ed that her existence should remain a secret to Forester, and thus she had continued nourishing a concealed yearning, under which her health declined and her form wasted away, until she had suddenly beheld the object of all her thoughts and aspirations in the chapel, and in the surprise of her feelings, had uttered an irrepressible cry of joy, and sunk insensible into the arms of her father. It is not our intention to dwell unnecessarily upon the details of a denouement which, having now become sufficiently apparent to our readers, would only occupy their time without stimulating their curiosity. If Forester still nourished in his heart the seeds of his original passion for Agatha, it may be imagined with what energy and rapidity they developed themselves upon his learning the magnanimous sacrifice to which she had been impelled by a double consideration for the welfare and happiness of himself and Edith. In the hurried but most tender and affecting interviews which his short stay at St. Germain allowed him to enjoy, he obtained her willing consent to their ultimate marriage, with a pledge that they would speedily follow him to England. To this measure many concurring motives now influenced Mr. Shelton. He had quitted his native country partly from the fear of persecution and confiscation, partly out of respect to his unhappy Sovereign: but circumstances were now materially altered; the subsidence of the antiPopery mania with which the whole realm had been insanified, afforded him a certainty that he might return to dwell at Hales Court without molestation, the Government was now vested in William and Mary by a solemn act of the Legislature, and however he might compassionate James he had never admired him as a Sovereign, and utterly condemned his project for involving England in the horrors of a civil war by invading her with foreign troops. Disgusted, moreover, with the bitterness and animosity which had sprung up among the different factions of the little Court at St. Germain, he willingly turned his back upon the city, set foot once more upon his native soil, and took up his residence at Hales Court. Amid a large circle of delighted friends was the marriage of Forester and Agatha celebrated at the mansion of the former; nor can we convey a more exalted idea of the felicity that he enjoyed in his second union, than by stating that it even exceeded the beatitude of his first, since, as the health and beauty of his beloved bride became gradually restored, he had assurance, in the renovated strength of her constitution, that he might reasonably calculate on a protracted continuance of his present happiness. In nothing were his hopes disappointed, and never had the nuptial promise of uninterrupted joy been more abundantly confirmed. Contrary to the sapient predictions of Mrs. Colyton, the difference of their religious faith never created the smallest diminution of their mutual respect; for as they thought with St. Paul, that "the letter killeth, while the spirit giveth life,” they attached little importance to minute distinctions, content to agree together in that enlarged view of Christianity, which teaches us to show our love to God by loving one another, and which deserves not the name of religion, unless where it inspires feelings of charity, toleration, and brotherly affection towards all the children of our common Father. THE END. LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, |