specimens of the skill and industry of the ladies of past ages with their needle. There were little stools, and high stools, and cushions. of various sizes, all covered with embroidery; and the tapestry hangings were a marvel of ingenuity and female handicraft, representing various scriptural pieces, one of which portrayed Daniel in the lion's den, the manes of the latter flowing down in perfect rivulets of yellow silk. The very carpet on the floor, of green cloth, had a needlework border; and the green taffita quilt, on the bed, was also profusely embroidered. Having finished his survey of the apartment, the priest prepared for rest; but after he had extinguished his lights, he, as was his wont, stepped to one of the mullioned windows, and drawing aside the heavy curtains of dark-green say, looked out upon the landscape lying still and quiet in the white moonbeams. Once more the image of Marie Duchastel rose up before him, and strange, sad fancies came over him. A wreath of mist, floating upwards from the garden beneath, appeared to him, for a few brief moments, to take her form and shape, and it seemed to move livingly amongst the dark yew-trees in the old-fashioned garden; and these rows of trees cut into such quaint, fantastic shapes, and so closely and neatly clipped that not the singlest twig projected from the smooth surface, seemed to him more weird-like than he had ever before seen them, impressed, as he now was, with such strange fancies. Then he smiled at his own foolish conceits, as the wreath of white mist was swept away by a passing gust of wind, and dropping the curtain, he sought his couch and clambered up one of the bed-steps into its vast expanse. For awhile he watched the fire-light flicker on the tapestry and on the raftered ceiling, and then, unconsciously, and with drooping eyelids, he gazed at a round table of cypress-wood, placed close beside his bed, with a great chair beside it, with the back and seats of green velvet embroidered with gold, and found himself wondering, dreamily, whether he should awake in the small hours of the night, and see a Cavalier, with love-locks. drenched in blood; or a Roundhead trooper, with bands besmirched and besmeared, occupying that great chair before the cypress table. At length he fell asleep, and slept long and soundly, no ghastly apparitions haunting his slumbers; and he awoke calmly and naturally, when it was broad day, and a long patch of red, wintry sunlight streaming through the window curtains, which he had left partially undrawn the night before. He smiled as he turned round in his vast bed preparatory to rising, and said, half aloud, "So this is the end of my night in the ghost-room;" but ere the words had well passed his lips, he raised himself suddenly on his elbow, recoiling slightly, at the same time, from the edge of the bed, from which he had just been about to spring. The colour faded from his olive cheek, his eyes became dilated, and his looks expressed mingled horror and wonderment. His gaze was fixed steadfastly on the round cypress table with the great chair before it, and yet there was no vision of bloodstained Cavalier or Roundhead trooper. The object upon which the priest seemed compelled to gaze, by a species of horrible fascination, was a human head resting on the table-the head of a female, from which long fair tresses floated about the snowy throat just visible, with a red streak around it, and partially veiled the pale, beautiful face-a face, indeed, of rare beauty, and one which, once seen, could never be forgotten, The priest clasped his hands wildly together, and struggled and groaned as one would do who was under the influence of some awful nightmare, for the face was that of Marie Duchastel. He asked himself aloud if this were not some horrible illusion, some cunning machination of Satan to tempt him, one of God's anointed priests, with thoughts of an earthly love? He extended his hand, and, calling upon Heaven, bade the tempter begone; but still the same awful vision confronted him, and the eyes, seeming endued with life, gazed at him with a mournful and imploring look. Turning on his other side, that he might no longer confront this dread spectre, he asked himself was he really awake? and if so, was be not the prey to a strong optical illusion? That he was wide awake he became assured the next moment, by hearing the stable clock strike eight, and, to test the truth of this supposition, he gazed intently at various objects in the room, counted the figures on the tapestry, and the flowers and leaves embroidered on the cushions, and examined minutely the carving of the walnut-wood bedposts; and, at length, when he felt calm and composed, he turned once more to the cypress table. But lo! there still reposed the head, and the broad beam of sunlight falling on it, lit up the fair tresses with a red glow. As though impelled by some sudden resolve, De Lessart drew himself towards the edge of the bed, and, with a look of determination, stretched out his arm as if intending to touch the head and see whether it were a tangible substance or thin air; but even as he did so, his arm fell nerveless by his side, and drops of cold perspiration stood on his forehead. "What does it mean?" he murmured in a tone of inexpressible anguish. "Oh, Marie! poor Marie! what can I do for thee?” As if in answer to his question, he heard faintly, as though from afar off, more like the faint echo of a sound than the sound itself, the words "De Profundis." Pale, cold, and exhausted, the priest sunk back on his pillow, joined his nerveless hands together, and slowly and solemnly recited, in Latin, the psalm De Profundis, the customary prayer for the dead used by members of the Roman Catholic faith. As he prayed, the pallor on the face seemed to increase, and the eyes to grow filmy, then gradually the features and the outline of the head began to grow fainter and less distinct, till, as he uttered the words "requiem æternam, dona ei Domine," nothing was left but a dark and pale mist, which quickly dissolved into air. Some few days after that eventful morning of "All Souls," when M. De Lessart emerged from his chamber, looking as pale as any ghost, though he distinctly denied having seen either Cavalier or Roundhead trooper in the ghost-room, he went to pay a visit. to his friend, the Rector. Mr. Foljambe, in their many conversations, had heard the story of his life, and had heard, also, of Marie Duchastel; and thus he received the exile, on this occasion, with more affectionate and tender solicitude than ever, for he had that to tell him that which he knew would wring his heart with sorrow and anguish. "You have news from France-recent news?" said the priest when seated;" and it is unusually bad to day, if we can say so of that which seems ever to have reached the acme of human misery." "Alas! yes; the Republicans, these miserable fanatics! have risen up against each other; they have commenced shedding the blood of those of their own party in Lyons." The Rector paused for a moment, and the priest started and shivered. 66 'They have brought many to the guillotine;" and here the Rector hesitated again, and cast a look of sorrowful sympathy on the priest. "And amongst them poor Marie Duchastel," said De Lessart, with a deep sigh. "How have you had earlier information than mine at the Hall?" asked the Rector, in some surprise. "I knew that Marie Duchastel ceased to live on the morning of All Souls." "Impossible! My dear Monsieur, it was on that very morning her head fell on the guillotine. But one comforting statement I have for you the Republican papers state that the wife of Citizen Duchastel had returned, for some time before her execution, to the memories of her priest-ridden childhood, anl would have hal ghostly aid if she could." "Yes; she asked me to pray for her on All Souls," said the priest, mournfully. Then seeing the perplexed look on the Rector's face, he told him shortly, but graphically, of the strange vision he had seen' in the ghost-room at Harborough Hall. "I suppose," he added, in conclusion, "you will laugh at me, and say that I was dreaming, or a prey to my own diseased imagination; but I assure you I was wide awake, and the execution of Marie Duchastel, on the very morning on which I saw her severed head before my eyes, makes me loth to believe that what I saw was a mere optical illusion." "I shall not laugh," replied the Rector gravely, "nor say you were dreaming, or the victim of your own distempered fancy, but will rather say, with our great poet, "Is not this something more than phantasy!" MARY CLEMENTINA STEWART. The principal feature of this story-the apparition of the head-is no fiction; and the writer, in relating it, has adhered closely to the facts, as she received them from an aged priest of her acquaintance, who was the subject of the optical illusion. A TALE OF SYRACUSE. THE feast is on the table spread, But where is Syracusa's lord,- In syndon and symar arrayed, The feast is at its joyous height, |