unexpected moment, and that it behooves us to be found ever in the right path, so living, so acting, that we shall be ready, when death comes, to meet our Judge without fear and with the assurance that when we depart this life, through the righteousness of Christ, we shall be introduced into a better and nobler country.  I beg of you earnestly, my dear brethren, in order to secure this happy result, to turn immediately from your sins, repenting of them without delay, and apply to Christ whose blood can alone wash them away.  Take the Bible, this precious gift from Heaven, for your counsellor and guide, follow its instructions, and you will be safe and happy, whether in life or in death”.

“My brethren, I will say but one word more; that word I earnestly implore you to listen to.  This book from God says, vengeance is mine; I will repay.  I fear it is in your hearts to seek revenge upon him who is the author of your comrade’s death.  I beseech you not to do it.  God knows where the wrong is, in this case, and He, the great Avenger, will not suffer it to go unpunished.  Sooner or later He brings every wicked and wrong-doer to a just reward.  Leave all in His righteous hands, and stain not your souls with blood and violence.  Let us seek the divine blessing”.

Mr. Norton then offered a short and simple prayer, imploring the forgiveness of sins, and blessings upon Patrick’s wife, his companions, and the community.

Maggie, who had wailed herself into perfect exhaustion and almost stupor, sat gazing fixedly in his face; the rest seemed hushed as by a spell, and did not begin to move until some moments after his voice ceased.

Then the tongues were loosened, and amid the ebbs and flows of murmuring sound, the coffin was covered, placed upon a bier and borne to the grave, followed by the crowd.

“And shure”, said a poor Irishwoman to her crony, as they trudged along behind, “the praste’s voice sounded all the while like a great blessed angel, a blowin’ through a silver trumpet.  Shure, he’s a saint, he is”.

CHAPTER IX.

ADELE DUBOIS.

The Dubois family, though widely separated by social rank and worldly possessions from the population around them, had yet, to a certain degree, mingled freely with the people.  Originating in France, they possessed the peculiar national faculty of readily adapting themselves to the manners and customs of races foreign to their own.

It is impossible to forget in the early history of the North American colonies, what facility the French displayed, in contrast with the English, in attaining communication with the children of the forest, in acquiring and retaining their confidence, in taking on their rude and uncultivated modes of life, and in shaping even their superstitions to their own selfish purposes.

Of all the foreigners who have attempted to demonstrate to the world, the social and political problems of America, who has investigated with such insight, and developed so truly our manners and customs and the spirit and genius of our government as Tocqueville?