CHAPTER VI.

THE

THE LORD IS OUR REFUGE.

'HE thoughts of the two girls were now completely occupied by Arabia! from Ishmael to Mahomet, and from Mahomet to 'Alà ed-Deen, no hero of Arabian story of whom they could possibly gather any particulars, failed to interest, the little maidens. They became wonderfully learned in the Geography of Arabia, and their clear soft voices gave the sweet Arabic names of some places which they had heard 'Alà edDeen pronounce, with musical softness.

They wished they could learn Arabic, they wished they were going to Mecca, to Bussora, to Mount Sinai! nothing could be so interesting as Arabia!

"Dear Uncle Everard," said Mary, as they were waiting the arrival of Paul and their Arabian hero! "dear Uncle! how I should like to go to Arabia! think of Mount Sinai, of Moses

so grand, sucha hero, oh! I should like to be where that valiant Israelite led his host!"

"Would you not like to have been with me in Syria; treading the land made sacred to the heart of a Christian, by having felt the footsteps of the Saviour?

"Yes, oh yes," " answered Mary, her face assuming an expression of deep reverence. "That must have been like going to Church, like walking about the Cathedral, where I always feel very, very happy, but cold shivers creep over me too, every now and then."

"There was one circumstance that attended my travels in Syria which you have either forgotten, or happen not to have heard mentioned, It was at Damascus I met 'Alà ed-Deen."

"Tell us all about it, dearest Uncle, cried Nora, "every thing that happened, and all he said and you said.”

"There is nothing very romantic Nora, in the manner in which our acquaintance began. 'Alà ed-Deen was on a visit to a Merchant, to whom I had letters of introduction, and I soon found that the young man possessed a fine manly heart, and very considerable intelligence. Moreover, that he has no small stock of learning. I took great interest in him, but as our introduction occured two years ago, and I had heard nothing of him since, I concluded we should probably not have any opportunity of further intercourse.

Last week I had a letter from my friend at Damascus telling me that 'Ala ed-Deen was in London, and I hastened to find him out and renew my acquaintance."

"What is he come here for? business or pleasure?" asked Mrs. Grey.

"He is attached to the Embassy. When the season begins, no doubt he will be much caressed, for he is the sort of man, women like to make a lion of, meanwhile I entice him to us as much as possible. He is one of whom it may be said, that though educated in an erroneous creed, he is not far from the Kingdom of God."

The personage about whom they were discoursing now arrived accompanied by Paul, and they all walked to the Charter-house, according to the pre-arranged plan, Nora having preceeded them by a few minutes, to bring Mr. Durham down stairs to meet them.

While waiting at the front of the house in which Mr. Durham lived, for the old gentleman to pay his compliments to Mrs. Grey, Mary directed the attention of 'Ala ed-Deen to the motto over the entrance. "Thou oh Lord art our refuge," The simple pathos of which, touched the feelings of the tender girl.

"Every-where around this Hospital breathes the pious spirit of the Founder," said Mr. Frankland, "If ever human being really and truly proved himself a faithful steward of this

world's goods, Thomas Sutton was that man, Love to God, evinced by love to man, seems to have been the golden rule of his life."

"He was a merchant of London, was he not?", asked Mrs. Grey.

"Yes, he lived in the reign of James the 1st., and founded this Hospital in the year 1611."

"But I read in Mrs. Markham's History of England, dear uncle Everard, that Sir Walter de Manny, founded the Chartreuse, which is now the Charter-house? How is this?"

"You are quite correct, my dear child, in saying that he founded the Chartreuse.-Sir Walter de Manny was a native of Hainault, who came to this country as page to Phillipa, Edward the Third's Queen, in 1328. Twenty years afterwards, when he had become both rich and distinguished, a fearful plague broke out in London, and De Manny then purchased the ground on which the Charter-house and the Square now stand, of the Master of St. Bartholomew's, and gave it for a burying-ground for the victims of the plague. You will judge how greatly it was needed, when you learn that it was calculated that at least 49,000 persons were buried in it."

"De Manny was actuated by the same holy spirit as Sutton," said Mr. Durham, "though not enlightened by the pure light of Gospel truth. Even the partial illumination of Wick

liffe's doctrines did not dawn on the kingdom till ten years after this. De Manny built a chapel in the centre of his ground, and erected an hospital for twenty-one Carthusian friars, who were to perform the services of the chapel according to the faith in which he had been instructed."

"How did the property come into possession of Thomas Sutton? I think I remember reading that the Chartreuse was one of the monasteries dissolved by Henry VIIIth, and that he most barbarously hung the prior and two of the friars for not conforming to the new religion which he was forcing upon his people."

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Yes; that is the fact. It afterwards passed into the possession of the Earl of Suffolk, from whom Sutton purchased it.”

"I suppose," said Nora, "that Sutton must have been a very rich man, was he not, Uncle Everard? This is such a great place, and there are so many people here, to be taken care of by one man's charity."

"Yes, my love; he was enormously rich. He is stated by writers of that period to have been the richest private gentleman in the kingdom."

"Do you remember what his fortune amounted to, father?" Paul inquired.

"About five thousand pounds a year in landed estate, and upwards of sixty thousand pounds in