Israel.

"My precious Jupheena came to see me this morning, and she is very
confident that the God in whom we trust will bring you through this trial
triumphantly. Dear brothers, accept this hasty dispatch as an offering of
pure affection. Farewell, until our next meeting."

"Perreeza."

With full hearts, the brothers bowed before the Lord and rolled their
burdens upon the Almighty. The entire consecration was now made, and they
were ready for the trial. The struggle was over and their minds became as
calm and tranquil as a summer evening.

CHAPTER XVIII.

IN AN extravagantly furnished apartment of a fine-looking mansion in the
heart of the city, sits a family group, consisting of a father, mother,
two sons, and one daughter. They are far from exhibiting in their
countenances that contentment of mind which is a "continual feast," and
yet something has transpired that gives them, for the time being, an
unusual degree of pleasurable emotion.

The father leaves his seat, and with folded arms he begins to pace slowly
backward and forward the length of the apartment with an air of pompous
dignity, while ever and anon a smile of extreme selfishness plays on his
lips. He has received intelligence which he considers by no means
displeasing.

The mother, to whom nature has been rather niggardly in the endowment of
outward charms, is loaded with a superabundance of golden ornaments, in
the vain attempt to supply the lack of the natural with the artificial.
In her eye you look in vain for intelligence, or in her countenance for
benevolence; but she smiles! yea, indeed, with something the mother is
evidently pleased.

The two sons, in making a declaration of their brotherhood to a stranger,
would stand in no danger of being suspected on that point as deceivers.
The resemblance is quite striking.

The daughter is beautiful--in her own estimation. To this she clings as an
essential part of her creed--that she constitutes a very important share
of the beauty of Babylonia, but in getting it implanted into the creed of
others, she proves unsuccessful--her converts being wholly confined to her
father's household. She also, with the rest, on this night manifests an
unusual degree of hilarity.

"Ah! they are ensnared at last!" said Scribbo, with an air of triumph.
"They must either deny their religion or face the furnace. This is right,
and happy am I that the king has at last seen fit to enact a law that
will bear with