continued repeating it to herself, that she might not forget it. The Curè, however, understood it, and concluded that she had seen the Virgin Mary.

"Bernadette, after having been chosen for so strange a visitation, continued to conduct herself modestly and humbly. She refused all offers of money; and as she advanced in years, became more and more dissatisfied with the world, and resolved at last to consecrate herself to God. In July, 1866, she entered into the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, and took her vows under the name of Sister Marie-Bernard. She was then about twentythree years of age. Here she remained for many years, never mentioning her former visions, unless in answer to the enquiries of those around her. During this time she endured much bodily suffering; and in March, 1879, we find her stretched upon her deathbed. The priests showed her the photograph of a statue of Notre-Dame, executed after her description of what she had seen. 'How do you like it?' they said. She looked at it attentively then closed her eyes, and after a few seconds answered, 'It is the least ill-looking of those I have seen.'

"One day, when death was not thought to be so near, one of the sisters approached her. 'Lift me, help me, pray for me,' Bernadette said. Twice she made the same demand, stretching out her hands in supplication. Then she signified that she wished to drink. Before bringing the glass to her lips, she made solemnly one of those great signs of the Cross which she had learned from the Mother of Jesus. This beautiful sign from the dying woman called tears to the eyes of the watchers, as it had formerly astonished the spectators of her ecstacy.

"The end was approaching. Her companions, seeing her dying, cried out 'Jesus, Mary, Joseph, help us in our last agony!' Bernadette bent her head, and gave back her soul to God. Then all the Sisters came round her to imprint upon the forehead of the virgin the last kiss of farewell. She remained unburied for three days, and the whole town of Nevers came to see her and pray at her feet. Several religieuses were constantly occupied in touching the body with objects presented by the crowd, to be laid past as relics. Already the popular feeling had glorified the humble Bernadette."

This was the story narrated, at considerable length, by my fellow-traveller, in his broad southern accent; and with such pathos was it told (as the troubadours might have sung the story of some beautiful high-born lady or valiant knight) that, after I had overcome my first feeling of wonder at the credulity of the people, he carried my feelings with him completely through the narrative. When

he reached the conclusion, I was looking steadfastly out of the carriage window at the mountains above us, to hide an emotion of which I was a little ashamed. Soon we arrived at Pierrefitte, where I bade my companion an affectionate adieu, and mounted on the diligence beside the driver. And the Grotto of Lourdes, with its imaginary miracles, its simple little visionary, and its throng of believing pilgrims, was, for the time being, driven from my mind by the glorious vitality of the morning air, by the splashing of waterfalls and the tumultuous rush of seething torrents, by the cracking of the whip and the jingling of the bells, as the horses bore us up the narrow defiles into the heart of the Pyrénées.

HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD.

WHITE ROUX is made by mixing butter and flour, and drying in the oven without browning.

RICE CAKE.-To 1 lb. of rice add lb. sifted sugar, and a teaspoonful of baking powder, mix well with lb. of butter beaten to a cream, and four eggs. Make up into a wet paste, and drop into buttered patty-pans. Bake in a quick oven.

TO PICKLE CARROTS.-Wash and boil the carrots until tender, scrape and cut them into slices. If desired to be ornamental, pretty shapes may be produced by means of a vegetable cutter. Put into a jar, and pour over them vinegar, boiled and spiced in the usual manner, with the addition of a moderate thickening of mustard. This is a very nice pickle, and comes in very handy at this time of the year, when the stock of pickles is getting low.

MACKAY'S PATENT SELF-ACTING WASHING MACHINE.-We have seen this little apparatus at work, and can confidently recommend it to every householder as an efficient economizer of laundry labour. Being constructed on the principle of suction, instead of friction, the wear and tear of the washing is entirely obviated. The clothes are arranged around the funnel of the apparatus, which is placed on the bottom of the copper or pan where the clothes are boiled. The boiling water which flows in a continuous stream from the funnel, is sucked through the clothes, and again passes through the pipe with automatic regularity.

on

ation which, in consequence, had been going amongst them; of the baseness and treachery of Mac Duff towards himself; and of the illegal way in which a magistrate had lent himself to the furtherance of his ungrateful and treacherous attempt upon his personal liberty. Above all, he told his friend of the hungering and thirsting which, for a hundred reasons, he had to regain possession of the home and estate which, by the sharpest and most heartless sharp practice, had been forced from the Rowans; through the greed of one who had proved himself the most unprincipled and unscrupulous of men. "Oh, Malachy!" cried Garrett, "my very soul is wrung with anger and grief; and I feel-God forgive me-well nigh desperate."

Malachy listened without the least interruption to the burning communication of his friend. He was very sorry for him; yet Garrett's words, for all that, sounded exceedingly welcome to his ear. In fact he was delighted. We know that he had now, for a considerable time, been a confederate; and a most enthusiastic one, in the Fenian movement. Often had the desire risen, strong in his heart, to see Garrett one with himself, in what he deemed a virtuous and splendid enterprise. One that, with a sudden and mighty blow, should rive the chain, for ever, that, in his thought, had for centuries, galled and eaten into the very vitals of his country. But, knowing Garrett's antecedents, he had been afraid to speak; perhaps, in doing so, he should make a dangerous foe, and not an adherent. But, now, the breast of his friend, plainly, was a soil well prepared for his own revolutionary ideas and purposes.

Therefore, while drinking in every word of Garrett's, he pondered silently; planning within himself the best method of conveying to him the thoughts and tidings that thrilled his own bosom.

"Garrett," he said, "ever since we met my heart has been drawn strongly towards you, but never so much as at the present moment. While you have always had my warm friendship, I yet felt somehow that there was an impassable gulf between us. But now, dear friend, I see it is closed up, and it exists no more. You have, at last, had revealed to you, as they have long been to me- -the wrongs and oppressions of your country."

"What do you mean?" enquired Garrett, almost startled by the solemn tones and vehement manner of O'Byrne.

"Do you not see, Garrett," was the reply, "that all the injustice and tyrannous wrong you have been speaking of has been inflicted by those who are alien to your country, and, by means of alien laws? Where is he native of

who has plundered and insulted you? Not of this land, Garrett. And what voice has Ireland had in framing that legislation under which you and she groans? Little or none, Garrett. She was sold by traitors, in former days, to English rule. And English law-makers, three to one, impose their will upon her. And who hold the reins of power over her? And who, by confiscation or by methods as vile (witness your own case), have gained possession of her soil? I will tell you, my friend. Those who have no oneness of feeling with her national life; who cannot comprehend the inner spirit which animates her; share not in her aspirations; and can even mock her futile efforts for freedom; grotesque, as it may be at times, like those of a fevered man in his delirium; from the very feebleness to which her enemies have reduced her."

"But they say, Malachy," remarked Garrett, "that there is no element of strength and nobleness in the Celt; that the history of this country proves it; that for hundreds of years the only instance, in Irish history, of worthy and heroic struggle has been at the Siege of Derry; and that was put forth by the very aliens whom you condemn."

"Bah!" cried Malachy, impatiently. "See how this has been, my friend; Froude himself, who is the one that has made this charge, explains it. They exiled the chivalry of our land, Garrett; forced our native gentry from our shores; banished them to France and Germany and Spain. The English Elizabeth did it. The Puritan Cromwell did it. The Dutch King William did it; and then they taunt us with the mass of ignorance, and with the foolish methods of men of meaner blood-without their natural leaders-left behind. But that you may see, Garrett, what the maligned Celt is capable of-turn to the lands where those exiles, I have spoken of, with kindly welcome were received. No prouder names adorn the history of Europe than those of MacMahon, of France; Browne,* of Austria; and O'Donnell, of Spain. The men who bore these names were the soul of honour; the lion heart of courage; and the very genius of war; and Celtic blood, Garrett, and only that coursed in their veins.'

"Well, even though I admit your argument," interrupted Garrett. "How does that mend the case, my friend? However, it has been done; yet, even according to you, Ireland has lost her noblest sons; and the Celt, as he now is found, is not adequate to retrieve her long lost power and glory."

"You are wrong, Garrett," exclaimed his friend, "quite wrong. It is true, long has been the degradation and weakness of the Celt; but the very length of his day of sorrow has

* See Carlyle's "Frederick the Great."

brought its close.

Our down-trodden race has had time to renew itself, Garrett; and numbers, at this hour, aye thousands and tens of thousands of brave men, are prepared to die if needs be for their country; and to repeat the noblest deeds of those who have fought and bled before them. What I say is true, Garrett," said Malachy, with energy. "You need not be incredulous, for I have infallible proof that it is true; and as I believe you are, from late occurrences, in a fit state of mind to hear my proof, I entrust you, my friend, with a momentous secret."

Upon this, Malachy made known to Garrett, who was lost in surprise and wonder, the whole progress of the Fenian conspiracy. "We have sworn into our National Army," said Malachy, "hundreds of thousands; we have our emissaries in every town and village throughout the land; our forces are trained, officered, and organised; even our Provisional Government is chosen. We are ready at a moment's call to strike; and the birth of the Irish Republic, my friend, may come in a week, not to say an hour."

"But, I do not like this appeal to physical force," said Garrett. "It means the sacrifice of human life; red havoc over the land, Malachy; fell destruction by fire and sword.”

"It does," said Malachy, with grave and steady calmness. "But what land has achieved its freedom and won a place among the nations without these? I know of none, Garrett; and surely better is one season— -however dreadfulof conflagration and slaughter in open fight with our foe, if it only lead to triumph, than these ever-recurring deeds of murder and arson, which for years and years have been the misery and shame of the land; and which shall continue to be perpetrated until Ireland, as the result of our sublime struggle, shall become a community of freemen; bound together in fraternal concord; associated, Garrett, by a common sentiment, and labouring towards a common aim. Oh! Garrett!" exclaimed Malachy, borne away by his enthusiasm, "I become intoxicated at times with the vision that rises before me of my country; when, with heaven-gifted might, as of a Samson, she shall burst the worse than Philistian cords that bind her; and shall stand before the world admirable in her special national genius; beautiful in her virtue; glorious in her greatness; and awful in her majesty and power." Garrett smiled at his friend; and yet he could not resist catching something of the ardour and patriotic fervour of his soul.

It would take too long to give in detail all that passed between these two friends. But it ended, we regret to say, in Malachy winning over his friend a good deal to his views. Indeed, so far, as to consent to become a Fenian

The heart of Garrett,

conspirator with him. we must remember, was sorely vexed by the tyranny of MacDuff, over his friends, the old tenants of Carberry Grange. He himself, as we know, had been the victim of the Encumbered Estates Court-a court which owed its existence to English legislation. Sadlier, the protegé, for its own ends, of an English Cabinet, had been the despoiler of the remnant of his father's fortune; and had sent him to his grave. He, Garrett, was now threatened with arrest and prosecution, as a felon; and there were magistrates, he saw, weak enough to be the tools of the man who menaced him. Above all, if affairs were to continue in the country as now, he saw before him no possibility of repossessing Carberry Grange; and he could not bear the thought of never regaining it. "Do you not see," Malachy had said, "that what I propose to you, Garrett, furnishes the very method--indeed the only one-of securing all that you desire? When our Fenian enterprise succeeds, as it is certain to do, there will be a redistribution of property; for our foes must be made to suffer, you know, for their reign of selfish aggrandisement. You then, my dear friend, can put in an unchallengeable claim to your family estate-especially after your splendid services, which, from your influence, as a Rowan, over the people in Carberry, you will be able to render the national cause. Why, I, myself, Garrett, will see that you get the Grange for your reward. And, I can tell you, I do not vainly boast when I say that, with our Leader and Head Centre, my word has power. Seize, then, this your opportunity, Garrett; it is a magnificent one, and will bear you on in triumph to your longed-for goal."

"Well, be it so," said Garrett. "I yield myself to your persuasion, Malachy; and may all my presentiment of evil in the future, prove to be groundless. But, still, mark me, Malachy," and Garrett spoke with deep earnestness, "I join this new political movement upon the distinct understanding that it is one-as you say-to be carried out upon just and honourable principles; and in fair and open fight. My soul has been sick unto death with the cowardly assassinations and midnight outrages, and dastardly assaults which have hitherto characterised Irish conspiracies. I will have nothing to do with such abominations; I utterly abhor them. And, if those Fenians commit such crimes, I swear before Heaven, Malachy, that at all hazard I will openly denounce them."

"There

"All right," responded Malachy. is no fear of such deeds disturbing you, my dear fellow; they belong to an evil past; and, I assure you, we are done with them for ever.