brother and sister. There was no question | tion came, he withdrew it from her, saying of baptizing her conditionally, as the Ro- Go, go; be altogether God's.' man Catholic Church does respect the valid- A kind of trance of spiritual ecstasy ity of Greek baptism. It was striking, that seemed to enwrap Alexandrine in these on that night the Princess Lapoukhyn days. Her journals seem lifted above the dreamt, in Alexandrine's words, that she world. One of her wedding presents had saw me a little child again, sitting down, been a pearl necklace, which, however her dressed only in my little shift, with my head mother would not let her wear at her marcrowned with a wreath of flowers like darts; riage because of the German saying, Perlen that the costume vexed her; and then that deuten Thränen, and she now sold it, and I wanted to give her these large flowers in gave the price to the poor as a thank-offermy crown, but she refused them Oh! ing. She wrote these thoughts on it: till when?'

There was a strange, deep, holy bliss and repose resting on them all at this time. To some of them it was but the Delectable Mountains; to Albert it was the Land of Beulah a time of almost unbroken peace and joy.

On the night of the 1st or 2d of June,' his wife writes: I was in Eugénie's room at one o'clock in the morning. I thought Albert was asleep. Suddenly we heard the notes of the I piano; it made a painful impression on us. knew it was Albert, and I think I said it was the last time he would touch those notes. I went to him. He was in a melancholy but very sweet reverie. His faithful nurse, a sister of the order of Bon Secours, was there too." Vol. i. p. 401.

Pearls, tokens of tears,
Pearls, tears of the sea,
Tearfully gathered from its depths,

Often tearfully worn amid the pleasures of
this world,

Tearfully laid aside in the greatest of earthly sorrows,

Now at last go and dry tears by being changed into bread.'

Her devotions absorbed her greatly, and perhaps the last feeling of self-reproach in Albert's sensitive mind wasfor one moment's complaint that she was less occupied with him than usual. At the sight of her tears he begged her pardon most tenderly, and afterwards said to Eugénie, I have been bad; I have been jealous of God.'

Once too he threw his arm round his wife's neck with the irrepressible cry, 'I am dyStill he was on some days so well that it ing; and we should have been so happy!' was hoped that he might go to the chapel but in general his heart was wholly fixed of L'Enfant Jésus to share with his wife in above, and his resignation perfect. He her first communion; but he was too much lived to see Mrs. Craven again, and survived reduced to be able to receive, fasting, in the till the 29th of June. That night Alexanforenoon, and on that account a dispensa- drine was so physically exhausted with tion was obtained from the Archbishop of watching and fatigue that she was perfectly Paris for a mass to be celebrated at mid- bewildered, and fancied herself speaking to night in his room, on Sunday, the 3d of Fernand in a window, where no one was June, as the only hour when he could re- standing. Eugénie made her lie down on ceive, fasting. Otherwise, he could not her bed; and when Albert asked for her have communicated except as a dying man, she did not know where she was going, and and the service must have been unsuitable twice passed before his bed without seeing to so joyful an occasion. The celebrating anything. He died at six o'clock in the priest was the Abbé Gerbet, an intimate morning. His father alone spoke, 'You friend, and one of those most closely con- who have never grieved us -the best of nected with the French revival, the author children-be blessed. Go! Do you hear of Rome Chrétienne,' and other books me still? You are looking at your Alexanmuch valued in the French Church. He drine, you are blessing her.' These were his died in 1859, Bishop of Rossignan. At the broken words, while the Abbé Martin knelt time Albert was forced to be in his bed. beside the bed, and the nursing sister reHis parents, his sisters Eugénie and Olga, cited the Litany of the Dying. The Abbé and his friend M. de Montalembert, were Martin began the words of the parting absothe other communicants. Alexandrine lution: ere it was ended, Albert was gone. was in white, her bridal veil on her head, and the altar was decked with the richest silks of her scarcely-used trousseau. She knelt by her husband's side, holding his hand, but when the moment for her recep

And then follows the question What would become of these highly-wrought feelings of Alexandrine ? A large list might be written of disappointments in widows. Many a woman has been carried by a be

the

embrace me; but surprise and agitation made fices before God, and she thus acquired a her stumble, and she fell on the floor at full peculiarly calm, sweet, meditative characlength. I was much frightened, for I thought ter, and a sort of angelic gentleness. Once she had fainted, but she was herself again when she had been taken to witness the grand quickly, and her first words were to ask pardon. procession of the Fête Dieu, at Naples, she "Do not think I am always like this," she said. "Oh no; I assure you, you will find me much saw perfectly till the moment it passed, when calmer than you suppose. There are still many sun, flashing on the gilded banners and things that I enjoy." Indeed, when once re- on the soldiers' weapons, completely blinded covered from the first shock, she sat down by her for the time. After a silence she said, me, and with a sort of tranquillity, we had our to her sister, 'I saw nothing; but I am not first sad conversation, and in spite of all that vexed, I have been so happy thinking what had happened since we parted, and of all she God will let me see in Paradise to make up had to tell me in spite of our sorrow and our for all I miss here.'- P. 122, note. tears, this first hour of meeting was to both of us more sweet than painful.'- Vol. ii. pp. 36

38.

It was a peaceful life that the family were leading, under the grey sky, Eugénie devoting herself to Alexandrine, and she dwelling for ever on the papers aud journals from whence she compiled the narrative of the first volume, while Olga, now fifteen, was growing up into an important member of the circle. Eugénie was naturally of a blithe, mirthful temper, with extreme ardour in whatever she was doing, whether in the way of devotion or of common life, and her brother's death had infused into her such a deep and fervent spirit of piety, that it seemed as if only a directly religious consecration could satisfy her aspirations. Olga - tall, fair, slender, and graceful - had a graver and more thoughtful disposition by nature; and this was enhanced by the constant inconveniences caused by her defective eyesight. Her eyes had been weak ever since she was eight years old, and in so peculiar a manner that she could not see in a full light. In a shaded room, or out of doors after sunset, she could see as well as other people, but on a bright day she was dazzled, and could perceive nothing distinctly. She was cager in study, and in the cultivation of her talents, but she was often checked in the midst by incapacity of seeing, and reuced to sitting in a twilight room, dreamily touching the keys of her piano. Sometimes, when in a picture gallery, enjoying herself thoroughly, a ray of sunshine upon the most noted of all would entirely hide it from her. Sometimes when a walk was taken to see some charming landscape, at the very moment when all emerged from the shady path, and exclaimed at the glory of the scene, that very glory eclipsed the whole to her. Sometimes at church she would close her book, without showing either grief or impatience, and, as she said, begin to think, because she could not read. These constant privations, whenever they recurred, were quietly laid by her as sacri

'These eyes that, dazzled now and weak, At glancing motes in sunshine blink, Shall see the King's full glory break,

Nor from the blissful vision shrink.'

Of all the family Mrs. Craven considers her father to have been most affected, and the most beneficially, by his son's death. Faith had never been absent from his mind: he had always been a good, loyal, upright man and with a warmth of heart and attractiveness of manner that made him greatly beloved; but from this time his religious sentiments were quickened, and his piety, humility, and charity became remarkable, and continually grew and increased. said his wife to Pauline during this visit, how I envy and admire your father! Since our dear child has been in heaven, he seems to be there himself.'

Oh,'

Music was the only thing that still seemed to give Alexandrine pleasure, and the Abbé Gerbet ministered to this enjoyment by composing hymns to several of the tunes to which lighter songs had been sung by her and loved by Albert. Duke de Rohan, often sung in their days of One composed by the courtship, beginning

'Ton souvenir est toujours là,'

he now changed for one beginning more brightly than the worldly lament —

'Oui, l'espérance est toujours là.'

To appreciate French poetry is always difficult, but the Abbé Gerbet was a veritable poet soul, and his thoughts are always exquisite. There is a charming morning hymn of his at page 48 of vol. ii., which was sung at the family devotions in the chapel. Eugénie, Olga, Alexandrine, and the brothers when at home, formed a choir; an organ was purchased, and played by Eugénie, and village girls were trained to assist with their voices. The Christmas midnight mass, when Alexandrine and Olga led the Adeste

Fideles, the Adoremus and Magnificat, and otherwise. She wrote thus to her eldest the choir boys wore white tunics and blue daughter:ribbons-made out of M. de la Ferronays* cordon du Saint-Esprit-is described by Eugénie with intense delight, and is only inferior in beauty to that three years before, described with equal zest by that other Eugénie, plodding through the frosty night to her homely little church, and delighting in her bouquet of the fair flowers of the hoar

frost.

The ladies began to collect classes young of village girls for religious instruction, for the Curé was very old and in feeble health, and they found them very ignorant, one difficulty being that of making them understand that Le Saint-Esprit is not a Saint, like S. Peter or S. Paul. Alexandrine also began to exert herself among the poor. Her first endeavours are described by her father-in-law with a certain tone of amusement, as if he had a shade of doubt of their permanence in the Russian beauty: :

Alexandrine revives under the influence of the Abbé Gerbet's kind conversations. She takes much delight in them, and is thus regaining her activity of mind. Besides, she works, she knits, I know not whether well or ill, but she makes an enormous number of caps and petticoats. She goes to see the poor and takes them money; she goes to see the sick, and takes them recipes; she even sometimes hazards a prescription - two days ago a bread poultice, l'imprudente! and yesterday she even went so far as to order a mustard plaster! - Vol. ii. p.

This was in a letter to Mrs. Craven, who was on her way to Lisbon, where her husband had an appointment. The spirits of youth were returning fast to Eugénie. Sometimes,' she says, I am so merry that I can only speak in recitative;' but after describing one of her pranks, she adds

'Ah! my Pauline, what do you say to such diversions to our usually grave thoughts? They are strange, and contrast with this poor Alex's deep heart. But, que veux-tu? She will allow herself, as you know, and will have, no society. These innocent little jokes occupy her for a few minutes and make her laugh. They do not distract her from her grief, but they take up some of the moments which would be spent in seeing that happiness is over for her.' Vol. ii. p. 66.

Eugénie had always seemed to her sister marked out by her intensity of devotedness for a strictly religious life of conventual character, but their mother's opinion was

my dear child, do not tell me that you think all is over with my dear Jane, or that so many charming gifts will be buried and lost. Believe me, there is something in her nature of the little boy in the child's story-book, who, when in winter he was sledging and snowballing, cried, "Ah! if it could always be winter!" and in the delight of spring flowers, "Ah! if there were no end to spring!" and the same with summer and autumn. At Paris, she thought she could live nowhere else, and that the religious opportunities and interests of all kinds were as necessary to her as air to breathe. Now here, she cannot understand how she can return to Paris. If such a circumstance as I ever leave her poor people and her chapel to imagine possible should come to pass, I do not see why we should think her invulnerable to such a new impression, and you quite give me pain when you seem to accept her life such as she has made it, without foresight, and under the influence of the present period. After all, God is there, and, as you say, He has given us too many proofs of His protection for us not to give ourselves up entirely to Him. Most wonderful! I ask of Him nothing for Eugénie but to let me clearly perceive His will concerning her, and to continue to bless her.' - Vol. ii. p. 152.

This was written a few months after Albert's death, and we cannot refrain from giving a little more from the papers of this excellent woman. Deeply pious herself, she had a strong dislike to all that was peculiar, exaggerated, narrow, or calculated to attract notice; and when Eugénie in the sweet, youthful severity of her twenty years, talked of wishing to be plain instead of beautiful, or showed an open disdain for the affairs of common life, with a degree of scorn for those who attended to them, Madame de la Ferronnays was distressed, tried to check her, and then almost repented, and wrote thus to Mrs. Craven in the begining of 1837:

have

'Perhaps I am wrong, and I acknowledge it; but this in part arises from the notion always formed of perfection, which I always viewed as becoming all things to all men, preferring rather to give up some attractive devout observance than to grieve or vex others by marking their great distance behind, and never losing sight of the aim of showing how loveable and how easy is that love of God which always inspires such consideration for others as I like to see in practice. However, there is great perfection in thus rising all at once without looking at the earth. Eugénie has chosen the better part, and this would perhaps be God's judgEugénie's pet name.