culean grasp. It shook in his sinewy hand; but to remove it from its place seemed impossible. The big drops started from his brow, and he gasped for breath with the violence of his exertions, before he relinquished his hold.

Wulstan, who had resumed his seat, now again approached the tomb of King Edward, and taking the staff into his hand, removed it as easily as Samson broke his manacles.* The whole assembly seemed panic struck-for a moment they gazed on, in breathless silence, and then, "A miracle! a miracle!" was shouted out by every one present. Some of the populace, who had pressed into the aisles of the Abbey, cried, "Blessed be the memory of good King Edward-honour to his servant Wulstan!" and the cry was caught and echoed by the assembled crowd without, until the arches of the Abbey rang with its reverberations.

"The will of Heaven be done!" said the Conqueror, approaching Wulstan. "Keep, my Lord of Worcester, the pastoral staff which your hand has borne so long with honour, and may God pardon us for having listened to evil counsellors who were plotting the destruction of one of his most faithful servants.-But, Robert," he said, turning to the disappointed candidate for the episcopacy, "was there not a charge against some persons in your custody to which you would crave our attention ?"

"Truly, my liege," said the monk, who entertained some hope that he might still remove Wulstan from the monarch's favour; "such a charge have I to prefer, and it grieves me much to say hat it is a charge in which my Lord of Worcester is implicated.

"Give it utterance then, reverend father," said the King, resuming his seat upon the throne, "and we will listen to it attentively."

Robert of Orleans then motioned to some of his attendants, who immediately disappeared, and shortly afterwards returned, leading the lovers, to whom the reader has already been introduced, into the Royal presence.

"My liege," said the monk, "I charge my Lord of Worcester with the practice of magic, witchcraft, and other diabolical arts.

* Hollinshed.

I charge him that, by means similar to those by which he has this day, I fear, deceived you and this reverend Synod, he has seduced this youth from his allegiance to his King, and his duty to his father, and fixed his affections upon this damsel, his daughter."

"Nay," said the King, smiling, "'tis a comely youth, and a most sweet maiden, and methinks that it needed not much magic to fix the stripling's affections in the place to which they have wandered.—But what says my Lord Fitzwalter?-doth this match meet with his disapprobation ?"

"My liege," said the Baron, "I have to crave this reverend prelate's pardon for my late unworthy carriage towards him, and to supplicate his consent to the marriage of his fair daughter with my son."

"Freely, freely, is that pardon granted and that offence forgotten," said Wulstan, delighted at being able to seal the happiness of two persons to whom he was ardently attached.

"Then," said the King, "the first duty which my Lord of Worcester shall now perform on the restoration of his functions, shall be the union of this lovely pair in the bonds of matrimony.Proceed, my Lord, in your holy office; and as the damsel will want some one to perform the duty of a parent on this occasion, perhaps she will not refuse the services of William of Normandy."

A shout, which seemed to rend the roof of the venerable pile under which they were assembled, burst from the multitude. Wulstan pronounced the marriage rites, the King gave away the blushing bride, and a day which had been ushered in with so many lamentations and ominous forebodings, closed amidst expressions of general satisfaction and delight.

ENG.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

WILLIAM THE SECOND.

WILLIAM II. set off for England whilst his father was expiring, his brother Robert being at that time in Germany; and having got possession of his father's treasures, and being aided by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, he conquered all difficulties, and was crowned on the 27th September, 1087.

1088.-William was, if possible, more avaricious than his father; his exactions on the English were insupportable; he even kept the benefices vacant for years, and retained the income of them for himself.

1090.-William invaded Robert's patrimony of Normandy; but in a short time the brothers were reconciled, and entered into an agreement, that if either of them should die without heirs, the survivor should succeed to his dominions. 1093.-Malcolm, King of Scotland, invaded England, but was killed in an action near Alnwick.

1094.-The King again quarrelled with his brother Robert, and not only instigated his barons, by bribes, to declare against him, but prevailed on the King of France to withdraw his protection. But whilst he was thus successfully employed in Normandy, he was obliged to return to England to repel an incursion of the Welsh, which he soon did without much difficulty.

1096.-Every smaller warfare was swallowed up this year by the Crusade to the Holy Land for the recovery of Jerusalem out of the hands of the Mahometans. This war was recommended by the Pope, and preached up everywhere by Peter the Hermit. Among those who embarked in this enterprise was Robert, the King's brother, who mortgaged Normandy to William for a sum sufficient to enable him to join the Crusaders.

1089.-William rebuilt London Bridge, surrounded the Tower of London with a thick wall, and built Westminster Hall.

This year the Crusaders took Jerusalem, putting forty thousand Saracens to the sword. Duke Robert was offered the sovereignty, but on his refusal it was given to Godfrey of Boulogne.

1100.-The Earl of Poitiers mortgaged his dominions of Guienne and Poitou to William, to enable him to go to the Holy War.

The King entered into contests with the clergy, particularly with Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury.

As William was one day hunting in the New Forest, he had with him one Walter Tyrrel, a Frenchman, who, to show his dexterity, aimed an arrow at a stag, which, glancing against a tree, shot the King through the heart. On which accident Tyrrel immediately rode to the sea-side and embarked for Normandy. The King's body was found by the country people, and his ants carried it in a cart to Winchester, where it was privately interred. lliam Rufus died unmarried.

The Red King's Dream.

Gautier Tirel, un chevalier
Qui en la cort esteit mult chier,
Une saiete del reis pris

Dont il l'occist si com l'en dist.

WACE.

S not the morrow Lammas-day ?" said King William, (who

hair,) as he sat in his banqueting-hall in the Castle of Winchester, surrounded by his peers and courtiers.

"Even so, my liege," said the Abbot of Westminster; "and it is a day which our Church has commanded all her children to keep peculiarly holy."

"Say you so, reverend father?" rejoined the King; "then Holy Mother Church shall, for once, own that I am a pious and obedient son: for I mean to keep that day most religiously, by chasing the dappled deer in the New Forest from sunrise to sunset."

"Heaven forefend, my liege!" said the Abbot, shuddering and crossing himself, "that by indulging in any profane sports on so solemn a day, you should draw down the vengeance of Heaven upon you; a vengeance of which you have had so many warnings." "Now, by the face of St, Luke! father," said the King, "thou maddest me. How and wherefore have I incurred the vengeance of Heaven? For not letting a doting old Bishop at Rome give away all the mitres and fat livings in my kingdom; and for not praying to St. Peter and St. Paul to intercede for me with Our Lord,—the first of which I hold to be as bad in politics, as the latter is in religion."

"Dost thou not constantly," resumed the Abbot, "even as

thou hast done just now, scoff and rail at our holy religion? Dost thou not plunder the religious houses of their treasure? Hast thou not torn the offerings from the altars, and robbed the chapelries of their holy reliques? Dost thou not, at thy wild wassailings, quaff out of sacramental cups; and are not thy lewd lemans decked with ornaments that were sacred to the holy Virgin ?”

"Guilty, most reverend father,-guilty, guilty!" said the King: "I will but have the morrow's chase in the New Forest; and then for that, and all other bygone sins, thou shalt shrive me; and the rest of the Red King's days shall be spent in piety and penitence. Come what come may, I must hunt to-morrow."

A shout of applause and delight burst from the King's retainers. "God pardon you !" said the Abbot, and crossed himself.

"Amen! amen!" responded several other ecclesiastics who were seated at the royal table; and the King rising to retire to rest, the revel closed, and the banqueting-hall was deserted by the gay and motley group.

"Rouse me to-morrow by daybreak, Walter Tyrrel," said the King: "I will not lose this chase for all the peevish priests in Christendom."

"I will not fail, my liege," said Tyrrel, "to be with you betimes; but yonder comes the Lord of Mans, to urge his suit before you retire to your chamber."

"By the face of St. Luke!" replied the King, "the priests have persuaded the dull dotard that he can only save his soul by enlisting under the banners of Peter the Hermit; and that I, forsooth, must hold his broad Barony in Normandy as inviolate, when he and his bold knights are on their fool's errand in the Holy Land, as when their spears were planted, in defiance of the invader, before the gates of his paternal city."

"All health and happiness betide my liege !" said the Baron, approaching the King, and bending his knee before him. "I am about to depart with that army, the object of whose mission is the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Infidels; and I trust that during my absence in the prosecution of so righteous an enterprise, you will suffer my territory to rest in peace."