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rose quickly to her feet. "Lady Ongar," |
said the voice," are you not rather near the
edge?" As she turned round there was
Count Pateroff with his hand already upon
her dress, so that no danger might be pro-
duced by the suddenness of his speech.
"There is nothing to fear," she said,
stepping back from her seat. As she did so,
he dropped his hand from her dress, and,
raising it to his head, lifted his hat from his
forehead. "You will excuse me, I hope,
Lady Ongar," he said, "for having taken
this mode of speaking to you."

"I certainly shall not excuse you; nor, further than I can help it, shall I listen to you."

"I read what it pleased you to write." "What it pleased me! Do you pretend to think that Lord Ongar did not speak as he speaks there? Do you not know that those were his own words? Do you not recognize them? Ah, yes, Lady Ongar; you know them to be true."

"Their truth or falsehood is nothing to me. They are altogether indifferent to me either way."

"That would be very well if it were possible; but it is not. There; now we are at the top, and it will be easier. Will you let me have the honour to offer you my arm? No! Be it so; but I think you would walk the easier. It would not be for

"There are a few words which I must the first time. say."

"Count Pateroff, I beg that you will leave me. This is treacherous and unmanly, and can do you no good. By what right do you follow me here?"

"I follow you for your own good, Lady Ongar; I do it that you may hear me say a few words that are necessary for you to hear."

"I will hear no words from you, that is, none willingly. By this time you ought to know me and to understand me." She had begun to walk up the hill very rapidly, and for a moment or two he had thought that she would escape him; but her breath had soon failed her, and she found herself compelled to stand while he regained his place beside her. This he had not done without an effort, and for some minutes they were both silent. "It is very beautiful," at last he said, pointing away over the

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"That is a falsehood." As she spoke she stepped before him, and looked into his face with eyes full of passion. “That is a positive falsehood. I never walked with a hand resting on your arm."

There came over his face the pleasantest smile as he answered her. "You forget everything," he said; —“everything. But it does not matter. Other people will not forget. Julie, you had better take me for your husband. You will be better as my wife, and happier, than you can be otherwise."

"Look down there, Count Pateroff;down to the edge. If my misery is too great to be borne, I can escape from it there on better terms than you propose to me."

"Ah! That is what we call poetry. Poetry is very pretty, and in saying this as you do, you make yourself divine. But to be dashed over the cliffs and broken on the rocks; in prose it is not so well."

"Sir, will you allow me to pass on while you remain; or will you let me rest here, while you return alone?"

"No, Julie; not so. I have found you with too much difficulty. In London, you see, I could not find you. Here, for a minute, you must listen to me. Do you not know, Julie, that your character is in my hands?

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In your hands? No; - never; thank God, never. But what if it were?"

"Only this, that I am forced to play the only game that you leave open to me. Chance brought you and me together in such a way that nothing but marriage can be beneficial to either of us; and I swore to Lord Ongar that it should be so. I mean that it shall be so, -or that you shall be punished for your misconduct to him and to me."

"You are both insolent and false. But listen to me, since you are here and I can

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not avoid you. I know what your threats | which he regarded her. But she kept her promise, and said not a word in answer to "I have never threatened you. I have it all. For more than an hour they walked promised you my aid, but have used no threats."

"Not when you tell me that I shall be punished? But to avoid no punishment, if any be in your power, will I ever willingly place myself in your company. You may write of me what papers you please, and repeat of me whatever stories you may choose to fabricate, but you will not frighten me into compliance by doing so. I have, at any rate, spirit enough to resist such attempts as that."

"As you are living at present, you are alone in the world?"

"And I am content to remain alone." "You are thinking then, of no second marriage?" "If I were, does that concern you? But I will speak no further word to you. If you follow me into the inn, or persecute me further by forcing yourself upon me, I will put myself under the protection of the police."

side by side, and during a greater part of that time not a syllable escaped from her. From moment to moment she kept her eye warily on him, fearing that he might take her by the arm, or attempt some violence with her. But he was too wise for this, and too fully conscious that no such proceeding on his part could be of any service to him. He continued, however, to speak to her words which she could not avoid hearing, hoping rather than thinking that he might at last frighten her by a description of all the evil which it was within his power to do her. But in acting thus he showed that he knew nothing of her character. She was not a woman whom any prospect of evil could possibly frighten into a distasteful marriage.

Within a few hundred yards of the hotel there is another fort, and at this point the path taken by Lady Ongar led into the private grounds of the inn at which she was staying. Here the count left her, Having said this, she walked on as quick-raising his hat as he did so, and saying that ly as her strength would permit, while he he hoped to see her again before she left walked by her side, urging upon her his the island.

old arguments as to Lord Ongar's expressed "If you do so," said she, "it shall be in wishes, as to his own efforts on her behalf, presence of those who can protect me." - and at last as to the strong affection with And so they parted.

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THE PLANTAGENET KINGS. A correspond- the convict chapel, begrimed with the dust and ent writes to a daily paper as follows: Wandering through France, I found myself a short time since at Fontevrault, well known as the burial-place of some of our Plantagenet Kings. The abbey, once famous, has gone to rack and ruin; its precincts are transformed into a convict establishment. The graves of the kings have, of course, been long plundered, but there are still preserved, hidden in a dark corner of

dirt of ages, the effigies in marble which once adorned them of Henry II. and Eleanor of Guienne, of Richard Cœur de Lion, andmost beautiful and best preserved of all- Isabella d'Angouleme, the wife of John. Would it not be a graceful act of the French Emperor to hand them over to our Government? As being authenticated likenesses, they would be a valuable addition to the records of our history."

THE CHURCH IN THE CATACOMBS.

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From the Contemporary Review. | to any by which places of sepulture were known to paganism, - from the Greek to lull or fall asleep; also to the phrase common No phase of Christian antiquity speaks to epitaphs above Christian graves, depositus so little to the eye, and yet none is so full of (interred), implying consignment, the temposignificance to the mind, nor so important rary trust of a treasure to the tomb, in hope to high interests, as the Art found in Rome's of another life- with sense utterly wantCatacombs the pictorial and sculptured ing to the funereal terms conditus, compositus, evidence to the life of the primitive Church, and others of pagan use. The records supplying illustrations of inestimable value, these cemeteries contain cannot be appreand pleading with silent eloquence for much ciated from any sectarian point of view; that has been laid aside, while opposed to but alike command interest from all Chrismuch that has been adopted, in ecclesiastical tians by their luminous and paramount testiusage. Here is indeed manifest to the mony to those divine truths in respect to thoughtful observer an ideal far from con- which the followers of Christ are universally sistently conformed to at the present day agreed, - here far more strikingly manifest by any religious system, Catholic or Protes- than is aught that bears evidence to dogmas tant; for the conviction that the true mani- or practices around which discords have festation of the perfectly evangelic Church have arisen among those who acknowledge is yet to be looked for as future, and that the same Divine Author of their faith. all institutions hitherto pretending to that is a noble presentment of one momentous character are destined eventually to give phase in the story of humanity that these place to a reality nobler and purer, as the sacred antiquities afford to us. morning star fades before the lustre of the cumstances of unexampled trial, amidst all this is what forces itself most the provocations of calumny, persecution, strongly upon minds capable of bringing the liabilities to degrading punishment and impartial judgment and independent reason torturing death; while the Christians were to the study of such monuments. Lately accused of atheism, considered to be, as exerted activity in the research and illus- Tacitus says, convicted of hatred against tration of the records of ancient Christianity the human race, -not one expression of at Rome-fresh impulses given to learning bitter or vindictive feeling, not one utterand speculation in this sphere, and favoured ance of the sorrow that is without hope can by the liberal patronage of Pius IX., be read upon these monumental pages, but, tend, perhaps without the consciousness of on the contrary, the intelligible language of those immediately concerned, to prepare for an elevated spirit and calmly cheerful temper, a new era in faith and devotion, whose hope whose flame never burns dim, faith spirit will probably prove adverse, in va- serenely steadfast, a devotional practice rious respects, to the teaching or practice of fraught with sublime mysticism, yet disRome, if not irreconcilable with her now tinguished by simplicity and repose altoadmitted claims for the hierarchic order. gether a moral picture, evincing what is That all which is holy, useful, morally beau- truly godlike in man! tiful, and adapted to humanity's requirements in that ably organized system of church government, whose triumphant successes are due to the talents and zeal exert ed at this centre, and long assuredly favoured by Providence, with ever-renewed proof how invariably

risen sun,

"The way is smooth For power that travels with the human heart,"

that all this may, as to essence at least, be retained in the final developments of divine religion, none can more earnestly desire or hope than those who look with full confidence for a more perfect acceptance and embodiment in the future of the truth taught by the world's Redeemer.

We have to observe the deeper significance attaching to this term Catacomb, than

At a glance we may go through the entire range of scriptural, and almost as rapidly through that of symbolic subjects in this artistic sphere, both circles obviously determined by traditions from which the imaginative faculty was slow to emancipate itself. From the Old Testament, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the judgment pronounced on them before their expulsion from Paradise; Noah in the Ark; the sacrifice of Abraham; Moses receiving the tables of the Law on Sinai; Moses striking the rock; the story of Jonas, in different stages; Daniel in the lions' den; the three Israelites in the fiery furnace; the ascent of Elias to Heaven, and a few others less common. From the New Testament, -the Nativity; the adoration of the Magi; the change of water into wine; the multiplication of loaves; the restoring of sight to the blind; the healing

THE CHURCH IN THE CATACOMBS.

most frequently introduced the lamb Turning to the purely symbolic, we find (later appearing with the nimbus round its head), and the various other forms in which faith contemplated the Redeemer: namely, the good shepherd; Orpheus charming wild animals with his lyre; the vine; the olive; the rock; a light; a column; a fountain; a lion: and we may read seven poetic lines by St. Damascus enumerating all the titles or symbols referring to the same Divine Personality, comprising, besides the above, a king; a giant; a gem; a gate; a rod; a hand; a house; a net; a vineyard. But among all others, the symbol most frequently seen is the fish, with a meaning perhaps generally known, but too important to be here omitted-its corresponding term in Greek being formed of the initial letters of the holy name and title, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." We find also the dove for the Holy Spirit, or for beatified spirits generally; the stag, for the desire after baptism and heavenly truth; candelabra, for illumination through the Gospel; a ship, for the Church,

of the cripple, and of the woman afflicted | garments. It was in the year 431 that with a bloody flux; the raising of Lazarus; the Council of Ephesus, in denouncing the Christ entering Jerusalem seated on an ass; adverse opinions of Nestorious, defined that St. Peter denying Christ, between two Mary was not merely the mother of humaniJews; the arrest of St. Peter; Pilate wash- ty, but to be revered in a more exalted ing his hands; in one instance (on a sar-sense as the mother of Deity in Christ. cophagus), the soldiers crowning our Lord in mockery, but (remarkable for the sentiment the preference for the triumphant rather than mournful aspect) a garland of flowers being substituted for that thorny crown mentioned in the Gospel narrative; in another instance, the Roman soldiers striking the Divine Sufferer on the head with a reed; but no nearer approach to the dread consummation being ever attempted -a reserve imposed, no doubt, by reverential tenderness, or the fear of betraying to scorn the great object of faith respecting that supreme sacrifice accomplished on Calvary. Among other subjects prominent in the fourth century, (though not for the first time then seen), are two persons whose high position in devotional regards henceforth becomes more and more conspicuous with the lapse of ages. the Blessed Virgin, and St. Peter. The mother of Christ, as first introduced to us by art, is only seen in her his toric relation to her Divine Son, nor in any other than the two scenes of the Nativity, and the Adoration of Wise Men-later she appears like other of those orantes, or figures in the attitude of prayer, and sometimes between the apostles Peter and Paul occasionally, indeed, with naïve expression of reverence, on larger scale than these latter, an honour, however, not exclusively hers, but also given to certain other virgin saints, especially St. Agnes. The first example of the "Madonna and Child" picture, destined for such endless reproduction and extraordinary honours, is seen over a tomb in the Catacombs of St. Agnes: Mary with veiled head, arms extended in prayer, and the Child, not apparently seated, but standing before her, on each side being the monogram of the holy name, XP, bol (rarely in use before the conversion of which symConstantine) suffices to show that this picture cannot be of earlier date than the fourth century, as the absence of the nimbus to the heads both of Mother and Child indicates origin not later than the earlier years of the next century, before which that attribute scarcely appears in Christian art. An event in ecclesiastical history explains how this pictorial subject, the Madonna and Child, attained its high importance and popularity became, in fact, a symbol of orthodoxy, displayed in private houses, painted on furniture, and embroidered on

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house, to signify the Church guided by the sometimes represented sailing near a lightSource of all Light and Truth; a fish, swimming with a basket of bread on its back, for the eucharistic sacrament; the horse, for eagerness or speed in embracing divine doctrine; the lion, for martyr fortitude, or vigilance against the snares of sin (as well as with that higher allusion above noticed); the peacock, for immortality; the phoenix, for the resurrection; the hare, for persecution, or the perils to which the faithful must be exposed; the cock, for vigilance- the fox being taken in a negative sense of warning against astuteness meanings) reminded of the simplicity beand pride, as the dove (besides its other coming to believers. appear in the same mystic order; the cyCertain trees also press and the pine, for death; the palm, for victory; the olive, for the fruit of good works, the lustre of virtue, mercy, purity, or peace; the vine, not only for the Eucharist and the Person of the Lord, but also for the ineffable union of the faithful in and with His Divinity. The lamp in the sepulchre implies both the righteous man and the true Light of the World; the house represents either the sepulchre, or the mortal enement we inhabit in life; and the

anchor is taken not only in the sense understood by paganism, but also for constancy and fortitude, or as indicating the cross. Another less intelligible object, the winebarrel, is supposed to imply concord, or the union of the faithful, bound together by sacred ties, as that vessel's staves are by its hoops. The lyre, sometimes in the hand of its master Orpheus, is a beautiful symbol for the harmony and mansuetude produced by the subjection of evil passions through the divinely potent action of truth. The four seasons appear with higher allusion than could be apprehended by the Gentiles-winter representing the present life of storms and troubles; spring, the renovation of the soul and resuscitation of the body; summer, the glow of love towards God; and autumn, the death by martyrdom, or life's glorious close after conflict, in anticipation of "the bright spring-dawn of heaven's eternal year."

back. A symbolic picture of the Eucharist in the form of fish and bread, at the Callixtan Catacombs, is referable, beyond doubt, to antiquity as early as the first half of the third century; and a similar one in those of S. Lucina is assumed to be not more modern than the second century—perhaps of even earlier date. Another subject, in the same reference, though less directly conveyed, is the Agape, that fraternal (and once sacred) banquet, for whose practise in the apostolic age we must refer to a remarkable passage in one of St. Paul's Epistles, that at once explains, and is explained by, this ancient usage so often pictorially treated in catacombs. And a mournful testimony indeed are the Apostle's words to the rapid deterioration of the holiest ordinance through the perverseness of men: "When ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper: for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation." This feast, with which, throughout the first century, the eucharistic celebration was incorporated, is represented in the art here before us without any sign of religious purpose, a company either seated or reclining at a lunette-formed table, partaking of food, bread and fish, sometimes with wine; the only symbolic detail being the cross marked on loaves, but not of a kind peculiar to Christians - such bread, called panis decussatus, thus divided by incisions into four parts, being of common use among the Romans.

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In order to understand such a subject as the Eucharist, in its supreme place as presented by this primitive art, we must endeavour to realize what this ordinance was to the early Christians, the centre, and it seems daily recurring transaction of their worship, the keystone of the mystic arch on which their whole devotional system may be said to have rested. On every side appears evident the desire at once to convey its meanings through symbolism to the faithful, and to conceal both its dogma and celebration from the knowledge of unbelievers: never introduced with direct representment either of its institution or ritual, but repeatedly in presentment for the enlightened eye through a peculiar selection of types. as by the fish placed, together with loaves marked with a cross, on a table; As to the very complex indications of or still more significant, the fish floating date, no era proper to Christians is found in water, with a basket containing bread for our guidance in the earlier catacomb and a small vessel of wine on its back monuments; but about the end of the fourth thus representing at once what I might century appears the year of the Roman bishdescribe in the words of the Anglican op, e. g., Salvo Siricio Episcopo," or "temCatechism, "the outward and visible sign," poribus Sancti Innocentii:" the last forand "the inward part or thing signified," mula, no doubt, adopted after the death of the elements of the Eucharist, with the the pope named; or (proof of the comparavery Person of the Redeemer. Another tive equality in episcopal rank according to naively expressive symbol, less intelligible primitive ideas) the date by the years of at first sight, is the pail of milk, designed to other bishops also, in inscriptions belonging signify the celestial food prepared by the to their several dioceses; and from the beGood Shepherd for his flock: this mystic ginning of the sixth century are indicated sense sometimes made more clear by the the years, not only of bishops, but priests, nimbus within which the pail is seen; or by deacons, or even the matrons presiding its being placed on a rude altar, beside over female communities. Date by conwhich is the pastoral staff, without the fig-sulates was rarely adopted in these epiure of the shepherd, who is elsewhere seen graphs before the third, but becomes comcarrying this vessel; the lamb also being mon in the two next centuries, again falling ometimes represented with the pail on its into disuse after the middle of the sixth FOURTH SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. III.

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