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AT ST. COLUMBA.
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thrice seven aged men, on whom devolved the government of the keep, in absence of the rightful lord. About sunset, the Abbot and his gorgeous court arranged themselves in view of the balcony. The lady Dulsibella, in ecstasy, called upon her favourite damsel.

"Alice! good Alice! I have heard and read about visions of angels, and now, in living forms, they greet my admiring eyes."

"My lady," responded Alice, "these are no angels, but mortal, and it may be, sinful, though truly very handsome young men."

"Never tell me so, Alice," said the lady; "nothing human could be so beautiful. Oh, how unlike the blear-eyed, grey-bearded, wrinkled men that serve my father! Even he is not so handsome as these."

"Dear lady, my lord the Baron is not young, and his serving-men are old and withered, yea, almost decrepid," replied Alice. "Remember, I humbly beg, my lady, that I have been at Edinburgh, where the creatures you are pleased to call angels are as common as leaves on the trees of yonder wood, and often as mischievous as the wasps that hinder us from walking under the green shade."

"That may be," said Dulsibella, sighing. "I know little, and have seen less of the world than you, Alice. My dear, my honoured,

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