thin hand on her sister's head, and implored the blessing of God on her union with Keallachan.

"Clotida heard the gentle prayer, and rewarded her with a look of unspeakable gratitude. But little was she aware of the extent of the sacrifice Morling was making; and perhaps, indeed, the sufferer herself knew not how with all the veins of her heart she still clung to the lover of her youth. Yet something whispered to her sensitive spirit, that she must not trust herself to see him.

"Farewell, dearest sister,' said she; I am going to devote the short remnant of my days to pray for the soul of your brother-to implore the Redeemer to have mercy upon him,-may you be happy!'

"In vain Clotilda implored her to remain at least till the arrival of Keallachan. Morling resolutely persisted in her project, and that very evening breathed her vows in the convent which she had herself founded.

"The next day the victorious King of Munster arrived, and took possession of the town and castle of Dublin; but its fairest ornament-the

beloved of his youth-was gone ! Clotilda, with burning blushes, gave him a letter which Morling had written to Keallachan, but the contents of which were unknown to her. The prince started as his eye ran over the characters, and the hero's cheek, which the near approach of death had never blanched, became deadly pale.

"Was this at the thought that he should never again behold his cousin ?—I cannot determine, but certain it is that he delayed not to fulfil his engagement with Clotilda. Though Sitric's perfidy did not call upon him to do this, yet he had been struck by her beauty, at a time when Morling was wedded to another, and that he had learnt to doubt whether she had ever loved him.

"He had gladly embraced the proposal of Sitric to grant him Clotilda in marriage. Perhaps he may afterwards have been touched at the proof given by Morling of her still existing interest in his fate, on that fatal morning when he was taken prisoner. During the long captivity which followed, he may have confirmed himself in the idea that her coldness towards

him only proceeded from a sense of duty; and on the death of Sitric he might have indulged a hope of regaining her affections-for what love is like the first? Under this impression he may have hurried to Dublin. The intelligence of her withdrawal into the irrevocable seclusion of a convent, and the letter in which she ardently implored him to ratify his engagement with Clotilda, shewed him at once the full generosity of her conduct, and the path where his duty lay.

"As soon as the mourning for Sitric was ended, and that Keallachan felt he could with propriety approach Clotilda as a lover, he demanded her hand in marriage; and after that event had taken place, the country enjoyed a long interval of peace."

“What a very unsatisfactory ending,” I exclaimed; “surely Morling ought to have been rewarded at last for all the sacrifices she had made."

"And sure she was rewarded," said the venerable chronicler; "is there not a reward up there,” he added, looking towards the blue hea

vens,

"" for right?"

every one who tries to do what is

"But still I should have liked her noble and self-denying heroism to have been rewarded in this world," I said; " particularly where it might have been without any breach of duty on her part."

"Ah, lady," he replied, "that is the way we are all prone to reason on such subjects, but who ever yet saw the virtuous flourish in greater prosperity than others? Indeed we are told that in this world they shall have tribulation, in order that the gold may come brighter and purer out of the furnace :-but even while passing through it, they are happier than the wicked with their hollow mirth, and they enjoy an inward peace and consolation which those who only see the outside of things cannot understand."

CHAPTER V.

Reflections on various subjects-Spectral friends and

enemies.

February 5.-MOST of us contrive to find in Scripture a text to prove any favorite doctrine. Some people are clever enough to discover a commandment which says "Thou shalt not dance," for they seem to think it the most heinous sin; while another set contrives to find "Thou shalt jump ;"-but, oh! let us be charitable, and not despise any faith. May God bless all sects, and all denominations of Christians; may he shed his enlightening beams on those of other religions too, and pardon those who have none !

February 28.-I have just been reading some