitting to his parent the Bible on which her eyes were then fixed, and which had so lately been clasped

by the hands of the dying Joel. In vain did she endeavour to suppress her grief; her father heard her sob, and solemnly rebuking her for repining at the will of Heaven, he threw himself suddenly upon his knees, clasped his hands together, and turning up his blank orbs, ejacu lated with a pious fervour, “ Take him, Lord, take him! I resign him to thee as joyfully as Abraham prepared to offer up his son Isaac. He is thy son now, not mine: he has exchanged an earthly for a heavenly father. I would rather be the parent of my dead Joel, than possess the fairest among the living sons of men. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Unable to subdue her grief, and fearful of offending her father by its continuance, Grace withdrew quietly from the apartment, when the old man, after this ebullition of proud piety had subsided, remained silent for some time and motionless. After a considerable pause, roused himself, and exclaimed, " But the day of retribution and regeneration shall still come; the blood of his slaughtered saints shall not

cry to the Lord in vain. He will not suffer
this noble country to become the slave of the
world and a land of graven images. This
brave people, which were the first to bind their
kings in chains, and their nobles in fetters of
iron. This new Jerusalem which would have

built

up

the finest edifice of religion and liberty that the world ever saw, had not the crafty Cromwell stolen like a serpent into the garden of our freedom, and ruined all. We shall not for ever be bitter with hard bondage-the Lord will hear our voice-To your tents, O Israel!' will be the one cry of the nation, and the oppressor shall be driven forth like the false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah." Another pause ensued, when he continued, "Yes, it shall come, it shall come, though I may not live to witness the salvation of my country; for, alas! the boldest of our saints laid down their lives with my beloved Joel upon the bloody field of Sedgemoor; and we have no patriots left, since I followed to the scaffold the

noble Russel, and my friend and patron the
brave and good Algernon Sydney.”

In the hope of withdrawing his mind from the consideration of his recent loss, Reu

ben questioned him touching the execution of these two illustrious personages, and Malachi, who was proud of having known them, and loved to discourse upon their patriotic projects and unhappy fates, enlarged upon both with a mournful complacency.-By this time Grace had returned, and seated herself beside her poor idiot brother, who loved her as fondly as his nature would allow, in return for a thousand little kindnesses and attentions which she seized every opportunity of lavishing upon him. Boisterous and violent as he sometimes was when teazed by the neighbouring boys, or when any of the rustics unfeelingly plied him with liquor, that they might witness his turbulent antics, he was perfectly quiet and harmless at home; generally conforming to the habits of the family, and even to the prevalent mood of their minds, with a voluntary docility. Having presented to him another scrap of cake, which she had kept back that he might not devour too much at once,

Grace, who was never idle, betook herself to her scriptural embroidery, occasionally stealing glances at Reuben as he sate beside her father, or suspending the action of her needle when he spoke, lest the rustling of her work should occasion her to lose a single accent that fell from his lips. An old grey sheep-dog, blind like himself, and therefore a greater favourite with Malachi, was seated at his feet, lifting up its head and its sightless eyes, and pointing its ears while he spoke, as if listening to his discourse. Such was the position of the little groupe while the venerable old man, in a deep and solemn voice, related the seizure, trial, and execution of the two chief martyrs, as he termed them; concluding his narrative by observing, that when Lord Russel went to the scaffold, the spectators, who were encouraged as they beheld his calm and dignified countenance, melted into tears when they looked at the sympathising faces of one another. But when Sydney, with the fine intrepid face of an ancient Roman, his long hair whitened by fatigues and studies, not by age, walked with a firm

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