f an unfettered conscience.
If the bloody tragedies of the Middle Ages are no longer enacted upon
the theater of a more enlightened world, it is because the power so
awfully abused has been wrested from the scarlet-robed tenants of the
Vatican, The same fierce, intolerable tyranny is still exercised where
their jurisdiction is unquestioned. From the administration of the
pontifical states of Italy to the regulation of convent discipline, we
trace the workings of the same iron rule. No barriers are too mighty
to be overborne, no distinctions too delicate to to be thrust rudely
aside. Even the sweet sacredness of the home circle is not exempt from
the crushing, withering influence. Ah! how many fair young members of
the household band have been decoyed from the hearthstone and immured
in gloomy cells. Ah! how many a widowed parent has mourned over the
wreck of all that was beautiful in a cherished daughter, snatched by
the hand of bigotry from her warm embrace, and forever incarcerated
in monastic gloom. Oh! tell me, Florry, if compulsory service is
acceptable to all-seeing God? If the warm young heart, beating behind
many a convent grate, yearns to burst asunder the iron bands which
enthrall her, and, mingling again upon the stage of life to perform
the duties for which she was created, oh! where in holy writ is
sanction found for the tyrannical decree which binds her there
forever--a living sacrifice?"

CHAPTER XXI.

"'Tis the light that tells the dawning
Of the bright millennial day,
Heralding its blessed morning,
With its peace-restoring ray.

* * * * *

"Man no more shall seek dominion
Through a sea of human gore;
War shall spread its gloomy pinion
O'er the peaceful earth no more."

BURLEIGH.

It was a dark, tempestuous night in December, and the keen piercing
blasts whistled around the corners and swept moaningly across the
Plaza. Silence reigned over the town. No sound of life was heard--the
shout of laughter, the shriek of pain, or wail of grief was stilled.
The voices of many who had ofttimes hurried along the now silent and
deserted streets were hushed in death. The eventful day had dawned
and set, the records of its deeds borne on to God by the many that
had fallen. Oh! when shall the millennium come? When shall peace and
good-will reign throughout the world? When shall hatred, revenge,
and malice die? When shall the fierce, bitter st