triumph that told of the first welcome victory of the villagers.

But there were brave spirits amongst them whose hearts had been roused in a great cause, and whose bearing threw over even the rending hearts of the bereaved consciousness that those dear to them had perished like men for a good and great cause. Trenton caused the dead of the enemy to be buried in the copse hard by, and with Albert's assistance effaced, as much as possible, the marks of the strife; the next day found him prepared to obviate the evils and carry out the effects of his advantage.

CHAPTER IX.

What a dream is life!

How little we know of those with whom we have to

do.

We believe them honest. But the result

Doth show that self-interest is everything with the selfish and the mean.

ANONYMOUS.

LONG and dreary were the hours which poor Helen Endsleigh had to pass within those convent walls without association, consolation, or enjoyment.

Had she been aware of the fact how largely the rulers of that church were politically occupied in fomenting the strife then raging in the country, Helen would

have understood the reasons why she, the daughter of one of the most distinguished divines in the country was selected for a proselyte.

Little did she suppose she could ever become a portion of the object of a state plan, but she knew not how minute and numerous were the feelers of the scorpion into whose hands she had fallen; and with what singular wisdom and tact the various efforts of the Romish Church are made, exhibiting as they do, combined, the most, astonishing effort of merely worldly foresight and perseverance that the history of mankind has presented.

Perhaps she might have escaped, had not the eyes of one of the most accomplished and powerful of those agents rested upon her beauty, and a resolve been roused within him to possess it.

It was in one of his secret visits to Chaveley that Derivale had first seen Helen Endsleigh. To see was to admire ;

and, as far as he could, to love. But love with him was but an administration to selfishness; and having, in vain, sought means to bend her to his will, he decided to use the power with which he was invested to accomplish his purpose.

Poor Helen knew not how wide and terrible were the toils which were spread around her; but she knew enough to have appalled any heart not fortified against every assault of misery and misfortune; though, perhaps, in some degree the terror of her situation was enhanced by her ignorance and uncertainty respecting the dreadful power by which she was oppressed.

She

saw that the apparent object of her confinement was her conversion from the purity of her faith, to one she had learned to fear and to detest; but she little thought that even that conversion was simply intended by him, who designed it, as an instrument to a further purpose or she would have been led to hate as well as fear her keepers.

The superior to whose care she had been consigned, was unscrupulously active in promoting the cause to which she belonged --but in doing this, she rigidly abided by the rules of her order; and sometimes, by this means actually served, with more effect, the ends of the less conscientious members, with whom she was religiously combined, than she could have done by the most open and active coalition.

In the custody of such a person as this, Helen was placed in the very position likely to answer the object of Derivale, had that been possible. On the presumption that she was destined to be one of the brides of the Church, a plan was pursued calculated in every way to compel her to become

such.

Matins, prayers, and all the dull routine of a secluded life, were unceasingly imposed -and, as the dreary winter passed, the only change poor Helen knew, was from observing the dim watery beam of the