banners at sunset was seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved and forever grew still.

* * * * *

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Christmas had come and gone, and the snow was lying deep on the ground.
They had seen nothing of Louisita since the day Cora was lost.

"I wonder," said Mrs. Carleton, "how that poor woman, Louisita, exists?
for I think from what I saw the day we went to her, that she is all
alone, and if you recollect, she said something to that effect. I fear
she suffers in this cold weather. You saw, of course, that it was no
kind of a house that she came out of."

"Yes," replied Miss Vyvyan, "it appeared to be only a mound of earth."

"I want to take her some food," continued Mrs. Carleton. "Do you think
we can get there through the snow?"

"I can carry Cora," replied Miss Vyvyan, "if you can take the food."

Mrs. Carleton filled a box with both food and fruit, and the ladies,
with little Cora, went forth to visit Louisita.

She met them in the same manner as before, not allowing them to come
very near to the opening, and brandishing the old sword.

"If that child were one of the accursed sex," she said, with a malicious
look, "I would sever its head from its body."

The child could not, of course, understand her language, but she read
the look, and clasping her arms closely around Anna's neck, she buried
her face on her shoulder.

"Will you accept of this?" said Mrs. Carleton, speaking very gently, and
at the same time lifting the lid of the box.

Louisita sprang at the contents as a famished tigress might have sprung
upon some long-sought prey. Jerking the box out of Mrs. Carleton's
hands, she put it on the ground, and again raised her sword. "Hence,"
she cried, "all of you; no one enters here. Ha, what do I see; stop,
stop," she screamed. "Donna Inez, my lady, Donna Inez. Where did you get
that ring," she continued, pointing to Mrs. Carleton's finger, on which
she wore the ring that Cora had found. "That is the ring Donna Inez wore
the night they murder