and in the presence of the feast of wantonness. When nature, outraged nature, speaks in cries, and those cries are stifled-not with bread--no!" he repeated, rising, as if agitation did not permit him to sit still; "no, not with bread-but with blows!" And he clasped his withered hands, and wrung them, as if the recollection of past suffering was equivalent to present agony. "Yes," he resumed, with an energy that belonged not to his years, "not with blows only, but with the branding iron! Look," he cried, stripping up his sleeve, and showing his bare arm; "there, there, felon is written in those seared and savage scars-felon for food!" Esther caught the extended hand, and sinking on her knee, burst into a flood of tears. The old man dropped on his knees beside her, and folded her to his breast. "Balm, balm, this is balm !" he cried. "If there be a register yet against me, these tears will blot out my offences. They are to me as the fountain of the desert-as the accepted sacrifice." Mezrack rose and raised Esther. How beautiful is the sorrow of the beautiful! Mez rack gazed upon her as she stood in her stately but unaffected mournfulness, and exclaimed, in a voice of triumph, as the past rose in strong contrast to his memory, "Behold the daughter of the despised Jew-in all the land no woman is found so fair!" And walking back to the couch, he drew Esther to his side. "Esther," he resumed, "your father is my only son-but I had another child. The world would say she was less beautiful than thou art; but of her better beauty what might the world know? I knew it, Esther; she acknowledged when all else denied me: when they branded me as a felon, she blessed me as her father! She was with me often when the morning broke upon us without bread, and when the night closed upon us without shelter. But never came there murmur from her lip; still, still she cheered me on-bade me offer up the sacrifice of an humble spirit and a perfect faith. Alas! the sacrifice I offered was herself, and the perfect faith was placed in a false Christian-he robbed me of my child. Twenty long years have passed away, but have worn out none of the traces then burned in agony on my bereaved heart. And now shall a Christian again take my only daughter? O! Esther, commune with thy soul. Remember that I lift my voice against him." Mezrack did not retire to rest till the sun was abroad; Esther retired not at all. She changed her splendid for a simple dress; but no other change did the past hours effect. She still venerated her grandfather; perhaps loved him more deeply for the sorrow he had known. But he had not shaken one iota of her passion for Marmion. All that had been urged against |