are now opened to discern
friends from foes; and be well assured--"

"Nay, reverend father," said Dwining, "you take me at too great
advantage. I said I could do no miracles, and was about to add that,
as the church certainly could work such conclusions, those rich beads
should be deposited in your hands, to be applied as they may best
benefit the soul of the deceased."

He dropped the beads into the Dominican's hand, and escaped from the
house of mourning.

"This was a strangely timed visit," he said to himself, when he got safe
out of doors. "I hold such things cheap as any can; yet, though it is
but a silly fancy, I am glad I saved the squalling child's life. But
I must to my friend Smotherwell, whom I have no doubt to bring to my
purpose in the matter of Bonthron; and thus on this occasion I shall
save two lives, and have destroyed only one."

CHAPTER XXIII.

Lo! where he lies embalmed in gore,
His wound to Heaven cries:
The floodgates of his blood implore
For vengeance from the skies.

Uranus and Psyche.

The High Church of St. John in Perth, being that of the patron saint
of the burgh, had been selected by the magistrates as that in which
the community was likely to have most fair play for the display of the
ordeal. The churches and convents of the Dominicans, Carthusians, and
others of the regular clergy had been highly endowed by the King and
nobles, and therefore it was the universal cry of the city council
that "their ain good auld St. John," of whose good graces they thought
themselves sure, ought to be fully confided in, and preferred to the new
patrons, for whom the Dominicans, Carthusians, Carmelites, and others
had founded newer seats around the Fair City. The disputes between the
regular and secular clergy added to the jealousy which dictated this
choice of the spot in which Heaven was to display a species of miracle,
upon a direct appeal to the divine decision in a case of doubtful guilt;
and the town clerk was as anxious that the church of St. John should be
preferred as if there had been a faction in the body of saints for and
against the interests of the beautiful town of Perth.

Many, therefore, were the petty intrigues entered into and disconcerted
for the purpose of fixing on the church. But the magistrates,
considering it as a matter touching in a close degree the honour of
the city, determined, with judicious confidence in the justice and
impartiality o