lived with his sister at Saint Augustin, and that he has always been faithful to my mother: Philippe was his name among the Angels, and men called him Lopez.'

'At these words I uttered a shout which resounded throughout the solitude; the tumults of my transports mingled themselves with the tumult of the storm. Pressing Atala to my heart, sobbing I exclaimed: 'O my sister! O daughter of Lopez! daughter of my benefactor!' Atala, frightened, asked what ailed me; but when she knew that Lopez was that generous host who had adopted me at Saint Augustin, and that I had left him to be free, she herself was seized with amazement and joy.'

'When this fraternal friendship visited us, and joined his love to our love, it was too much for our hearts. Henceforth the struggles of Atala began to be of no use: I perceived her passing her hand to her bosom in vain, and starting with alarm; already I had clasped her, already I was intoxicated with her breath, already I had drunk all the magic of love on her lips; with eyes raised towards heaven, by the gleam of the lightning, I held my betrothed in my arms, in presence of the Eternal. Nuptial splendor, worthy of our misfortunes, and of the grandeur of our loves; noble forests, which agitate your tie-vines and your domes as the curtains and the canopy of our couch; pine trees in flames were our hymenial torches; overflowing river, rumbling mountains, awful and sublime nature, were you not then only an equipage prepared to deceive us, and can you not conceal a moment with your mysterious horrors the rapture of a man?'

'Atala offered only a gentle resistance; I embraced the opportunity, when suddenly a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of thunder, pierced the thickness of the shades, filled the forest with sulphur and with light, and shattered a tree at our feet. We flew. O surprise! * in the silence which followed, we heard the sound of a bell! Both amazed, we listened to that noise, so strange in a desert. Instantly a dog barks in the distance; he comes near, he howls yet louder, he reaches us, he roars with joy at our feet; a solitary man, carrying a little lantern, followed him through the gloomy darkness of the forest. "Thank Providence!' he exclaimed, as soon as he saw us. 'A long time I have been hunting for you. Our dog has been scenting you from the beginning of the storm, and he has brought me here. Good God! how young they are! Poor children! How they have suffered! Come with me: I have

brought along a bear's skin, this will be for that young woman; here, take a little wine in your gourd. May God be praised in all his works! His mercy is very great, and his goodness knows no bounds!'

'Atala threw herself at the feet of the monk: 'Leader of prayer,' said she to him, 'I am a Christian; Heaven sent you to save me.' 'My daughter,' said the hermit while lifting her up, we generally ring the mission bell through the night and during the tempests, to attract strangers; and, following the example of our brothers of the Alps and of Lebanon, we have learned our dog to hunt out the wandering voyageurs.'

'As for myself, I scarcely understood the hermit; that charity seemed to me so far above the human order of charity, that I thought it was all a dream. By the light of the little lantern which the monk held, I caught a glimpse of his beard and his locks all soaked with water; his feet, his hands and his face were streaming with blood from the wounds of the thorns in his way.

‘Old man,' in fine I exclaimed, 'what kind of a heart hast thou, thou who hast had no fear to be struck by the lightning?'-'Fear!' replied the Father with warmth; 'fear, while there are men in peril, and while I can be useful to them! I would then be a very unworthy servant of Jesus Christ!'-'But knowst thou, said I to him, 'that I am not a Christian?—Young man,' replied the hermit, ‘have I asked you a question about your religion? Jesus Christ has not said: My blood will wash this one, and not that. He died for the Jew and the Gentile, and he looked upon all men as brothers in affliction. What I do here for you, is a very small matter, and you will find elsewhere, far better aid; but the glory of it, does not belong to the priests. What are we, weak solitary men, save rude instruments of a heavenly work? Ah! How recreant would that soldier be to desert, while his chief, cross in hand, and forehead crowned with thorns, marches before him for the relief of humanity?' "These words took possession of my breast; tears of admiration and of tenderness fell from my eyes. 'My dear children,' said the Missionary, 'I have charge of a little flock of your Savage brothers in these forests. My cave is very near here in the mountain; come refresh yourselves at my home; you will not find there the luxuries of life, but you will have a shelter; and for this we ought again to thank divine goodness, for there are many, many men who have no home.'

THE LABORERS.

"There are just men whose conscience is so tranquil, that one cannot approach them without partaking of the peace which is breathed out, as one may say, from their heart and from their conversation. Just in proportion as the solitary man continued speaking, I felt the passions assuaging in my breast, and even the storm of heaven seemed to pass away at his voice. The clouds were soon scattered so that we could leave our retreat. We issued from the forest, and we began to clamber up the ridge of a high mountain. The dog marched before us, carrying the extinguished lantern on the end of a stick. I held the hand of Atala, and we followed the Missionary. He turned around often to notice us, contemplating with pity our misfortunes and our youth. A book was hanging to his neck; he was leaning on a white staff. His form was tall; his face pale and thin, his expression plain and sincere. He had not the dull heavy features of a man born without passions; one could see that he had passed through evil days, and the wrinkles on his brow evinced the admirable scars of passions cured by virtue, and by the love of God and of men. When he spoke to us standing and immovable, his long beard, his eyes looking modestly down, the affectionate tone of his voice, every peculiarity about him was distinguished by repose and sublimity. Whoever has seen, as I, Father Aubry walking alone with his staff, and his breviary in the desert, has a genuine idea of the Christian voyageur on the earth.

'After a dangerous march of half an hour along the by-ways of the mountain, we arrived at the cave of the Missionary. We entered it through the ivys and the damp giraumonts, which the rain had beaten down from the rocks. There was in this place only a rug of the leaves of the papaya, a gourd to draw up the water, some wooden buckets, a spade, a familiar serpent; and, on a rock which served for a table, a crucifix and the book of the Christians.

"The man of ancient days hastened to kindle a fire with the dry vines; he cracked some corn between two rocks, and having made a cake, put it in the ashes to bake. When the cake was taken out of the fire, with a fine golden color, he served it for us all burning hot, with the cream of walnuts on a plate of maple. Serenity being restored to the evening, the servant of the Great Spirit proposed to us to go and take a seat at the entrance of the cave. We followed him to the spot which commanded an extensive view.

The remains of the storm were thrown in disorder towards

the East. The flames of the conflagration kindled in the forests by the lighting still sparkled in the distance; at the foot of the mountain, a pine grove blown down laid embedded in the mud, and the river flowing pell mell carried along the soft white clay, the trunks of trees, the bodies of animals and dead fish, whose silvery belly one might see floating on the surface of the waters.

'Amid this scene it was that Atala told our story to the old Genius of the mountain. His heart seemed touched, and the tears fell on his beard. My child,' said he to Atala, 'it is necessary to offer your sacrifices to God, for the glory with which you have already escaped so many perils; He will restore you repose. See how these forests smoke, the torrents cease, the clouds scatter: believe you, that He who can calm such a tempest, will be unable to appease the agitations of the human heart? If you have no better place of refuge, my dear daughter, I will offer you one amid the flock which I have had the happiness to call to Jesus Christ. I will instruct Chactas, and I will marry him to you, when he may be worthy to be your husband.'

'At these words, I fell on the knees of the solitary man, shedding tears of joy; but Atala grew pale as death. The old man raised me benignly, and I saw that both his hands were maimed. At the instant Atala comprehended his misfortunes. "The Barbarians!' she exclaimed.

'My daughter,' replied the Father with a gentle smile, what is that, in comparison with what my divine Master has endured? If the idolatrous Indians have tortured me, they are poor blind beings whom God will one day enlighten. I love them even more in proportion to the afflictions they have made me suffer. I was unable to remain in my country, where I returned, and where an illustrious Queen has done me the honor to wish to look on these slight signs of my apostleship. And what recompense could I receive for my labors more glorious, than to have obtained from the head of our religion the permission to celebrate divine sacrifice with these mutilated hands? Nothing more remained for me after such an honor, but to endeavor to render myself worthy of it. I returned to the new world, to spend the remainder of my life in the Bervice of my God. Nearly thirty years have I been living in this solitude, and to morrow it will have been twenty-two, since I took possession of this rock. When I arrived in this country, I found here only wandering tribes whose manners were ferocious and whose

life was extremely miserable. I have taught them to understand the word of peace, and their manners are gradually subdued. Now they live at the foot of that mountain. I have endeavored, while teaching them the way of salvation, to learn them the first arts of life, but without carrying them too far, and constantly retaining these honest people in that simplicity which constitutes their happiness. As for myself, apprehending that I would constrain them by my presence, I have retired under this cave, where they come tó consult me. It is here that, far from men, I admire God in the grandeur of these solitudes, and that I prepare myself for death, which my old days tell me is near.'

"While ending these words, the solitary man bowed down upon his knees, and we followed his example. With a loud voice he began to pray, and Atala responded to his prayer. Silent rays still flashed on the skies in the East, and on the clouds of the West three suns shone together. Some foxes scattered by the storm, stretched out their black heads on the bank of the precipices, and one could hear the sensitive action of the plants which, drying in the breeze of the evening, raised again all around their downbeaten blades.

'We re-entered the cave, where the hermit spread out a bed of the moss of cypress for Atala. An oppressive weariness was visible in the eyes and in the motions of that virgin; she looked at Father Aubry as though she wished to tell him a secret; but something seemed to hold her back, it may be my presence, it may be a certain modesty, it may be the inutility of the confession. I heard her get up at midnight. She searched for the solitary; but, as he had given her his couch, he went out to contemplate the beauty of heaven, and to pray to God on the summit of the mountain. He told me the next day, that it was sometimes his custom, even during the winter; loving to see the forests waving their leafless tops, the clouds flying along the sky, and to hear the winds and the torrents rumbling in the solitude. My sister was then obliged to return to her couch where she fell asleep. Alas! full of hope, I saw in the exhaustion of Atala only transient signs of lassitude.

"The next day, I was awakened by the songs of the cardinals and of the mocking-birds, around their nests on the acacias and the laurels which environed the cave. I went out to cull a rose of the magnolia, and I put it, all moistened with the tears of the morning, on the head of Atala still sleeping. I hoped, according