A spacious quadrangle of short bright turf, with a large sundial in the centre, was surrounded by cloisters, turrets and Norman windows; climbing the low structures on every side, luxuriant treillages of creepers spread their various tapestries, carefully pruned away, however, from the statues and pinnacles, whose sharp points and delicately chiselled draperies shewed the greatest care for their preservation. A tract of fertile land lay round the gates; a fruitful orchard and productive garden of fered amusement rather than taxed labour in their cultivation; and the bright brown Blythe that washed the buttresses of the Priory, at once supplied its tenants with fish, and turned the wheel of their adjacent corn-mill. Their vicinity to the highway afforded the monks of Blythburgh frequent opportunities of exercising the most pleasing part of their profession-the relief of the poor and the refreshment of the traveller; which last was frequently repaid by the intelligence of events passing in that busy world, from whose storms and vicissitudes they were so safely sheltered.

It was now the forenoon of the day after the funeral of Florent, which was conducted under the inspection of the knight of Malvesyn with great solemnity, in St. Giles' Church. The high summer sun swept over the village green, the crimson spotted trout were playing in the tide that sparkled under the Priory wall; the village was lapped in the sultry repose of noon, the men being still abroad in the fields, the women preparing their meal, the children at school in the chamber over the church porch, and the very dogs slumbering beneath the woodbines and wallflowers that mantled on the cottages,-when a female figure, habited in the deepest mourning of the time, and followed by her attendant, emerged from Nun's Lane, and was seen to pace over the broad and daisied green in the very heart of the village. She paused at the broad steps of the great cross which rose in the centre, its carvings lavishly gilded by the meridian sun, and kneeling reverently made a sign to her attendant, who followed her example. After a short exercise of apparently deep and earnest devotion, the lady arose, and attended as before, was admitted with great respect by the portress through the Priory gates.

Attired in a robe of black, lined, bordered and buttoned with white, while her long tippet behind flowed down to

her heels,-her hair being confined in a surcol or net of black and white silk,she who appeared highest in rank of the two addressed the nun who ushered her into the locutory

"Say that Margaret of Malvesyn would tax for a short space the precious time of the Prioress Agatha of Bromley."

The nun retired with the lady's attendant, while sinking on one of the elaborate tall-backed oak chairs, the high-born damsel employed the interval before the appearance of the Prioress in a passion of hysterical sobs and weeping; and her silken curchief, or veil, deeply embroidered with her family arms, was glittering with her tears when the holy mother approached her. The lady Agatha of Bromley was beginning a solemn phrase of welcome and condolence, when she of Malvesyn, hastily struggling to resume her composure, threw back her veil, and kneeling to the Prioress, disclosed a countenance of such beauty as not even her passionate grief could obscure. A perfect oval, her face was of that delicate fairness from which the total absence of colour, save when summoned thither by emotion, was hardly perceived; her hair was intensely black; and her eyes, large and dark, (as she turned them swimming in tears to her whom she regarded as a second mother,) might have defied a heart of stone to resist their beseeching sorrows.

"Bless me, dear and holy mother, ere I speak my business, and pray that my speech may be for good!"

"My blessings and orisons are ever thine, gentle daughter," replied the Prioress, as Margaret, somewhat more composed, received the benediction ;and after a panse, during which both seemed engaged in prayer, she continued

-"But surely this grief is somewhat out of reason. It was an accursed deed, but it cannot be recalled. The youth was both fair and dear while with us, but though his murderers dwell in towers and waters, ample vengeance is providing!"

"Yes!" sighed Margaret, and mute with embarrassment proceeded not beyond the monosyllable.

"Hath not the only son of thy father's foe fallen into the power of De Malvesyn ?" continued the Prioress, with a warmer colour and more sustained voice,-" and is it not a visible interposition of providence, that the cruel and blood-thirsty man should not live out half his days, when, otherwise, the encounters of yon fatal night would only

have given birth to new conflicts, just as likely to have ended in the ruin of thy father's house as in the subjugation of the Hansacres?"

By the writhing and restless emotion which Margaret evinced during this speech, she appeared like one pierced with repeated puny strokes of daggers. The Prioress looked astonished and perplexed at her extraordinary mood, till at length Margaret raised her stately head at once

"But wherefore do I pause?" she said, "since for no other cause am I come hither, than to ease my bosom of the secret-the unabsolved secret (for not even in my shrift have I poured it forth), which weighs down my heart with many sorrows?-Know then, holy and kind mother, that the cause of all these tears the object dearer to me than father, kinsmen or friends-the source of emotions that divide my heart at this moment with grief and pleasure, is that very William of Hansacre, who is now the thrall of my father!"

"William of Hansacre! and a maiden of Malvesyn to couple that name with love?" the Prioress almost screamed.

"Love!" replied Margaret, her figure elevated from its drooping posture, her eyes upturned, bright and impassioned, her beautiful red lips smiling, her hands clasped, and her whole appearance radiant with enthusiasm,- yes, love, as holy as intense as ever found its shrine in woman's heart! Love that makes me forget all the offences of his fierce house in the light of his own mild virtues!-Love, that when all at Malvesyn were wailing for poor Florent, made me weep in agony for the heir of the foeman who slew him. Chide not, gracious dame, but hear me. From the day we met at the tournament at Hawksyard, it was written on my heart, that the hostile houses should one day cease to hate. Our vows have long been solemnly plighted; the violence of the ancient feuds seemed to have relaxed, and our hopes grew high. That fatal night, William had lingered with me longer than usual at our tryste,-the great old pine overhanging the Faulcon's Well, and he talked encouragingly, of his father's noble heart, augured happily from the doating affection his parents bore to him their only child. He had already won Sir William to admit the propriety of lessening the encroachments at the Briggmuln."

was a wrathful and a violent man.— Did he not revile and even smite John Hammond, (to whom thy father hath leased the Brigg water down to Oxenholm pool,) out of spite that he brought to our poor house, last Lent, a finer salmon than had smoked for years in the hall of Hansacre?—and did he not-"

"Pardon me, mother, we but waste time on the paltry disagreements of a miller and a fisherman. And yet," she added with a sigh, "from the wrangling of those churls, what blood hath been spilt-what lives jeopardied!"

"I see a higher than earthly hand in this," said the Prioress; "and since the youth is of fair fame and gentle heart, and even by his foes reported honourable, it may well be that providence hath its own good views in thus permitting your young hearts to become each other's thrall. If it be so, not all the just indignation of thy father,-not his deepest dungeons,-nay, not the pronounced sentence of death itself, will avail to scathe a hair of his head! -Hast thou seen him?"

"I was in the hall, weeping for the murder of the Damoiseau, when William was brought in wounded and a captive. Elizabeth turned from him in horror, and I,-oh, mother, hadst thou seen his noble form streaming with blood, the patience of his manly countenance, and, above all, the ineffable glance which none interpreted but me, then you would not wonder that even there, in the presence of mine elder sister, and before all the vassals of my father's house, who were thirsting for his life, I was on the very point of rushing into his arms-staunching with my robe his piteous wounds, and proclaiming that a daughter of Malvesyn centred her whole world in the bleeding heir of the detested Hansacres !"

"Calm thee, my child! these violent transports are neither maidenly nor Christian-like."

"The loud shriek I uttered was most erroneously ascribed to very natural feelings, and ere I could execute my frantic impulse, the tender anxiety of Elizabeth, and the officious cares of our women, who flocked around me, gave me time for recollection."

"Great reason hast thou to be thankful therefore, daughter, -thou hadst otherwise fatally perilled him, no less than dishonoured thyself."

To this truism, most sententiously delivered, the good-natured Prioress appended a rather leading question—

"What doth Sir Robert meditate respecting young Hansacre?"

;

"Oh, my father grieves still most bitterly for his slaughtered Damoiseau and his very meals, instead of refreshment, excite only new unhappiness from the recollection of his horrid fate who was wont to present his wine and carve his meat! But Sir Robert is a wise and upright man, and a strict lover of justice. The burning of Briggmuln was without his privity, and hath excited his utmost displeasure. He hath treated William mildly; the leech hath had him in constant tendance, and though my father cannot yet brook his presence at the hall-board, he hath assigned him apartments, where Elizabeth hath already visited him; and, oh, mother, they wonder I have kept away, they term me unfeeling, and even Elizabeth tells me I carry my animosity too far! Alas" Here a flood of tears again streamed from the beauteous maiden's eyes. After a pause, the Prioress spoke. "What then of the Hansacredom? Is it to enjoy undisturbed its bloody and wicked triumph!"

"A herald was dispatched this morning, before my father had tierce performed in the oratory, where he daily attends the masses said for the soul of the slain De Fradley. The import of his message we trow not, but, alas! as little do we doubt it! Meanwhile, the Hansacres have carried off their dead, and we learn they are busily employed in adding to the defences of their hall." "And let them fortify,-let them build their towers to heaven, let their gates be of brass and let their moat be an inland sea, the curse of blood shall sap their foundation; treachery shall unfold their doors to the enemy; and the steam of murder shall exhale like a pestilence from the waters in which they trust!" exclaimed the saintly mother, when, as suddenly remembering her rank and profession, she added in a different key: "Holy Mary, grant another issue than this seems to forbode! And thou, daughter, be watchful over thyself! remember that heaven may yet have happier times in store, and wreck not by any rash act the fortunes which prudence may secure."

The mother Agatha here blew on a silver call, the lady Margaret's attendant re-appeared, an elderly nun placed refreshments before them, and the maid of Malvesyn, lightened of her bosom's load by her late conversation with the Prioress, returned to her father's hall. To be continued.

The Note Book.

I will make a prief of it in my Note Book. M. W. OF WINDSOR.

De

HER MAJESTY, QUEEN ADELAIDE. That clever and ably conducted paper, the Spectator, commenting upon the probable happy results to be expected from the nation's now possessing an affable and amiable Queen Consort, says, "The court of the King will in future exhibit not only nothing to repel, but every thing to attract. Levity cannot fail to be abashed and ashamed in the presence of a princess so far above censure, or reproach, as the present Queen; a lady whose unpresumptuous virtues would have dignified the lowest as they adorn the highest station. scended from the illustrious house of SAXE, with which the ideas of integrity and honour, not less than of kindness and paternity of government have long been associated, Queen Adelaide brings to the throne a character such as no Queen of England has possessed since the days of Elizabeth. Other Queens have been content at their succession to draw on the hopes and the belief of their subjects, but Queen Adelaide's fame rests on the substantial evidence of fact and experience, gathered during years of residence in the midst of us."

NEWSPAPER COINCIDENCES.

The daily journals inform us that the name of Adelaide is not new among the Queens of England. "The second wife of Henry I., we are told, was Adelaide, a Princess of Louvain. The mother of King Stephen, daughter of William the Conqueror, was Adela, which is, in fact, the same name." The conversion of Adela would be convenient, no doubt, but unfortunately, she was not a Queen, she was only a Coun tess; and equally lamentable is the fact, that Henry's second Queen was not named Adelaide, but Adelais, which may be the same in meaning, but is not the same in letter. Spectator.

ENGLAND AT THE ACCESSION OF

CHARLES I.

The state in which the ill-fated Charles I. found the country, is pithily described by Howell, in his "Familiar Letters." "In the evening he was proclaimed at the Whitehall Gate, Cheapside, and other places, in a sad shower of rain; and the weather was suitable to the condition wherein he finds the kingdom, which is cloudy; for he is left

engaged in a war with a patent Prince, the people by long desuetude unapt for arms, the fleet-royal in quarter repair, himself without a Queen, his sister without a country, the crown pitifully laden with debts, and the purse of the state lightly ballasted, though it never had better opportunity to be rich, than it had these last twenty years."

EXTRAORDINARY PROTRACTION OF
VEGETABLE LIFE.

The following extraordinary instance of the lengthened period of time during which the vital principle of vegetables may be preserved, was mentioned by Mr. Houlton in the course of his introductory lecture as professor of botany, at the last meeting of the Medico-Botanical Society. A bulbous root, which was found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, and in which situation it had very probably been for more than two thousand years, germinated on exposure to the atmosphere, though, when discovered, it was apparently in a state of perfect dryness. The root was subsequently put into the ground, where it grew with readiness and vigour !

Origins.

(For the Ol:0)

Go to Bath and get your Head shaved. When the 'Bath Waters' were es

teemed so efficacious in removing local diseases of the skin, many experiments were tried by the physicians of the Hospital with their patients. In none of their efforts were they more successful than with complaints of the head. In order to avoid inconvenience by the hair, in cases of fever, scald head and ring worm, the barber was called into the Hospital and the patients' heads shaved, previously to the immersion. The salutary effect of this plan soon gained evidence; gentlemen's sons, tradesmen's sons, and charity children, were thus cropped of their superfluous hair, to avoid contamination. Persons with children, in any way touched like "Poor Peeled, or Pill Garlick!" complied with the practice in the surrounding villages of the city, and took heed ere they made them eligible for the 'Bath,' to get their heads shaved. The custom now, in process of time, was so plausible, that, as a favourite piece of sarcastic advice, when one person wished not to take it, he would say to the other-Go to Bath and get your head shaved,' Orange Grove, Bath.

P.X.Z.

Anecdotiana.

MRS. JORDAN.

Many are the generous acts related of this royal favourite, but perhaps there is none that shows her liberality in a better light than the following:In her perambulations, by accident she entered into conversation with an old man, an inhabitant of Richmond, of the name of Lewis, remarkable for having, in a suit with King George the Second, defended and established the right of the public to a free passage through Richmond Park. Perceiving him to be in very distressed circumstances, Mrs. Jordan proposed to promote a benefit for him at Richmond Theatre, in which she kindly undertook to perform the characters of Roxalana and Nell gratis. The pit was filled at box price, and the house, of course, to use a theatrical phrase, was a bumper on the occasion.

The benefit was patronized and attended by his present most gracious Majesty, and all the persons of rank and fashion in the neighbourhood of Richmond. The poor old man so timely and laudably assisted received 1701. by this act of generosity.

INDIAN ELOQUENCE.

At a conference held at Vincennes, in the United States, in 1811, between General Harrison and some Indian

chiefs, after a long talk, Tecumesh, a celebrated Indian warrior, looked round for a seat, but finding no accommodation provided for him, his eyes flashed fire. General Harrison saw the cause, and

instantly ordered a chair. One of the council offered the warrior his chair, and bowing respectfully said to him, "Warrior, your father, General Harrison, offers you a seat." "My father!" exclaimed Tecumesh, extending his hand towards the heavens, "the sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, she gives me nourishment, and I will. repose on her bosom." He then threw himself the ground.

upon