that glorious hymn which he so loved to
chaunt in church, and which spoke of angels and martyrs, of
saints and apostles, of Heaven and earth, uniting in one
concert of adoration, had been bequeathed to the holy church
universal by a saint who had served his Creator from the days
of his youth, and never wandered from the sacred shade of the
sanctuary; for the baptism of another, who, after straying far
and wide in the ways of sin and the maze of error, followed
the while by a mother's prayers and tears, returned at last to
the foot of the cross,* [* The Te Deum is supposed to have
been composed by St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, for the
baptism of St. Augustine.]

"With that free spirit blest,
Who to the contrite can dispense
The princely heart of innocence;"

to hear her tell how the three solemn parts of his beloved
cathedral, all approaching the shrine in distinct majesty, and
in mystical union, were a type and an emblem of the "Holy,
Blessed, and Glorious Trinity," so devoutly worshipped in the
opening verses of the Litany; to be often reminded by her,
when the deep melodious bells of the old tower spoke their
loud summons to the house of God on festival and holiday, of
the time when the faith in Christ was a matter of danger and
of death, and the sanctuaries were laid among the vaults and
the tombs--when in darkness and in silence Christians knelt on
the cold stones, and a short hurried bell from the altar alone
warned them of the moment when the blessed pledges of
salvation were consecrated there. These were the joys of his
childhood. These were the thoughts and the feelings which
entwined themselves with his very being, and wound themselves
round his heart; blending the memory of the past with the
hopes of futurity. And when Mrs. Lacy, whose health had been
gradually declining, died soon after her son had received the
sacred rite of confirmation, and for the first time knelt by
her side at the altar; it was not before her trembling lips
had pronounced a blessing on the child, who, with her hand
locked in his, and his eyes fixed on hers with the steady gaze
of earnest, but, as far as this world was concerned, of
hopeless affection, had given her the assurance that her
people should be his people, and her God his God; that where
she had lived there would he live, there would he die, and
there also would he be buried.

As soon as his age warranted it he became a priest; and in the
course of time,