oved--the long-lost. Spare me further confession!--A
fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in
the vaults of Engaddi; while, above her very grave, gibbers, moans, and
roars a creature to whom but so much reason is left as may suffice to
render him completely sensible to his fate!"

"Unhappy man!" said Richard, "I wonder no longer at thy misery. How
didst thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against thy
offence?"

"Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness," said the hermit,
"and he will speak of a life spared for personal respects, and from
consideration to high birth. But, Richard, I tell thee that Providence
hath preserved me to lift me on high as a light and beacon, whose ashes,
when this earthly fuel is burnt out, must yet be flung into Tophet.
Withered and shrunk as this poor form is, it is yet animated with two
spirits--one active, shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of
the Church of Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating
between madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to cast
my eye. Pity me not!--it is but sin to pity the loss of such an abject;
pity me not, but profit by my example. Thou standest on the highest,
and, therefore, on the most dangerous pinnacle occupied by any Christian
prince. Thou art proud of heart, loose of life, bloody of hand. Put from
thee the sins which are to thee as daughters--though they be dear to the
sinful Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast--thy pride, thy
luxury, thy bloodthirstiness."

"He raves," said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux, as one
who felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not resent; then
turned him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the anchoret, as he
replied, "Thou hast found a fair bevy of daughters, reverend father, to
one who hath been but few months married; but since I must put them
from my roof, it were but like a father to provide them with suitable
matches. Therefore, I will part with my pride to the noble canons of the
church--my luxury, as thou callest it, to the monks of the rule--and my
bloodthirstiness to the Knights of the Temple."

"O heart of steel, and hand of iron," said the anchoret, "upon whom
example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away! Yet shalt thou be
spared for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn, and do that
which is acceptable