lv. 13.) and thistles are springing up beneath thy feet. And now also the sun begins to smite thee by day, and the moon by night; and in lieu of the sweet warbling notes of the feathered choir of thine Eden, the screech-owl utters a voice of terror in thine ear, and the cormorant and the vulture flap their wings, whilst the hissing serpent, alike inimical to thy approach, takes part in the new infernal melody. But yet, poor outcast, sad as thy condition is, to sight, and sense, and nature, and apparently all but lost and ruined as thou art, Angels are still thy ministering servants, and have charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone; for thou art an heir of salvation, one of the remnant according to the election of grace. Rom. xi. 5. Heb. i. 14. Psalm xci. 11, 12. Thou dost see afar off the glittering cherubim with their flaming swords, hostilely guarding the entrance to thy once happy home, and making thy return to that blest abode impracticable; but thou dost not discern the friendly legions who surround thee, performing on thy behalf tender offices of love, and warding off from thee many a mishap, which, but for their aid, would befal thee. And thou dost not as yet know, that if thy first Paradise is for ever gone, another, a far more glorious Eden, is in store for thee; and that although thou art now by reason of thy sin, expelled from the fair earthly tabernacle, which thy gracious Father made for thee at the first, He will provide thee with a more perfect dwelling place, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Still, thou fallen Adam, unconscious as thou art, or but most dimly conscious, of the rich inheritance which thy heavenly Father's free, immu

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table, and boundless love has provided for thee,. thou shalt most surely possess it. For thy God "is not a man, that He should lie, nor the son of man, that He should repent.” Yes, a kingdom was indeed prepared for thee, before the foundation of the world. Matt. xxv. 34; 1 Pet. i. 4; Rom. viii. 17, 29. A kingdom far unlike the earthly one with which thy Creator invested thee, upon the day in which he formed thee in His own image and likeness, the sovereignty of which kingdom was wrested from thee through thine own fault, by thy subtle enemy the Devil; a kingdom-unlike indeed to the kingdoms of this world, which may be lost by human weakness, or won by human strength, for thy heavenly inheritance is of an incorruptible nature, incapable of defilement by sin, and fadeth not away; moreover it is reserved in heaven for thee; not put into thine own care and keeping, as was the kingdom of this world, which thou didst so quickly lose again, but kept for thee by the power of the same God who has declared that "none shall ever pluck thee," His Adam, His child, "out of His hand." John x. 27-29; 1 Pet. i. 3—5. And but for some such thoughts as these, but for some such reminiscences, and some such consolatory appeals to our first father, albeit to some they may appear wild and imaginary, how shall we endure the view of his disgrace, how bear to peruse the recital of his wretched downfal, and to behold the bright son of the morning fall from heaven to the earth, cast out as a carcase trodden under feet, yea more, cast as it were, into the bottomless pit, into the lowest hell. To the scorner, to whom the page of scripture is an idle tale, and who knows of no real Adam with whom his own

destinies are inseparably linked, our sympathy will indeed appear uncalled for; but not so to the christian, who believes that "in Adam all die," and who also finds the sentence of death in himself: (2 Cor. i. 8—10.) who groans in this tabernacle, being burthened, and who exclaims from day to day, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24. 2 Cor. v. 2. To such an one it cannot be too often told, that the elect church, although she is in the wilderness, and driven there by reason of her sin, is nevertheless to be seen by the eye of faith, clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and having upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Rev. xii. 1. That if from the daughter of Zion all her earthly beauty is departed, if she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, is become tributary, she shall yet shake herself from the dust, and loose the bands from about her neck; because her Maker is her husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name; because, although in a little wrath He hid His face from her for a moment, with everlasting kindness He will have mercy on her; so that she shall no more be termed 'Forsaken,' nor her land Desolate,' but the name of her God shall be upon her; and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, "The Lord our Righteousness.”

RAYMOND ROGER,

OR,

A VISIT TO CARCASSONE, AND ITS HISTORICAL

RECOLLECTIONS.

By the Author of "Coombe Abbey,” “A Visit to my Birth-Place," &c.

(Continued from page 552.)

DISAPPOINTED and wearied, the crusaders retired: many of them found little pleasure or honour in their seizure; their term of forty days was about to expire, and numbers prepared to renounce it. Both Simon de Montfort and the Legate became uneasy, and Viscount Beziers, unconscious of what was passing in the camp of his foes, was oppressed with fears and anxieties for his people. The horrors of famine were beginning to be felt; the cisterns were drying up, and wives and mothers looked to him, as well as soldiers and leaders. It was in this extremity that a proposal was made for an amicable interview with the Legate; Raymond gladly accepted the proposal, for he felt assured that his rights only required to be openly pleaded, to be admitted.

Attended by three hundred of his chosen knights and followers, he went out to the crusading camp. He was received by De Montfort and the Legate: but while, after nobly pleading his own cause, he

was endeavouring to plead that of his persecuted people, the Legate coolly told him, he must leave his people to make what terms they could for themselves; as to him he was a prisoner, and must remain so. It was truth; his three hundred followers were already in custody, and he was consigned, first to the Duke of Burgundy, and afterwards from the Duke's leniency, to that of the savage De Montfort.

At sun-rise next morning, the crusaders prepared to fall on the devoted Carcassone, now likely to become as easy a prey as Beziers had been. They advanced against it with shoutings, and in formidable array; but its stillness might cast a chill on many a heart-no sound, no sight, come on its walls: no armour glanced in the sunbeams: no anxious, timid forms appeared, stealing a hurried look over the fearful plain below: the banner still waved from the Keep, but the stillness of death was around it.

An artifice to allure them on, was readily conjectured; but the conjecture proved erroneous, and caution unnecessary; without the aid of crusading zeal Carcassone was a desert: they entered it, but its streets, its houses were empty!

By some means intelligence of their lord's seizure had been conveyed to the people he had so gallantly defended, with the information of the existence of a secret passage, reaching through a cavern, three leagues long, to another place of refuge. The walls of Carcassone alone were left; and these are left still, a memorial of the past.

Disappointment awaited the Crusaders, but perhaps keener disappointment awaited their fanatic leaders. Of the three hundred knights and followers of the Vicomte de Beziers, together with some of