The king, surprised and delighted, has the coffin lowered down the walls, releases his other prisoners, and hastens below to receive his daughter, and to thank her generous captor. The two princes emBrace their martyred kinsman with awe and veneration. The King of Portugal praises Juan's fidelity to the dead, receiv-theless the same, and their resemblances, ing for answer: —

tween a Pagan's uncertainty and a Chris-matic art. Had he lived longer and girdtian's certainty. Antigone can only hope ed himself to the task, how might his to smooth her brother's passage to the work have illustrated the saying of his land where he can, after all, but "move contemporary Bacon, that "man, when he among shadows a shadow and wail by im- resteth and assureth himself upon divine passable streams.” But the Steadfast protection and favour, gathereth a force Prince expects the prayer of the faithful and faith which human nature in itself at the altar to remove the last interposing could not attain"! How might the prinbarriers between himself and the Vision cipal personage of his "act of self-devoof God. Accordingly the one is sad and tion," religious and constant as the Steaddesponding, where the other is hopeful fast Prince, grand and majestic as Antiand exulting. Antigone goes to death gone, have proved to us the truth of that mourningother saying of Bacon's: "A mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is 'Nunc dimittis,' when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations!"

Emptied of all joy,

Leaving the dance and song.

Ferdinand gladly meets a fate from which an ancient hero would have recoiled as from a degradation :

Not with cleaving of shields And their clash in thine ear When the lord of fought fields

Breaketh spear-shaft from spear, Thou art broken, our lord, thou art broken, with travail, and labour, and fear.

Not from his lips comes the cry, so natural to a dying sufferer who only knew one kind of heroism

I would that in clamour of battle my hands had laid hold upon death;

for he well knows that he has fought a harder fight and gained a nobler victory, than those he came to seek. And when all is over, Antigone vanishes into silence we strain eye and ear for a token that her offering has been an acceptable one, and only dim and uncertain indications struggle back to us through the gloom; but we are permitted to follow Ferdinand's noble spirit, freed from the burden of the flesh, into the realms of light, up to his place among those champions of the faith who rest from their labours on the thrones of the Church triumphant.

From The Graphic.

INNOCENT:

A TALE OF MODERN LIFE

BY MRS. OLIPHANT, AUTHOR OF "SALEM CHAPEL,"
"THE MINISTER'S WIFE,"
97 66 SQUIRE ARDEN," ETC.

CHAPTER XII.

A LOVE TALE.

I AM obliged at this moment to interrupt the history of Innocent's entrance into English life by the intrusion of another event which occurred quite suddenly, and without adequate preparation, a few days after the arrival of the trav eller, and which threw Innocent for the moment altogether into the shade. It was not a deeply premeditated event, as perhaps it ought to have been, aiming as it did at such very important results, and affecting two lives in so momentous a way. On this particular afternoon there had been a flood of visitors at the Elms, such as now and then occurs without rhyme or reason every acquaintance Thus dramatists exemplify the "irony the Eastwoods possessed seeming to be of fate" in their own persons as well as moved by a unanimous impulse. From in those of their tragedies. The almost two o'clock until five the callers kept superhuman genius of Sophocles has less pouring in. On ordinary occasions one divine materiai laid before it than the or two a day kept the house lively; this more ordinary mind of Calderon, who is was one of those accidental floods which permitted to exhibit his characters with a obey, as philosophers tell us, some fanbackground of infinity which the grander tastic law of their own, like the number personages of the other lack. And of undirected letters put into the postShakespeare, with more than the genius office. Two gentlemen arrived among of Sophocles, with a purer religion than the latest, both of whom had hoped to Calderon, lacks the score of years so lib- find the ladies alone, and who grinned erally bestowed on common men, and and shook hands with each other, and dies at Stratford before he can approach told each other the news with the most the most supreme of the themes of dra-delightful amiability, though their inter

nal emotions were less sweet. They arrived together, and as the room was still tolerably full, they became each other's companions, and stood in a corner talking with the most confidential aspect, after they had shaken hands with Mrs. Eastwood. Nelly was at the other extremity of the room, at the door-window which opened into the conservatory, talking to Sir Alexis Longueville, a man with a rentroll as long as his name, whom both the gentlemen I have mentioned regarded with unfavourable feelings.

Alexis, pointing out to him quite eagerly the different flowers that thrust their pretty heads against the glass, peering into the room. He knew about flowers. This innocent taste reigned strangely in his cynical bosom among many other inclinations much less praiseworthy. He laughed with Nelly over their Latin names, and told her stories about them and about his conservatories at Longueville. Perhaps he was not aware of the reckless way in which he was laying himself open to the remarks of the young "What do you suppose people see in men in the room, who did not leave him that old ass, Molyneux," said Major Rail- a shred of reputation to cover him, as ton," that everybody kootoos to him?" they stood behind snarling to each other, "His money," said Molyneux, senten- and united in a common enmity. He was tiously; and for ten minutes more these more amusing than either of them, and gentlemen crushed Sir Alexis under their though he had no particular designs upon heels as it were, and ground him into Nelly, he liked her fresh young face, and powder, though no feminine spite could her interest in all that he said. Perhaps, be involved in their proceedings. He too, a man who is aware of all the advanwas not an old ass. He was a cynical tages of the youth which he has outlived, middle-aged man of the world, who, not- has a pleasure in proving himself more withstanding his romantic name, had sus-entertaining than younger men. He detained a great many prosaic batterings and fierce encounters with the world. He had come to his fortune after his youth was over, and after he had learned to think badly enough of most people about him, an opinion which was not altered by the great social success he had when he reappeared as Sir Alexis, after a somewhat obscure and not much respected career as Colonel Longueville. It was now generally understood that this hero, the worse for the wear, was disposed to marry, and indeed was on the outlook for a suitable person to become Lady Longueville; a fact which his kind but vulgar sister Mrs. Barclay, who had married a millionaire, made known wherever she was received. He was "looking for a wife." Major Railton and Mr. Molyneux in their corner were both aware of this fact, and both of them were extremely bitter upon Mrs. Eastwood for allowing him, as she did quite placidly, to stand talking to Nelly "for hours," as Mr. Molyneux expressed it afterwards.

"What a pity that the best of women should be so mercenary!" he said to his companion.

They will give anything for a handle to their names," said the misanthropical Major, stroking his moustache, with discomfiture in his countenance. He had come with an estimate in his pocket for the work that had to be done at the stables, and had calculated on an hour at least of confidential talk.

And Nelly stood and talked to Sir

tained Nelly, and Nelly was not unwilling to be detained. She had perceived the entrance of the two at the end of the room, and rather, I fear, enjoyed their gloomy looks; or rather, she thought nothing whatever about Major Railton, but was guiltily glad to see the gloom on the countenance of young Molyneux.

"It will teach him to be full five days without calling," she said to herself. She had not acknowledged even to herself that she was in love with young Molyneux, but she had an inward conviction that he was in love with her, and on the whole liked him for it. Is it not always a sign of good taste at least? Therefore she stood and talked to Sir Alexis, looking up brightly in his face, till he, who had no designs that way, was half subjugated, and asked himself suddenly whether Nelly Eastwood would not do? which was going a very long way. Time, however, and Mrs. Barclay's horses, could not wait for ever, and at last the baronet was borne away.

"Come to me soon, Nelly, dear, and finish what you have begun," said that lady, whispering, in her ear, as she took leave. Finish what she had begun! Nelly had no idea what she could mean.

By this time most of the visitors were gone, and Nelly, after a few minutes' talk with the pair at the other end of the room, proceeded to execute some business which she had been kept from doing before. "I am sure Major Railton and Mr. Molyneux will excuse me," she said,

"Oh no; Sir Alexis, for instance, was very amusing," said Nelly, feeling by instinct what was coming, and defying her fate.

"You seemed to think so," said the young man, with the loftiest tone of disinterested comment.

"I don't think you will find any," said Mrs. Eastwood, making her a sign to stay. But it was getting dark, and Nelly, who was perverse, pretended not to understand. Any pleasure she might have in the society of one of the two was neu- "And indeed I did think so; he is extralized by the presence of both, and per-cellent company," said the girl. haps there was even a thought in her Thus the first parallels of warfare were mind that a young lover might take heart | opened. The pair went on quite beyond of grace and follow. In the conservatory the bit of lawn where the primroses grew, her white-furred jacket and little flower basket were lying on a chair. Before she could throw on the wrap Molyneux had joined her. "I think Railton has some business to talk about," he said aloud, with a slight nod of concealed triumph to his adversary; "May I come upon the flower-gathering expedition? Gathering flowers by moonlight has quite a poetical

sound."

and the red in the west stretched out as if to cover them, and the moon in the east looked down as if it were hanging over some battlement of heaven to watch. Nelly's delicate nostrils had dilated a little with a sense of coming battle, and as for Molyneux, he held his head high like a war horse.

"Yes, I am aware that ladies take that view sometimes; he is not popular among men," he said, with lofty calm.

"I suppose men are jealous of him," said Nelly. "Oh dear, yes, men are very jealous of each other. If you think a girl can have been out two seasons without perceiving that—

"It is too cold to be poetical," said Nelly. There had been just enough between this girl and boy to give them both a thrill of the heart when they went, out of sight and hearing, into the stillness of the garden, where, indeed, to tell the truth, few primroses were as yet to be "I am sorry we should have given you found. It was one of those lovely nights such a bad opinion of us. I am at a loss of early spring which sometimes succeed to understand," said Mr. Molyneux sol a boisterous day. The wind had fallen emnly, "what kind of creature the man with the evening. The sky in the west could be who would be jealous of an old was still full of colour, a pink flush ex-roué like Longueville. His character is tending far into the blue. The gorgeous too well known among men, I assure you, sunset clouds had broken up, but this Miss Eastwood, to make any such feeling great rose-tinted pavilion still stood, possible." spreading out its film of lovely colour Nelly coloured with pride and shame. over the house. On the garden side there" He ought to have a label on him, then, was a stretch of clear sky, untinged by to warn the ignorant. Not knowing what this dispersing veil of glory; clear, some- his crimes are, I cannot judge him; he what cold, pale, and luminous, with one is very amusing, that is all I know.” star set in the midst of it; and, separated from this blue bit of heaven by billows of fleecy cloud, a soft, clear, young moon in her first quarter. It was cold, but to think of cold was impossible with such a heaven above them impossible, at least, for these two, who were young, and who were together. They went along under the trees for some time without saying anything, except a little exclamation about the beauty of the sky.

"I am tired," said Nelly, at length; "I am so glad it is over. Calls are the stupidest of all things. If people would come in in the evening, as they do abroad -but English people will never understand."

"Your visitors were not all stupid, I think," said Molyneux, warming with the heat of combat.

"And that, of course, makes up for everything; and when any one ventures to warn you, Miss Eastwood, instead of listening, you turn your displeasure against the unfortunate man who feels it on his conscience

"Mr. Molyneux," cried Nelly, quickly, interrupting him, "I don't know what right one gentleman, whom Mamma knows, has to warn me against another. Mamma is the person to be spoken to if there is really anything to say."

Thus the quarrel flashed and fizzed to the point of explosion; and what would have happened - whether they would have been driven apart in fragments, and their budding romance blown into dust and ruin in the ordinary course of events, had Molyneux responded in the same tone, I cannot say; but there are re