Piercing the heart of his friend had struck his own, and had sundered

Once and for ever the bonds that held him bound as a captive,

While with excess of sensation, the awful delight of his freedom,

Mingled with pain and regret, unconscious of what he was doing,

Clasped, almost with a groan, the motionless form of Priscilla,

Pressing her close to his heart, as for ever his

own, and exclaiming:

"Those whom the Lord hath united, let no man put them asunder!"

Even as rivulets twain, from distant and separate sources,

Seeing each other afar, as they leap from the

rocks, and pursuing

Each one its devious path, but drawing nearer and nearer,

Rush together at last, at their trysting-place in the forest;

So these lives that had run thus far in separate channels,

Coming in sight of each other, then swerving and

flowing asunder,

Parted by barriers strong, but drawing nearer and

nearer,

Rushed together at last, and one was lost in the other.

IX.

THE WEDDING-DAY.

FORTH from the curtain of clouds, from the tent of purple and scarlet,

Issued the sun, the great High-Priest, in his gar

ments resplendent,

Holiness unto the Lord, in letters of light, on his

forehead,

Round the hem of his robe the golden bells and

pomegranates.

Blessing the world he came, and the bars of vapor

beneath him

Gleamed like a grate of brass, and the sea at his feet was a laver!

This was the wedding morn of Priscilla the Puritan maiden.

Friends were assembled together; the Elder and

Magistrate also

Graced the scene with their presence, and stood like the Law and the Gospel,