It was some time before Edith ventured to allude to the distress of her teacher. With intuitive delicacy the child only showed her sympathy by more clinging tenderness of manner. She fondled Rebekah's hand, pressed it close to her little bosom, and then to her feverish lips. It was evident to the teacher that the child could not bend her thoughts to her tasks; her mind was full of something that was struggling for utterance, and at last, instead of answering some simple question, Edith said, as if thinking aloud, "I'm sure that he did not take it."”

"No, he would rather have died!" cried the mother.

"Oh, I'm so glad that you say so," exclaimed Edith, her face brightening with sudden sunshine ; "I wanted so much to ask you, for I knew you would tell me the truth. But I need not have asked," she added, her pale cheek flushing as she spoke, "I need not have cared for what nursie told me, for Papa was sure to be right."

'What did Sir Digby say?" asked Rebekah eagerly.

"Yesterday I was down in the drawing-room with all the visitors," said Edith, "and I sat on Papa's knee while he was talking with the other gentlemen. They said a great deal about the-you know what," Edith significantly squeezed the hand of Rebekah, "and Papa said, 'Nothing shall ever make me believe that the son of Holdich is a thief.

The witnesses are -I can't remember the word, I think that it meant that they were not quite fair."

Prejudiced?" suggested Rebekah.

"Yes, that was the word," cried Edith. "But I don't know what witnesses are."

"Those who were present," said the teacher.

Edith paused for several moments, with that reflecting expression on her delicate features that made her look prematurely old. "Those who were present," she repeated to herself, and raising her dark eyes to Rebekah's she said, "Then the great God was a Witness too."

That simple observation of a little child was as the cup of cold water to a thirsting soul. It brought vividly before the anxious mother the truth of the omniscience of Him who ordereth all things in heaven. and earth. Yes, where the wicked had laid snares for the just, there had been a Witness of whose presence they thought not, but who had recorded not only each word, but each secret design of malice. That heavenly Witness had seemed to keep silence when false oaths were sworn, and false evidence given; but He would arise at last and confound the workers of evil, and show His power and justice to those who had dared to take His great name in vain. Could we but realize that solemn truth,-God is a Witness too, how calmly might innocence endure the slander of evil tongues, how fearlessly trust its cause to Him who is faithful and true!

AW

XIX.

Belshazzar's Feast.

ILL Ned, think you, be present at to-day's lecture?" asked Holdich of his wife on the following morning.

"I scarcely know, he was speaking to me about it last night. Oh, Robert, I thought of your words that this terrible trial might itself be made a blessing. I never knew our poor child so thoughtfully earnest both in seeking to know what was right, and in resolving to do it, whatever the cost might be. 'Mother,' he said, 'you cannot but think that I would like to hide myself, like a wounded animal, until the worst is over; but this horrible trial will be hanging over us for six weeks to come, and it might be wrong in me to shut myself up all that time from public worship, never to go to church nor attend a lecture just because of my shrinking from notice. My enemies should not be able to keep me from the house of God; and perhaps it would be well to break myself in for the trial of going to Axe, by beginning with our little cottage

lecture. Then Mr. Eardley has been so kind, I could not bear to appear to neglect him.'

"Right!" said Holdich emphatically.

"I do not think that Ned's courage will be much put to the test even if he do attend," observed Rebekah ; "for it is not likely that any one, save the kind, good clergyman himself, will come near our cottage now."

Rebekah's was not an unnatural supposition; but she had not calculated on the force of curiosity in low, vulgar minds, nor that of sympathy in those of a more generous nature. Holdich's home, humble as it was, on ordinary days was the Englishman's castle, into which few would venture to intrude their unwelcome presence while affliction desired privacy; but when, on occasion of a lecture, the doors were known to be open to all who should choose to attend, scarcely a servant at the Castle, scarcely a farmer or cottager near, but determined to see "how Holdich would brave out the business," and "have a look at the lad as was going to be tried at the next assizes.” None of the men who were employed on the Walhalla, however, appeared, as they were pressed to work even beyond time in order to have the building completed, and the scaffolding removed before Wednesday the first of May, on which day a goodly company of guests were expected to grace the ceremonial of its opening. Notwithstanding the absence of the workmen, the numbers who came

thronging to the cottage, some in gay liveries, some in coarse blouses, or the labourer's picturesque smock, surprised and distressed Rebekah. She looked uneasily at her son, who, seated in the shadow of the open door, was awaiting the coming of the clergyman. Poor Ned never lifted his eyes; it seemed as if he instinctively felt the coarse stare of Valance, and knew that the threshold was darkened by Ford. But there was no audible scoff, no open insult: whether this was owing to the presence of the little heiress, or the determined bearing of Holdich, it is unnecessary to decide. Mr. Eardley found a large and tolerably respectful audience, when, punctual to the hour appointed, he passed through the porch into the cottage.

LECTURE V.

The mighty Nebuchadnezzar had gone to his last account, we may trust in the faith and fear of that God who had afflicted him in mercy, and restored him in love. We will not dwell long on the short reigns of his three immediate successors. The first of these was Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, a king who kindly treated the captive monarch of Judah, Jehoiachin, and took him out of the prison in which he had been confined for thirty-seven long years. Evil-Merodach did not, however, tread in the path of the children of light; he was sunk in vices,