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without any continued series.' Gildas' performance is not redolent of interest of any kind, and affords evidence neither one way nor the other. The very next English author, however, the Venerable Bede,- here in his work,-actually records the very controversy between the Romish and the British monks about the proper day of celebrating the Festival of Easter,' chronicled in this roll of our family annals, in which the existence of our people is incidentally asserted, and their status more than suggested. "Let the following striking feature in the post-Biblical history of our dispersed people be borne in mind. The Jews are never mentioned in the early chronicles of their adversaries, except to record some flagrant persecution or horrible massacre; to cast up the amount of sums extorted from them by kings in distress; or to detail some story about the crucifixion of Christian infants. When these subjects did not come to the hands of the monkish annalists of the time-that is to say, when the Jews were unmolested, peaceably employing themselves in traffic, and gradually acquiring wealth, which was not demanded from them too largely or too rudely in return for their safety and opportunities of commerce, it would be conceived that they were not deemed worthy of being mentioned. Historians always find the most prosperous to be the most barren periods of history; as the richest and most fertile country affords but an uninteresting landscape to the poet or the artist, when compared with the wild rocks, rugged precipices, and unproductive solitudes of mountain scenery. So we may fairly conclude that up to the time that our people became a theme for monkish chroniclers, they enjoyed almost uninterruptedly the sunshine of prosperity and quietness of life. It would be no marvel, therefore, if not a single pre-Norman chronicler in this country ever mentioned our people. Not the slightest hint occurs anywhere of any misdemeanour or misconduct on the part of the AngloHebrews previous to the Norman Conquest, nor, indeed, during the reign of the first three Norman kings in this country, as I shall show at our next reunion. But there is an exception as regards the general silence on the subject, even amongst the monkish annalists, even in the writings of the venerable ecclesiastical historian of Wearmouth, Durham.”

"Thank you for your satisfactory reply to Mr. Caley;-satisfactory to such as myself, who have not the privilege to refer to and quote this priceless genealogical family treasure. You have anticipated by your allusion to Gildas and Bede the second question which I thought of asking."

"This chronicle," observed Mr. Elitto von Israel, pointing to the scroll, "notices the charter of Whitglaff, or Wilaf, to Croyland Abbey. The notice is borne out by the history of that abbey by Ingulphus; but Ihave lately heard it disputed in some quarters whether the charter was a genuine one or not. Some persons who are apt to run away with any new suggestion which discredits history, quote a Mr. Kemble, who has acquired some reputation as an authority on Anglo-Saxon history, for their maintaining that that charter is a fabrication."

"Yes, it is quite true," responded the "master of the situation" in every sense of the phrase," Mr. John Mitchel Kemble, in this his work Codex Evi Saxonici, laboured to prove that the charter was a spurious one. I need not tell you, who have the opportunity of seeing with your own eyes the entry in this most authentic of records, that

But I

the issue of Mr. Kemble's labour is a premature abortion. confess that I do feel somewhat surprised at the readiness with which the English public accepts contradictions of historic facts on such reasonings as are adduced in this volume. But, very few people think for themselves now-a-day. I trace in Mr. Kemble's work his ruling hereditary passion, common to all examiners of plays under the Lord Chamberlain, to treat every work as fictitious. It is surprising the effect which literary effrontery produces, even upon learned men. My grandfather was present at Oxford when the learned Dr. Thomas Shaw, the great Eastern traveller of last century, was actually obliged to withhold valuable information, because some would-be savants in that renowned University flippantly pshawed when the traveller mentioned something which came under his notice, but which those men of science had not dreamt of in their philosophy."

Whilst our historian was explaining Mr. Elitto von Israel's observation, Miss Goodall was busily engaged in writing a few lines on an ivory tablet; as soon as the noble speaker paused she whispered something to Miss Paltiel and handed her the tablet. The latter then passed on the tablet to me, and whispered, "Please give this to Mr. Goodall." That gentleman having perused the pencilled communication, addressed his host in these words:" My daughter commissions me to ask whether you do not consider it as a singular coincidence that the great Danish chief, who proved so mighty in battle against his kinsmen, the AngloSaxons, should go by the name of GORM-HIN-RIGE, which is only another version of Jacob's valedictory apostrophe respecting his tenth son, namely:

'Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

A rattle-snake by the path.'

She also wishes to know whether the contributor of this item to this scroll, your ancestor Alfred Abraham Paltiel, has not remarked on the coincidence. She moreover begs for permission to con over some columns of this unique national monument."

"The first two questions of my talented and accomplished kinswoman I shall answer as if they were one. I agree with the inference which my ancestor Alfred Abraham has deduced from the coincidence-which inference he has given in an interesting note-that the Danes had not only preserved the name of the founder of their tribe, but also the characteristic by which our patriarch Jacob described as distinguishing him many generations and ages hereafter. As for her request to be permitted to con over some columns in this monument, I only wish that she and her father would condescend to stay here till she shall have examined every column in this our ancestral monument. A descendant of Benvenida Abarbanel has a legitimate title to examine this our heirloom. My dear young lady,"-here his lordship addressed himself pointedly to Miss Goodall,-" more than one maternal ancestor of yours contributed to this chronicle. You may claim it as a right to study this genealogical record. Pray stop with us till you have done it thoroughly. You will

* Had our narrator told his interesting tale this year, he might have adduced. -as an illustration of the haphazard assertions which some rash soi disant "shrewd critics" often make-the denial which Mr. Stanley's statement respecting his discovery of Dr. Livingstone experienced in this country and in America

find that the very first chronicle was from the pen of an ancestor of ours. Pray stop with us till you have learnt all that it contains."

Miss Goodall gave a start, as if she were on the point of speaking, then slightly coloured and rushed up to her father, and whispered something to him, and then returned to her place amongst her companions; when Mr. Goodall once more addressed his lordly host and said, "My daughter desires me to thank you most cordially for your kind permission to con over some of the columns in this glorious monument, as well as for your kind invitation to stay under your hospitable roof for monthsfor it would take her many a month, if she wished, to examine thoroughly the whole of this comprehensive family record. She gratefully avails herself of the permission to examine some portions of this record during the few days that we can possibly stay away from our duties at home. My daughter feels particularly sensible of the honour which you have conferred upon her by the information that some of her maternal ancestors were contributors to this great work." Here Miss Paltiel seized Miss Goodall's hand and pressed it to her lips, which the latter acknowledged by the same caressing performance on the hand of her newly discovered relative. She then indulged in some whispers in the ear of Miss Paltiel, upon which the young lady of the house went and whispered something to her father.

As soon as Miss Goodall was announced as a descendant of Benvenida Abarbanel, and maternally from the Paltiels, every eye in the spacious room was turned towards her. Her father saw that, and was anxious to avert from his modest daughter the unpleasantness of being the "beholden of all beholders;" he therefore proceeded to remark, "I felt much interested in the chronicle of your ancestor Eliezer Baruch Paltiel,' in connection with Canute. Can you account for the assertion of Basnage that Canute expelled the Jews from this country in 1020 ?"

"Some evil-disposed monkish annalist gave out that Canute's threat was a fait accompli, for the guidance of the rulers of other countries. Basnage got hold of the apocryphal statement-he was not a sifting, critical historian-and treated it as bona fide history of the AngloHebrews.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I find that we have advanced far into the night. It is high time that we adjourn into our oratory to offer our devotions to our Divine Master. Before we do so, I wish to state that since our friends, Mr. and Miss Goodall, are determined to leave us next week, I propose to accede to the request which has just been made known to me by my daughter, to continue my narrative every successive evening till I have brought it to a close. We shall thus have the advantage of the suggestive observations of our young kinswoman, which the study of this her maternal pedigree will most probably prompt her to make."

The venerable lord of the mansion then touched the already-named spring in the seeming wall behind him, the opening was effected, and we all passed over the platform into the domestic chapel, and the audience became, for about three quarters of an hour, a congregation of devout worshippers. The three young ladies, who sat together in the drawing-room, took up their position together by the magnificent organ, but Miss Goodall was the prophetess on the instrument that evening.

She played the "just published" Keble's Evening Hymn before the service; for anthem, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," and concluded with the "Hallelujah Chorus." It was a glorious conclusion to the chequered chapter of our national history, to which we had just listened.

CHAPTER III.

A FEW PARTICULARS ABOUT TABITHA.

WHILST in the refectory, Asher came up to me, and addressed me in his peculiarly quaint modus loquendi. "I say, Laywee, I vote that Salome and her two friends are the better half of the company here. What say you ?"

"With your father, the Mocattas, Da Costas, and the rest of the celebrities forming the other half, I dare not endorse your vote," was my dissentient rejoinder.

"You know very well in what sense I mean my vote to be understood. Can you not worm out some information about Miss Goodall? I think Soulwinner might tell us something about her. I dare not ask him, for fear he should think that I am èpris with her. In good sooth, he would think rightly. Judging from his looks, he envied Salome's and Miss Ignota's position in the big room. You try to get him to tell us something about her."

"I hardly know how to set about so delicate a manoeuvre," was my perplexed remark.

"Come, let us both go up to him; I will open the fishing process by some questions about Careweltone, you follow up by some inquiries about the parish, parishioner, rector, et cetera, and we must, somehow or other, hook our fish, and perhaps land it safely."

I could not help laughing at the schemer; however, I consented to become a party in the plot, which proved eminently successful. We drew Lord Soulwinner into a conversation about Careweltone, about the extent of the parish, its lord of the manor, its neighbouring nobility and gentry, its parishioners, its rector and his daughter. When our enthusiastic informant began to dilate upon the latter, Asher interrupted him, and said, "I say, Soulwinner, have you any objection to adjourn to Laywee's study? We ought not to talk over such personalities in the midst of this throng." He then turned to me, and said, "I beg your pardon, Laywee; shall we be intruding upon you?" 'By no means," was my prompt rejoinder; "I shall be right glad to enjoy Lord Soulwinner's narrative. It is likely to prove a most relevant supplement to the narrative to which we have listened in the drawing-room the earlier part of this evening." "Well," Asher once more appealed to Lord Soulwinner," what say you ?" "I shall only be too glad to spend an hour or so with you both, before I retire to my own room."

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On

I have already mentioned that my own sitting-room and study must needs be arrived at through the great library of the mansion. entering the latter, we were startled at finding Miss Goodall and Miss Ignota, with the marvellous relic, the PALTIEL FAMILY CHRONICLE, before them, making notes. We bowed respectfully to the young ladies, but they were evidently too much absorbed in their studies to take any notice of us.

When we reached my study, Asher impatiently said, "Now, Soulwinner, tell us all about the Goodalls." "I assure you, Paltiel," answered his lordship, "I am as pleased to talk about them as you are impatient to hear." "I am glad of that; go on then."

"You know that, during our Oxford days, I used to rusticate during the vacation in -shire, with a private tutor, in the very neighbourhood of Careweltone. The first midsummer vacation spent there, we used to walk early in the mornings, from ten to twelve-for we read from six to eight; supplementary toilet-making, breakfast, Bible-reading, et cetera, took us up two hours more. One fine summer's morning, when every door of every cottage and hovel was wide open, we were surprised at seeing the rector and his curate, in two adjoining cottages, for we knew them by sight from seeing them at church, dressing, respectively, two old, poor, helpless men, then placing them in arm-chairs beside small tables, and then feeding them, as if they were their own brothers. My tutor and myself were both solemnly impressed with the spectacle, and looked at one another with profound seriousness. We walked on, in unbroken silence, for some time, when we were again suddenly arrested by another two-fold picture after the former kind. In a double cottage, or rather hovel, two delicate and beautiful young ladies were respectively engaged in doing the same sort of work for two old, poor, helpless women as the rector and his curate were performing for the old men. Those two young ladies are now engaged working in the library the rich mine of your family inheritance. We returned to our lodgings without many words passing between us, which was very unusual. Generally, we conversed a good deal in our walks.

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"We did our afternoon reading that day in the most absent manner imaginable. I tripped several times, and my tutor did not notice my mistakes. At last, I fell back in my chair, and emphatically said, 'It is no use, Levien, I can do nothing in the shape of reading this afternoon; I cannot get out of my head the two-fold picture which we saw this morning. I feel in a sort of bewilderment.' 'Just my case,' was his laconic response. I suppose,' continued I, they must attend on that angelic ministry of theirs in the evening, to settle their charges for the night, as they do in the morning, to provide for the poor helpless ones during the day.' Certainly; there can be no doubt about it,' was Levien's more than forcible remark, by way of reply. I should very much like to take a walk in that direction this evening.' 'I am so glad to hear you say so,' Levien said; that was my heart's desire ever since we came in from our walk this morning.'

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"When we set out on our walk about six o'clock, towards evening, we met a gentleman, with a black leather bag slung about one of his shoulders, and Miss Ignota by his side. That gentleman I have since learnt to know intimately as Sir Sampson Fitznun, whom I found to be a distant relative. Miss Ignota is his adopted niece. Sir Sampson and the young lady made their way to the rectory, from which they presently returned with Mr. and Miss Goodall. The curate, Mr. Lawson, I afterwards learnt, was suddenly taken ill, and the good baronet,' as the owner of 'Salem Park' is known amongst the poor of Careweltone, came to take his place. The bag which he carried was a sort of medicinal dispensary. We hung about their beat, and found that our surmises

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