disregarded and violated. The very order that
characterizes all creation, taught him that we are not here without a
purpose, and when human nature failed to satisfy him upon the mystery
of life, he went to revelation, and found the problem solved. The
consequence was, that whilst he felt as a man, he endured as a
Christian--aware that this life is, for purposes which we cannot
question, chequered with evils that teach us the absolute necessity of
another, and make us, in the meantime, docile and submissive to the will
of him who called us into being.

His lordship had been reading the Bible as M'Bride entered, and, after
having closed it, and placed his spectacles between the leaves as a
mark, he motioned the man to come forward.

"Well," said he, "have you brought those documents with you?"

"I have, my lord."

"Pray," said he, "allow me to see them."

M'Bride hesitated; being a knave himself, he naturally suspected every
other man of trick and dishonesty; and yet, when he looked upon the
mild but dignified countenance of the old man, made reverend by age and
suffering, he had not the courage to give any intimation of the base
suspicions he entertained.

"Place the papers before me, sir," said his lordship, somewhat sharply.
"What opinion can I form of their value without having first inspected
and examined them?"

As he spoke he took the spectacles from out the Bible, and settled them
on his face.

"I know, my lord," replied M'Bride, taking them out of a pocket-book
rather the worse for wear, "that I am placing them in the hands of an
honorable man."

His lordship took them without seeming to have heard this observation;
and as he held them up, M'Bride could perceive that a painful change
came over him. He became ghastly pale, and his hands trembled so
violently, that he was unable to read their contents until he placed
them flat upon the table before him. At length, after having read and
examined them closely, and evidently so as to satisfy himself of their
authenticity, he turned round to M'Bride, and said, "Is any person aware
that you are in possession of these documents?"

"Aha," thought the fellow, "there's an old knave for you. He would give
a round sum that they were in ashes, I'll engage; but I'll make him
shell out for all that.--I don't think there is, my lord, unless the
gentleman--your lordship knows who I mean--that I took them from."

"Did you take them deliberately from him?"

The man