shut his eyes to the truth it is impossible to say; but he had not much opportunity for pondering the matter, being disturbed by voices above them and behind the rock, whereof one said. "They may be below the rock; there is a seat there;" that was the Curate's; and another called out, "Hollo! anything afloat here? give a hail, or make a signal, will you?" that was the Admiral's. Gertrude rallied with a strong effort and sat upjust in time, for, in a second, Lydia was round the rock and upon her.

"My dear, dear girl!" exclaimed Miss Tarraway, almost beside herself at sight of Gertrude's condition, “I was afraid it would be so. Here you are, poor darling, almost starved to death. So, so; now another" (almost smothering her with wraps); "and this about your poor white neck. Oh, what a pity we didn't find you sooner! We have been looking everywhere, indeed we have. There, are you warmer now, dear? Chafe her other hand, Minnie" (this to Miss Tautbrace). "Oh, whatever will Mrs. Fulford say? and I walked as fast as my legs would carry me."

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That indeed you did," said the Curate; "I am witness that no time was

lost."

Meanwhile the Admiral, who didn't entirely like the look of things, referred to Hardinge for explanation; but so candid and ingenuous was that young man's account, that Tautbrace, although, as he said, no milksop, and knowing what was what, could not think there had been anything more than a very intelligible accident. "Poor child! more out of sorts than was suspected; these confounded hills very trying; if there had been an older man beside her he would have known what to do and might have taken the attack in time, by George! but these sprawling youngsters, especially soldiers, who were notoriously unhandy, what the devil good were they?

Here, soldier, you take these two young ladies in tow-that's a good fellow; and you and I, Mr. Norcott, will see if we can't get our fair friend here under way and take her gently back to the wood."

In vain did Gertrude protest that she was ashamed of causing all this fuss, and that she was quite able now to follow the rest of the party to the hill-top, which was not so far off. The Admiral was peremptory, and said he wouldn't for all the world run the risk of another attack: neither would Gertrude have escaped the fate of being taken to the rear ready to be lodged in an ambulance, if the party hadn't been all surprised at meeting Mrs. Fulford, who, aided by her vigorous propellers, was coming up the hill at a round pace and with a delightful degree of comfort.

Disappointment, come how it may, is hard enough to bear. When we have toiled and hoped and failed, and then toiled and hoped again and again failed, and this not twice nor thrice but many times, the disappointment, become familiar, is not less bitter, though it may be less acutely felt. But when, after hope has been long deferred, the much-desired object has been suddenly presented to us, brought within a hand-grasp, and then as suddenly dashed away and dissipated, the anguish of disappointment is struck in with a triple dart. If delay makes the heart sick, the pangs of Tantalus pierce it through and through. Don't expect me to describe what Gertrude Fulford felt when she was taken away from that seat under the rock, because I can't do it. Cruelly stricken she was, as may be imagined; and the stroke was none the less cruel because her nature abhorred outward manifestation of suffering. In all her misery she was prompted to preserve a quiet demeanour; the effort in this direction may have cost her much, yet she could not but make it. The unexpected sight of her mother was, perHe got Lydia off her by means of Min- haps, the greatest relief that could have nie, who obeyed her parent's signal; and come to her. It delivered her at any rate now perceiving that her eyes were wide from Admiral Tautbrace's stupid attenopen and her face certainly not deficient tions, and assured her of the presence of in colour, the gallant old tar took Ger- a sympathizing bosom, albeit she might trude's hand in his, and said everything not rest her head on it at once and tell to comfort and reassure her. She said out her piercing sorrow. Mrs. Fulford she had been but momentarily overcome: could only guess at the nature of her it was nothing, really: she could walk daughter's mischance. She listened to quite well now, she was sure. the Admiral's account-short, to the “Then, I think," said Tautbrace, kind-point, and intended to be as little alarmly, "that I must take the command. ing as possible and to Lydia's regrets There must be no more risk run till you at not having overtaking the poor dear are once more safe with your mother. girl before she became so shockingly

1

lastydlong, and stimmere 4, and THE gold chain that Pharaoh put on , ༔ ༔་ རྣ erged her answers, too, to Joseph is the earliest decoration" of who play any of the party came to which history distinctly speaks; yet, This cute of the Oror, and he thought judging from what we now know of huIf I know anything man nature, it is reasonable to suppose about Brandex," thought Benjamin, "thit that marks of personal distinction were pod-m bow the most question is, invented long before the time of Potiphar. wol wint Perhaps it's one of the gen It is, however, scarcely worth our while #menum the thight of the chair; per to speculate as to the nature of the exteTepec la ink on the left, or it may be rior tokens of rank or merit which may Huge alleman in front" the Labourer possibly have been employed by the Hie od pompa wis a pleasantry); " or sovereigns or the patriarchs who preaupquos It should be the gentleman beceded Jacob; for, even if we content

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ourselves with adopting the chain in, of available rewards. Of course, all this question as the starting-point of our is not superb in principle; but it is fact. present subject, it still presents a reason- In theory it would be very grand to see able antiquity, and opens a capacious people practise excellence for nothing, to field for curious inquiry. But here we reach a period of the world's life when need not seek either to trace out the be- the now deceptive phrase, "virtue is its ginnings of the institution before the own reward," would stand out as a gloriDeluge, or to follow up its growth ous truth; to live in a society in which amongst the ancients; we do not want to the offer of remuneration for good contalk of crowns or diadems of linen, laurel, duct would be regarded as an insult. But oak, or myrtle, or of the rings of Roman things in our time go just the other way; knights; we can even omit oriental tur- a good many of us do our duty simply bebans and pelisses, Chinese buttons, cause it pays well to be virtuous: so long swords of honour, and the scalps and therefore as the desire to earn prizes bear's claw collars with which an Indian stands foremost amongst our springs of brave adorns himself. We can leave all action, it would be altogether nonsense to these shapes of vanity alone, because suppress the prizes. And this argument they are outside our immediate study; applies in every land; for, though the main they have doubtless been as tempting to development of the prizes known as dec"stars and garters orations has thus far occurred upon the are to our fellow Europeans; but they Continent, the use of them is spreading have all been purely local; they have rapidly into other longitudes, and made formed no part of the international devel- its first step in England when the Bath opment of pride; and, consequently, was opened to civilians. We English they cannot be included in the enumera- would do well not to scoff at it too viotion of its main elements which we are lently, for it is probable that we shall folmaking here. low some day the example of our neigh

their wearers as

now

certain war; our soldiers found it difficult to shave, and came home with hair; the nation copied them; and, though the treaty which wound up the war has disappeared, as treaties sometimes do, the beards that the war provoked have grown into solid British customs. We may expect that in some such fashion decorations will jump one day into use amongst us, not perhaps to-morrow or just yet, but hereafter; so let us moderate our scorn of those who, in other countries, are setting us an example which, whatever we may think about it now, we are doubtless destined to ultimately follow.

The present meaning of the word dec-bours in the matter. Twenty years ago oration is limited, as everybody knows, a beard was a loathsome object to an to ribbons, stars, and crosses; but, Englishman; he shrank from it with conthough its sense has become so restricted, temptuous disgust; it was only fit for though all the various adornments which "filthy foreigners:" then happened a men have worn successively, as indications of personal value or of a monarch's favour, are now replaced by this one badge, the use and influence of such signs have not diminished; on the contrary, they have now acquired a universal character of which we have never seen the like before, and which gives to them an importance of which we find no trace in former usages of the same character. The reason is that, instead of being confined to a favoured few, decorations are now accessible to everybody, and that the competition for them has increased in proportion with the facility of obtaining them. It should also be remarked, that But this very universality of orders as the idea of recompensing merit by this supplies one more example of the unvarymeans has grown and spread, so the ing certainty with which everything tends quantity of merit to be recompensed has to vanity; their history shows us that simultaneously increased; there is vastly even such origins as hard fighting, devomore of it upon earth in our time than in tion to the Church, and sick-nursing, former ages, not perhaps in the strict old conduce, like all else, to this one inevitmeaning which once limited the word to able result. Orders began with charity, military and moral virtues only, but in piety, and battle: they terminate in a the new elastic sense which the rush of button-hole! The contrast between science, literature, and industry has re- effect and cause does seem very violent, cently created, especially during the pres- but it disappears directly we remement century. The constantly growing ber that, as "all roads lead to Rome," so number of claimants for reward has ne- do all roads lead to vanity. The monkish, cessitated a corresponding multiplication chivalric, half-legendary knights of eight

fidelity to heaven and to Clovis, set up the knightly confraternity of the Dog and Cock, and took for his house the famous motto, "Dieu aide au premier baron chrétien." Then come the legends of the Round Table, and of the orders said to have been founded by Charles Martel, by Charlemagne, by Garcias of Navarre, and half a dozen others. Unfortunately stern history rejects all these pleasant fables, and declares that, according to probabilities, orders were unknown until the eleventh century. From that date, however, there is no doubt about them, for then began the strange romance of the Hospitallers of St. John, the half-intoxicating, half-saddening tale of the triumphs and the defeats, the wealth and misery, the pride and sorrow of the soldiers of the White Cross, ending, after eight hundred years of fierce fight and wild adventure, in a "decoration "of black moire ! We all have read the story, but as some of us may have forgotten it, and as it is the starting point of the entire subject, there may be utility in recalling its main details.

hundred years ago are for the most part at once followed by Lisoye de Montmorepresented now by highly respectable rençi, who was christened with him, and gentlemen in black coats or uniforms, who, to testify his watchfulness and his who wear special jewellery at Continental evening parties. The knights would be surprised if they could contemplate their successors; they might even be grievously offended at the sight: but the successors would not hesitate for that, and would continue to regard themselves as serious real chevaliers, without caring for the opinion of their ancestors thereon. Yet those ancestors are worth consulting, for they were the inventors of the whole thing, and had fancies of their own as to what a knight should be, fancies which certainly did not correspond with present notions on the subject, and which, indeed, we should find it a little awkward to realize in these days. For this reason we may as well begin the story at the beginning; otherwise we should be unable to clearly see how the institution has gradually changed, and how such commencements should have been followed by such an end. The tale will show us that orders have presented three separate aspects: first came the monastic military brotherhoods; then the great aristocratic knighthoods, limited to a favoured few; and, finally, the present purely remunerative and decorative system, open to all the world. The two latter stages merge into each other, and are not separated by any certain line; but the former stands alone in history, and cannot possibly be mistaken for or confounded with anything else whatever. There are grave old chroniclers who proclaim that the Order of the Holy Sepulchre was the first established, and that it was devised in the year 69 by St. James the Apostle, Bishop of Jerusalem. Others, after discussing this statement critically, after calling our attention to the absence of all allusion to it in the Acts, assert triumphantly that St. James did nothing of the kind, and that the real authentic originator of chivalry was John, King of Ethiopia, who started an Order of St. Anthony in 370. This second group of authors is so certain of its facts that it goes on to tell us how John's knights were dressed. We learn that they wore black, with a blue cross edged with gold, and that their black banner bore a lion holding a crucifix in his paws. A third school urges that this Ethiopian story is all imagination, that Clovis was the true inventor, that he created the order of the Sainte Ampoule to commemorate his baptism in 496, and that his example was

When Monstaser Billah was caliph of Egypt and Palestine, certain charitable merchants of Amalfi obtained from him permission to establish a refuge in Jerusalem for the use of Latin pilgrims. So these worthy Christians built two hospitals at their own cost in 1048, placed them under the invocation of St. John the Almoner, and handed them over to Benedictine Monks, who undertook to tend the sick and to feed the poor. If we may judge by the results, they must have done much good, for thankful visitors gave gifts and aid to the young establishment, and it had become prosperous and solid when in 1099 the Crusaders took the Holy City. Then down. rained generous endowments for the faithful hospital. Godfrey de Bouillon gave to it the domain of Montboise in Brabant, and his followers imitated him so energetically, that, in a few years, it became possessed of manors' rights, and privileges in nearly all the countries of Europe. People were, in those days, particularly grateful; they did what we don't do now, for the rich offered not only lands and money, but personal service too; and many a hard-hitting Crusader became a nurse inside the walls of the hospital of St. John. Then Gérard, the Rector, bethought himself that, having much money and many men, he