When Alick came to her for the double purpose of ascertaining the state of his packages, and bidding a kind farewell, he was touched by the trembling earnestness of her injunctions to avoid all danger, and to keep away from all bad companions. Oh, never fear, Suke,' replied he, 'I know better than to risk my precious neck without cause; and as for bad company, I shall not disgrace my family by mixing with people beneath me.'

Fain would she have pointed to a higher and purer motive, but she had never yet ventured upon any discourse of the kind with her master's family; and before she could muster resolution he was called away. 'Good bye, Susan; take care of your old bones, that

I

may find them safe and snug in their comfortable case when I return.' He held out his hand; the faithful creature clasped it between her's, and her feelings broke forth in a scriptural phrase, quoted in the minister's prayer for him, and which she had often since repeated in her own, "The God of his father Abraham, the Angel that delivered Jacob from all evil, bless the lad!" Alick looked at her with some surprize; but he only said, 'Thank ye, Susan ; I hope he will,' and bounded away.

The person who had called him was his cousin Esther. Discouraged in her exclusive feelings by those around her, and particularly shy of provoking Alick's bantering drollery, she had repressed many a rising exhortation where she deemed it greatly needed; but now that he was on the very eve of

departing on such a pilgrimage, she resolved to discharge her conscience, and to set before him his duty. Accordingly she began by inquiring if he could really proceed on a journey to Jerusalem with no greater emotion than if he were going to Paris or to Berlin ?

'Why, no; I don't say that, Esther. Without bringing up useless distinctions in the way you do, one must feel something in going for the first time to visit what is certainly the land of his fathers, though it is not his own.'

'Not his own, Alick Cohen? Who shall dare to say of that land that it is not at this moment the property of every Hebrew on the face of the earth?'

'A very unprofitable property, coz. For any good it yields me, or any business I have with it, I might just as well point to Sir John's park yonder, and call it mine.'

If Coleby Park had belonged to your ancestors from time immemorial, and was entailed on you, the sole heir, and had been forcibly taken possession of by a gang of robbers, who held it by mere strength of arm, defying both law and justice, would you not still call it yours?'

'Ay, and soon get it out of their rascally clutches, I'll warrant you. But your simile does not hold good; for the property you speak of, yonder in the East, has certainly been made over by the Great Proprietor above to other tenants.'

'Alas, alas!' said Esther, it is too true. Our sins

have forfeited the possession, and we shall never, never regain it while remaining thus careless, impenitent, hardened under the Divine rebuke.' Then suddenly fixing on him her eyes, which she had before shaded with her clasped hands, she sternly added, It is such as you who stand between the tribes and their inheritance! The very temple of Mount Zion, in all the magnificence of its glory, would not outweigh with you the glitter and the pride of a little wealth, display, and power in the midst of an infidel nation.'

Alick was roused; he darted back a look equally proud and angry as her own, but his eye presently fell beneath the lofty scorn of her's; and with a short laugh he carelessly remarked, One must not be too severe with a pretty girl when she gets into "Ercles' vein," by way of variety.'

6

No, cousin Alick, I do not vary, and you know it. My feeling, however suppressed out of deference to those above me, is always the same. A daughter of Jerusalem by right, I never will forego the lofty privileges of that character, though the loftiest of them now be that of weeping over the ruins of Jerusalem, the desolation, the degradation of her degenerate sons.' She turned away in tears: then again facing him said, with greater animation, 'You will have a new character to sustain; hitherto you have lived in a charmed circle, where a golden talisman secures you from all that you must shortly expect to encounter. Unless with the honourable name of Nathan

you mean to drop and wholly to deny your blood and lineage, you will yet find yourself reviled, taunted, thrust out, trampled upon, in the character of a despised Jew.'

Colouring with anger, the youth haughtily replied, 'Jew or Gentile, no living man shall dare to despise me.'

Esther shook her head compassionately, 'Ah, so you think, but time will undeceive you. Apostacy alone can save you from your share of the national curse-the scorn of the Gentile; and I don't think, Alick, I don't think,' she deliberately repeated, that you are yet prepared to stamp that open brow with the foul brand of a cowardly apostate.'

The youth was excessively provoked; but affecting a louder laugh than before, he apologised for not having time to answer her pleasantry, and left her with apparent good humour. Esther almost regretted having pursued so rough a course, when a little management might have led to better results; but it was past, and no opportunity presented itself of repairing the mischief. A brief good-bye was all she could interchange with Alick, before he started with his father for the port whence they were to sail, in a ship of the line, for the Mediterranean.

CHAPTER II.

ADVERSE winds detained the ship for some days in the Channel; after which they coasted leisurely westward, the captain having to communicate with the Admiral at Cove. Every thing in the shape of delay was agreeable to Alick, who found in the sea an element so delightful, and in the sprightly young middies associates so congenial to him, than an order to circumnavigate the globe in that company would have been welcome. Mr. Cohen, who suffered greatly from sickness, had not even made his appearance at the captain's table; but Alick, a general favourite, had already experienced the hospitality of all the messes; among which he certainly preferred the gunroom, where, at a slip of table thirty feet long, assembled the gallant array of midshipmen, varying in years from fourteen to more than twice that age, a schoolmaster, two assistant surgeons, and very frequently a warrant-officer as guest. The early dinnerhour of noon allowed Alick to accept the almost daily