in, gave each other back the rings, and therewith their troth to
wed none other, and were once more declared free.

Esclairmonde held out her hand to Malcolm, saying, 'The thanks I owe you,
Sir, are beyond what tongue can tell. May He to Whom my first vows were
due requite it to you.'

And Malcolm, with his knee to the ground, pressing for the last time that
fair hand, said, 'The thanks, lady, are mine. Had you been one whit
lower in aims or in constancy, what had I been? You were my light of the
world, but to light me to seek that higher Light that shone forth in you,
and which may I show truly to the darkened spirits of my countrymen!
Lady, you will permit me to take to myself the ring you have worn so
long. It will be my token of my betrothal to that true Light.'

Such was their parting, when the one went forth to her tasks of charity
among the poor in London, the other to divest himself of land and
lordship on behalf of his sister and her husband, and then to begin his
task in the priesthood, of trying to hold up the true Light to hearts
darkened by many an age of crime and ignorance.

Lived very happy ever after! Yes, we would fain always leave the
creatures with whom our thoughts have been busy in such felicity; but
when we have linked them with real events, the sense of the veritable
course of history reminds us that we cannot even suppose beings possible
in real life without endowing them with the common lot of humanity; and
the personages of our tale lived in a time of more than ordinary reverse
and trouble.

Yet Sir Patrick Drummond and Lilias his wife, the Lord and Lady of
Glenuskie, nearly did fulfil these conditions. They had not feelings
beyond their age, but they were good specimens of that age, and they did
their duty in it; he as a trustworthy noble, ready to aid in council or
war, and she as the beneficent dame, bringing piety and charity to heal
the sufferings of her vassals and serfs. His hand was strong enough to
repel the attacks of his foes; her intelligence, backed by Malcolm's
counsel, introduced improvements; and the little ravine of Glenuskie was
a happy valley of peace and prosperity for many years among the
convulsions of Scotland.

Nor was Esclairmonde de Luxemburg's life in the Hospital of St. Katharine
otherwise than the holy and beneficent career that she had always longed
for--worshipping in the fair church, and going forth from thence 'into
the streets and lanes of the cit