The view which presented itself to this little girl, as she stood looking for her brother on the side of the brook, was such as the painter would have seized with avidity.

At the feet of the child ran a pure and pellucid stream, over a pebbled and mossy channel; to the right and left, deep and thick woods feathered down to the brink of the water, or presented unbroken shadowy glades, through which no ray of light had power to penetrate. A little below the place where Lucie stood, eagerly looking for her brother, was a single plank thrown over the water; in a line with which proceeded a verdant path, which wound its way up to the steep and precipitous ascent before mentioned, on the summit of which stood the ruins of the chapel.

This acclivity was richly clothed with underwood; and a beautiful group of mountain-ash, aspen, and birch crowned its summit, mingling themselves with the tottering fragments of the dismantled church.

This edifice, the work of ancient piety, had been erected in that solitary place in remembrance of the preservation of a certain nobleman from banditti in the days of barbarous lawlessness: and had, as I before said, been deprived, during the revolution, of its roof and ornaments; and now stood solitary and neglected, lifting its dismantled arches in sullen majesty above the summit of the underwood.

Lucie passed the little bridge, and, beginning to ascend the hill, she came opposite the frowning ruin. She stood still, and then, recollecting some strange tales of wolves and robbers which were said to people these ruins, she felt afraid to proceed, and began to call aloud for her brother; and in measure as she called, she became more terrified and impatient; till at length she raised her voice so high, that the echoes, caused by the windings of the valley, repeated her cries and added to her distress.

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"O Florentin, my brother!" she said: "where are you, O my Florentin!"-The echo repeated, “O my Florentin !"

Lucie did not understand the nature of an echo, and being more than ever alarmed, she repeated, "Oh! Florentin! my brother! he is lost! My Florentin is lost!" The echo answered with several reverberations, each repetition being fainter and weaker than another, “ My Florentin is lost!"

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While Lucie continued to call with increased terror upon her brother, she observed an aged man, wearing a peasant's coat, and holding a small book in his hand, appear beneath one of the arched doorways of the ruins. Lucie's terror was increased, and she was going to run back down the hill, when the stranger called to her, and offered her his assistance if she were in distress, and at the same moment advancing towards her, showed a countenance whose venerable and sweet expression at once removed the ill-grounded apprehensions of the little girl.

"And who," said the stranger, "who, my little damsel, is this Florentin on whom you so pathetically call, and whose loss you so bitterly lament, while the echoes mock your wo?"

"Florentin is my brother, sir," said the little girl. "And your name, my little fair one?" said the stranger.

"Is Lucie, at your service, sir," replied the little cottager.

"Florentin and Lucie," said the stranger; and he was proceeding to question the little girl farther, when shouts of joy and merriment suddenly filled the valley (shouts which were instantly repeated by the laughing echoes), and Florentin appeared coming along the pathway, leading the cow with one hand, and waving his cap over his head with the other. Thus he appeared before his sister and the old stranger; the former of whom sprang gayly to meet him, while the feelings of the other were such as I should have difficulty to describe, but which will be easily conceived when I tell you that this stranger was no other than the same Florentin, Baron de L--, of whom I spake in the early part of this story-the father of Lucie, wife of Le Visac; the grandfather of the two young people whose history we profess to write: and the actual lord and right possessor of the lands of L

I have pointed out by what means the Baron de L was driven from his native country, and reduced to wander an exile in foreign lands: I now shall account for his having remained so long absent; for his having apparently forgotten his family, and ceased to inquire after them; and for his reappearance at the present ime in the situation in which we now find him.

The Baron de L had fled with such haste from his native country, that he had been enabled to take with him but a very small sum of money; in consequence of which he fell into extreme poverty in the foreign lands into which he fled; and, owing perhaps to this circumstance, as well as distress of mind, he sank into so bad a state of health that he remained for some years confined to his apartment, where he was compelled to rely for his subsistence upon the charity of strangers. But the strangers into whose hands he fell were Christians; not merely by name, but in deed and truth they were persons who knew and feared God, and such as endeavoured to lead the wandering soul of the unhappy baron into the heavenly way, at the very time that they carefully and liberally administered to his bodily wants.

The Lord bestowed his blessings upon the labours and bounties of these excellent persons; and they were enabled to lead this unfortnnate man from the ways of ignorance, pride, and darkness, into the paths of light and life.

During his residence with these persons, the baron experienced an entire change of sentiments and feelings. He was made to see (of which he before had not the least idea) that he was a sinner, and a rebel against God; and that every affliction he had endured had been necessary for him, and had been sent by his Heavenly Father with the same views, and for the same purposes, with those with which an earthly father corrects the child he loves. But, before he could admit this idea, it was found necessary to make him understand (as far as is possible) the nature and attributes of God, and the connexion which subsists between the Almighty and his children.

Before his afflictions, the baron had lived in entire ignorance of religion and though he believed himself to be a philosopher, he possessed exceedingly confused and indistinct views of the Deity; for, with many others, he had endeavoured to learn the nature of God through his own reason-not being aware that no man by reason finds out God. Having, therefore, formed false views of the Almighty, all his reasonings upon his actions were erroneous, and all his calculations upon the probable result of the events of this life confused and imperfect.

The kind persons into whose hands he fell during his affliction, were soon made aware of the dark and confused state of his mind, and immediately set themselves, in the best way in their power, to explain to him all that Scripture reveals on the being, attributes, and nature of the Divinity; being well aware of the fatal effects of error on those heads.

And, first, they began by establishing the authority of the Bible, for which there are many arguments.

1st, Ancient copies of it being in the hands of so many denominations of persons, and all these copies agreeing so well together.

2dly, Its containing predictions of things so long before they came to pass.

3dly, Its suitableness to the wants of mankind; and, 4thly, Its explaining many ancient customs, for which oherwise we should utterly be at a loss to account.

These, and many more arguments, they alleged in favour of the truth of Scripture; which arguments being established, and having, by the divine blessing, produced conviction in the mind of the baron, they proceeded to state to him the nature of the Deity as revealed in the Bible; the awful mystery of the glorious Trinity; and the peculiar parts taken by each of these blessed Persons in the marvellous work of man's salvation.

It was this important part of the Christian religion which, when properly stated, appeared to affect the mind of the baron more than any other ;-and surely there are many others who would be equally affected, were equal pains taken to point out to them that amazing scheme of salvation, by which a holy God has sought to reconcile himself to miserable and rebellious sinners, without losing any part of that holiness, which must remain perfect because it is a part of a perfect God.

It was before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time, before the name of man had been pronounced by any created being, that he who purposed his creation-that is, the Lord Jehovah, that inexplicable name by which we understand the glorious Three in One-saw, through his infinite foreknowledge, that the creature whom he was about to make would fall from his obedience, and render himself the heir of everlasting misery through disobedience, to which man was to be tempted by the arts of Satan.

This being known, the Almighty prepared a plan by which the malice of man's arch-enemy is defeated, and thousands, and millions, and tens of millions, and multitudes, inconceivable multitudes of the human race, will be rescued from everlasting destruction, and their salvation made sure for ever.

This plan was the result of the everlasting counsels of the Lord Jehovah, and in the salvation of every redeemed soul each Person of the blessed Trinity is jointly and separately engaged.

Thus the redeemed soul is indebted for his everlasting happiness to God the Father, who loved him ere yet he had entered into being, and appointed his blessed Son to die for him upon the accursed tree.

Thus the sinner is indebted in like manner to God the Son, who died for him upon the cross; obtaining for him the satisfaction for all his sins, and a justification from all his offences.

And to God the Holy Ghost he owes that change of heart and of feeling which must take place before he can enter into the happiness prepared for him by God the Father, and procured for him by the merits and death of God the Son.

These doctrines, with their authorities, being clearly laid before the baron by his Christian friends, he was made, by the divine blessing, to see his Maker in a very different point of view from that in which he is beheld by man in a natural state; for the sinner naturally hates and fears God; he hates him because he knows that a holy God must hate sin: and he fears him because he knows that he will punish it; but when the system of salvation is revealed (through the power of the Holy Ghost) to the sinner, his feelings towards his God are instantly changed. Instead of a justly incensed and powerful enemy, he sees in him an affectionate and reconciled Father; and in all the dispensations of his providence, however afflictive, he sees the chastisements of a tender parent, where once he beheld nothing but the cruelty and caprice of a tyrant.

As soon as the baron was enabled to receive these just and proper views of religion, he became an altered character: the pride and asperity of his temper disappeared; and instead of murmuring against fate, and speaking of himself as of the most injured and miserable of men he