JOURNEY.

HAD noticed, for some time past, that the clouds from everywhere hanging thick and low were beginning to shew signs of lifting themselves, and occasionally a faint streak of sunshine would come stealing down the sides of the mountains and penetrate into some deep and dark corner of the defile. It was therefore without surprise, that, happening to look about me in the middle of one winter night, I perceived that the sky had become quite clear. And I was gazing up from the solemn depths in which I stood at a singularly brilliant star over my head, when suddenly a broad stream of light swept past me, flooding the whole defile from end to end with a more than noonday intensity of brightness. And almost at the same instant I heard the rocks on either side of me echoing and re-echoing to the sound of innumerable voices giving glory to God".

Only a few days, at least so it seemed afterwards, a venerable-looking man descended the defile with his face lighted up with a most remarkable expression of serenity; and as he passed by where I was standing, I heard him say, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"." The scene, however, which next presented itself, was very different from those which had preceded it. A number of little children, most of them quite infants, and all with the marks of violence on their persons, suddenly made their appearance in the defile, closely followed by the shrieks and sobbings of the poor mothers, from whose arms they had been ruthlessly torn. And I was still wondering what the motive could possibly be that had prompted such cruelty, when a man came advancing with hasty and uneven steps over the road which had lately been trodden by so many inno cent feet, and every now and then he

stopped suddenly short, and turned sharply and fiercely round, exactly like some wild beast at bay, as in the place of the lamen. tations which had been raised, a deep and tumultuous uproar, as of a whole nation rejoicing together, rang louder and louder in his ears".

And now some years passed evenly away with nothing of importance to mark them, when in the coarse dress, and severe yet elevated expression of one who descended the pass, I seemed to recognise the very persons whose continued absence from it had so long been a mystery to me. Nor was I less surprised to see, that instead of contemplating the object of his vision from a vast distance, as all of his class who preceded him had done, this man, on the contrary, seemed to have it close before him, and even held his finger aloft in the air, as if to point out the exact spot where it was standing 1.

Shortly previous to the appearance of this singular form, I had observed that some unusual excitement was communicating itself from the upper end of the defile along the whole line of passengers who thronged the narrow pathway. And immediately afterwards I saw one ap proaching, for whom every one else made way, rendering him an instinctive homage as he passed. The mysterious stranger, however, moved straight on for the lower end of the defile, when, pausing for a few seconds before the opening in the rock, and with a look expressive at once of the tenderest commiseration and of the deepest trouble, he pronounced a few words in a low, but commanding tone of voice. These were no sooner said than a young man', whom the day before I had seen

pass through the narrow fissure, again made his appearance from it, and was conducted by his deliverer up the steep ascent into the open country at the end of it.

Not very many days afterwards a little girl had only just disappeared through the passage in the rock, when she again came out from it in answer to a similar summons from the same person.

And in a year or so from that time a third summons, uttered still by the same voice, but in a louder and more penetrating tone, was followed by the reappearance of a man who had passed through the rock three or four days previously; and as a look of great wonder began to settle on his face, his deliverer stepped suddenly up to him and laid a finger across his lips, as if to prevent some weighty secret from escaping them.

It might be two or three months after the occurrence last related, that one day, shortly before noon, it became quite dark, as if from the sun's total eclipse, only that this darkness lasted, without any diminution of intensity, for three full hours. At the end of that time the whole defile suddenly rang with a most piercing cry", which seemed to come from just inside the entrance to the narrow passage through the rock, but the extreme darkness prevented me from seeing anything of what happened.

The cry was followed by a violent trembling of the earth, very similar to that which I had once before experienced in the defile, and at the same instant a most oppressive feeling of heaviness came over me, and I sank to the ground in a deep sleep.

My sleep must have lasted a whole day over the afternoon on which it first com. menced, when very early in the morning", before the sun had yet risen, I was awakened by a light shining full upon my face, and, starting to my feet, I caught sight of a most bright and majestic form moving swiftly up the pass, and followed,

at a short distance, by several others, which, however, though nearer to me, were far less clearly distinguishable. And as I turned shortly afterwards and looked down the defile, I noticed that the fissure in the rock had undergone a great alteration since I last saw it. It now reached all the way up to the top of the rock, widening as it went up, and disclosing a view of a most beautiful country beyond, which was rendered all the more enchanting to me, from the bare and rugged foreground through which I looked at it. And as my eye again wandered from the summit of the rock downwards, I observed that the original portion of the fissure had so far enlarged itself as to admit of my seeing into it much more distinctly than I could do before. I now perceived that the pathway, after leading down the defile, branched off, just inside the entrance into the rock, in two separate directions; one, and that a comparatively untrodden way, leading straight through into the open country beyond, of which I had just had such an inviting view; whilst, to the left, a wider and more beaten track led away, through various windings, into the recesses of the earth below, where it soon buried itself in complete darkness. I was endeavouring to see, as far as possible, in this latter direction, when I caught sight of a dark form lurking in a hole by the side of the broad pathway, which made me turn away with a sickening sensation of mingled aversion and terror, and fall back several steps towards the upper end of the defile.

The feeling, however, which this sight had raised in me, was soon relieved by another of a very different nature. A young man, whose general appearance forcibly reminded me of him who had been the very first to pass through the narrow fissure, came hurrying down the pathway, and, in a mingled ecstacy of pain and triumph, threw himself along the ground, exclaiming aloud, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Then, raising himself with difficulty upon his knees, he cried out again, with

even greater fervency, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!" when, instantly, the bright form was at his side which I had seen pass up the defile a short while before, and, bending down over the fainting man, lifted him tenderly from the ground, and carried him straight through the dark passage in the rock into the open country beyond it. And now, from this time forward, my eye was continually gladdened by the sudden appearance, I could not tell whence, of this glorious presence, followed again, after a longer or shorter interval, by as instantaneous a vanishing of it, I could not see whither. And as I stood and watched these frequent comings and goings, it suddenly occurred to me that I had all along caught occasional glimpses of the same mysterious Being, occupied in precisely the same manner, from the very commencement, only owing to the greater obscurity which then prevailed, and perhaps also to a less prominence formerly assumed by Him, I had not the same facility then, as now, of observing His movements.

An open piece of ground, not far from the narrow passage through the rock, was the spot which He ordinarily selected to reveal Himself in. Occasionally, however, He might be seen advancing up the defile, to meet some one as he was descending it, or stooping to raise up some one who had stumbled over the numerous pieces of stone that lay scattered over the pathway. Amongst the first to be thus welcomed by Him, was a poor woman', with her face furrowed over with the deep lines of a long course of penitence. She had followed the path down the defile to where it is crossed by the stream, and was stooping down to drink of the water, when she heard herself called by name from the opposite shore. She instantly recognised the voice, and hurrying through the stream, threw herself at the feet of the bright form which stood waiting to escort her through this last and most trying stage of her toilsome journey. But my attention was still more strongly

arrested by another woman ", whose whole appearance and bearing at once proclaimed her the type and glory of her sex. Calm, and thoughtful, and trustful, and tender, and loving, and pure, shrinking from all high thoughts of self, yet with an air of mysterious greatness floating around her, she presented the image, to my mind, of a snow-clad Alpine peak, as, slowly rising from the quiet recesses of its own sequestered valley, it lifts itself in silent solitary majesty far away into the boundless regions of the clear blue air.

Still suffering from the effects of some long ago inflicted sorrow, she leaned fondly for support on the bright form which, from the first moment of her arrival in the defile, had all along accompanied her; and as they passed together down the pathway, I could not help noticing the close resemblance, as of a mo ther and her son, which displayed itself between them.

Some few years previous to her appearance, I had witnessed two of the last individual re-appearances from the fissure in the rock which occurred during my sojourn in the defile. On each of these two occasions a figure descended the pathway, and after kneeling for a short time before the entrance in the rock, thankfully retired with the gift which it had come to ask for. It was not very long, however, before these same two forms which had thus followed one another at a short interval down the pass, again descended it side by side, for the purpose of surrendering themselves up to the very power from which they had been the instruments of procuring a brief respite on the behalf of others.

The tall and imposing presence of the elder of the two companions, formed a striking contrast to the low stature and deeply bowed form of the other, who was evidently labouring under the pressure of

Yet

some grievous bodily infirmity ". these external disadvantages, great as they were, were far more than compensated by the kindling eye and lofty expression which bore triumphant witness to the certainty of the glorious hope that lay treasured within c.

The same expression, only softened into a look of the most exquisite refinement and tenderness, was several years after displayed by one whose slightly bent figure and dimmed sight seemed to indicate a life extended beyond its natural bound. aryd, rather than any actual disease or decay. He paused at his first entrance upon the defile, and stood for some minutes looking back in the direction of the country from which he had come. Then raising his voice, he exclaimed, in a tone of the utmost earnestness, "Little children love one another;" having said which, he turned and went down the pathway, and as he was going, I could hear him repeating in a low voice to himself, "we shall see Him as He is, we shall see Him as He is f;" and with these words still on his lips, he passed on into the very presence of which he was speaking.

Already, for some time past, I had noticed an almost daily increase in the number

of those who were met and welcomed by the bright presence during their passage down the defile. Many of them came as if they were bound on some pleasurable excursion, rather than on their last journey.

Indeed, I could not help regretting a somewhat over eagerness displayed by more than one to arrive at their journey's ends. But I was far more disappointed to find that, after a few generations had passed away, all this over eagerness en tirely disappeared, and was succeeded by a too evident reluctance on the part of almost all the travellers to descend the narrow pathway. At the same time I noticed that each fresh appearance of the bright form in the defile, was followed by a more and more protracted absence from it, so that I could not help apprehending lest before long the pass would be again abandoned to all its former cheerlessness. It was therefore with the greatest feeling of relief that I at last observed a gradual increase in the number of those who were met and welcomed at the end of their journey, though this, too, was followed before long by a corresponding decrease; and so, with the same periodical alternations, the stream of life went on flowing down the defile for several centuries.

HETHER William de Arches and Ivetta, his wife, were the original founders of the Nunnery of Monkton near to York, or whether they were only great benefactors to the same, may be left an open question, but their benefaction is the first historical fact which we possess in connexion with the nunnery. The earliest document which we find is a confirm. ation of their gift, and it is after this

manner:

Henry Murdac, by the grace of God, Archbishop of York, [1147-1154,] to all faithful sons of our holy mother, the 'Church, to whom the present writing shail come-greeting in the Lord; let it be known to all of you, that William of Arches and Ivetta his wife have granted and by this charter have confirmed to God and St. Mary, and to their daughter Matilda, and the Nuns of Monkton serving God there, the whole of their land in Monkton, that is to say, six carucates of land in the same place, and half a carucate in Hamerton, together with their appurtenances, for a pure and perpetual alms, and the Church of Torp [Thorpe], and the Church of Hamerton, and the Church of Escham, and the Church of Kirkby, near Elseburn [Ouseburn], which Elias de Ho, by the advice and at the request of William de Arches, in my presence, granted and gave, with all its appurtenances, to the said nuns in pure and perpetual alms.

a Carucate,-a word signifying as much arable ground as in one year could be tilled with one plough. The absolute measure differed in time and place, probably, in this instance, each carucate was equivalent to about 100 acres.

And we of our authority confirm these alms holy for this purpose to the said nuns of our love of charity and for the salvation of our soul. Wherefore we will and command that they shall have and possess them freely and peaceably, fully and wholly, and honourably, excepting the synodal and archiepiscopal dues. Wherefore let all whosoever shall disturb these alms and our confirmation of the same, incur the curse of God and of ourselves for ever. And these are the witnesses."

We know very little of the after history of the nunnery for some years, but by chance a record of a visitation made at the close of the fourteenth century, or, to be more exact, dated April 30, 1397, has been preserved. It is in the form of a complaint made on the visitation of the house of the nuns of Nun - Monkton, by Thomas de Dalby, Archdeacon of Richmond, at the time when Margaret Fairfax was Prioress. The first objection against the prioress is that she uses divers furs, and even grey furs; also that she uses silk clothing; also that the prioress is herself the bursar or treasurer; also that she had sold timber in great quantity to the value of 100 marks; also that she had invited John Monkton to an entertainment in her chamber, and that she wore a supellitium (surplice) without a mantle, when in the choir, and otherwise, contrary to the rule of dress of the nuns and the ancient custom of the priory; also that she al lowed the nuns to receive gifts from their friends for their own enjoyment. After this complaint, we have preserved, dated the 8th of July in the same year, injunctions touching the complaints raised, shew