VIII. "Falsely, falsely have ye done,

O mother," she said, "if this be true, To keep the best man under the sun

13o many years from his due."

"Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse,
"But keep the secret for your life,

And all you have will be Lord Ronald's
When you are man and wife."

x.
"If I 'm a beggar born," she said,

"I will speak out, for I dare not lie: Pull off, pull off the brooch of gold,

And fling the diamond necklace by."

XI.

"Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "But keep the secret all ye can."

She said, "Not so: but I will know,'
If there be any faith in man."

XII.

"Nay now, what faith?" said Alice the nurse;

"The man will cleave unto his right." "And he shall have it," the lady replied,

"Though I should die to-night."

"Yet give one kiss to your mother dear!

Alas, my child, I sinned for thee." "0 mother, mother, mother!" she said, - "So strange it seems to me.

XIV.

"Yet here 's a kiss for my mother dear,
My mother dear, if this be so;

And lay your hand upon my head,
And bless me, mother, ere I go."

XV.

She clad herself in a russet gown—
She was no longer Lady Clare:

She went by dale, and she went by down,
With a single rose in her hair.

XVI.

The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought
Leapt up from where she lay,

Dropt her head in the maiden's hand,
And followed her all the way.

XVII.

Down stept Lord Ronald from his tower:
"O Lady Clare, you shame your worth I

Why come you drest like a village maid,
That are the fl,ower of the earth?"

"If I come drest like a village maid, I am but as my fortunes are:

I am a beggar born," she said, "And not the Lady Clare."

XIX.

"Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald, • For I am yours in word and deed.

Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald, "Your riddle is hard to read."

Oh, and proudly stood she up!

Her heart within her did not fail: She looked into Lord Ronald's eyes,

And told him all her nurse's tale.

XXI.

He laughed a laugh of merry scorn:
He turned and kissed her where she stood:

"If you are not the heiress born,
And I," said he, "the next of blood—

XXII.

"If you are not the heiress born,

And I," said he, "the lawful heir,
We two will wed to-morrow morn,

And yon shall still be Lady Clare."

Tennyson.

CXI—AWAIT THE ISSUE.

IN this world, with its wild whirling eddies and mad foam oceans, where men and nations perish as if without law, and judgment for an unjust thing is sternly delayed, dost thou think that there is therefore no justice? It is what the fool hath said in his heart. It is what the wise, in all times, were wise because they denied, and knew forever not to be. I tell thee again, there is nothing else but justice. One strong thing I find here below: the just thing, the true thing.

2. My friend, if thou hadst all the artillery of Woolwich trundling at thy back in support of an unjust thing, and infinite bonfires visibly waiting ahead of thee, to blaze centuries long for thy victory on behalf of it, I would advise thee to call halt, to fling down thy baton, and say, "In Heaven's name, No!"

3. Thy "success"? Poor fellow, what will thy success amount to? If the thing is unjust, thou hast not succeeded; no, not though bonfires blazed from north to south, and bells rang, and editors wrote leading articles, and the just things lay trampled out of sight, to all mortal eyes an abolished and annihilated thing.

4. It is the right and noble alone that will have victory in this struggle; the rest is wholly an obstruction, a postponement and fearful imperilment of the victory. Towards an eternal center of right and nobleness, and of that only, is all confusion tending. We already know whither it is all tending; what will have victory, what will have none!! The Heaviest will reach the center. The Heaviest has its