"The general opinion in the city is, that it must be taken to-morrow."

"Is that the news ?" inquired Leontius, with a sneer. No, my lord; but it leads to it. I think so myself; I can see that your lordship does. Now, I think that your lordship would be glad to know, if this be the case, where you may take the Lady Theodora Phranza ;—I should say, the Lady Theodora De Rushton."

"What, is she married ?" cried the renegade. "About a week agone, my lord."

"To take her!" said Leontius, passionately. "I would give this hand to do it; and doubly now, if it were only to break that accursed Acolyth's heart." Then more coolly, "Name your price, if you really can do this."

"I can do it," said Zosimus, boldly; "I know the place where she is to be concealed; and I can tell you who is to be concealed with her,—the Exarch Choniates' wife and daughter, if your lordship knows the man." "I know him," said Leontius, "As I said, name your price."

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I had rather hear your lordship's," replied Zosimus. "A thousand gold amuraths."

"I thank your Lordship," answered the Greek, with a bow; "my price would be somewhat higher. I could not think of taking less than five."

Dog!" cried Leontius, in a fury, "I will tear the secret from you by some other means.

"You could not, my lord," returned Zosimus, coolly, "if you were to try; and you will not try, because-"

"Because of what ?"

"Because I should let every one know that I could offer the pearl of Byzantine beauty for the Sultan's harem; and that you, for the sake of retaining her for yourself, were putting me out of the way. Judge whether your slaves would obey you then!"

Leontius paused. He was a coward by nature, and rather profuse than avaricious; and now love, such as it was, and hatred, about the character of which there could be no mistake, came to the assistance of his cowardice.

"You are talking nonsense, Zosimus," said he, "and you know it. But time is precious; and I had rather

give the extra sum you demand than spend it in teaching The five thousand amuraths shall be yours, you sense. if I judge your information to be such as gives me a fair chance of becoming possessed of the lady you mention."

"Put that down in writing, my lord, or rather put down that you will give it me on becoming possessed of her, and I will lose no time."

"This will do as well," said Leontius, who did not exactly wish that the infamy of such a bargain should, by any possibility, attach to him: and he sat down, and wrote something hastily at the table. "Listen," said he: "I promise to give to Zosimus, a servant of the Lord Phranza's, five thousand amuraths, on the capture of the city of Constantinople."-"Now, tell me," he continued, "and rest assured that if your tale is not satisfactory, I will myself stab you to the heart; and if not true, I will find means to punish you hereafter; for you do not leave me till its truth or falsehood be discovered."

"Very well, my lord; I am perfectly content. This afternoon I chanced to be in Lord Phranza's garden, when I saw old Barlaam the steward, and a Varangian officer they call Richard Burstow, coming down the great steps together, and in very earnest conversation. I have picked up one or two secrets in my time that have stood me in good stead, as your lordship knows very well:" here Leontius's colour heightened: "and I thought I might do so now. So I hid in a clump of trees that is close to the main walk, and could hear tolerably well what they said, as they walked up and down. Some words indeed I lost, at the two ends of the walk; but the sum and substance I can swear to—”

"You may dispense with that, good Zosimus; I should not believe you the more if you did."

"No, my lord, the feeling is mutual. No offence, I hope. The long and short of the matter is this: the lady, on the first alarm, is to be concealed, with those two others I mentioned, in one of the reservoirs in Phranza's ice-house, which is empty and quite dry. Barlaam is to keep watch in the garden, concealing himself as he best may and at twelve that night, when every soldier will be in the full riot of licence, De Rushton, or Phranza, or

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one or two others whose names I could not catch, are to steal down to the place, and proceed as best they canif no one comes, Barlaam is to conclude them dead, and act for himself."

"You deserve the money, Zosimus, if this be so," cried Leontius. "But you must be content to remain where I can get at you till the city be really taken."

"And I will then conduct your lordship to the place," said Zosimus. "Give me enough to eat and drink, and keep me out of the way of cannon balls and balistæ, and I will stay as long as you please."

"Ho! Ahmed!" cried Leontius. And a Janissary entered. "Ahmed, let this Greek be carefully kept, in some secure place, till the city is taken. Let him be well tended, and have what he wishes, but on no account be permitted to escape."

Zosimus, therefore, was carried off; and Leontius remained sitting in the same position for several moments, revolving his own dark plans. "It must be so,” he said at length. "Baltazar told me that if I survived that night I should have wealth and honour to the very end. The plan seems very probable. I do not think she can escape me. But I will see to that anon, when these estimates are finished." And he again bent over his task.

THE PARABLES OF THE MUSTARD SEED AND THE LEAVEN.

A POSTIL.

THE revelation which has been made to the disciples by the three parables which we have already considered, amounts to this; (1.) That the Church or kingdom which the LORD was then about to establish in the world, would be cast upon the whole world, as a sower sows his seed over the whole field; but that the whole world would not be prepared to receive it. (2.) That whether it did receive it or not, for a long and weary period the seed would lie dead, and would produce no visible effects;

and (3.) that when these effects began to appear, so much of heresy, so much of false religion would spring up also, and that so very like the true, that the sowers themselves would not be able to distinguish the one from the other; that a necessary condition of the Church must be, that the true and the false must grow side by side to the end of the world: thus perpetually casting down the hopes and trying the faith of God's most faithful servants.

It is a very remarkable thing, that not only does the LORD never paint His kingdom upon earth in flattering colours, but, in no case whatever, does He omit an opportunity of pointing out the mental discouragements, as well as bodily trials, which await those who are engaging in His service. Here, in these three parables, He plainly lays before His disciples the cost, concealing nothing of its extent; and not till He has done so does He call upon them to follow Him to a certain triumph, no doubt, but to a triumph which they, His faithful soldiers and servants, cannot by any possibility share in while they are permitted to continue among the combatants here below.

And, before we go further, in this revelation let us remark how perfectly all this was fulfilled from the very beginning of the Church's history. How the Apostles were scattered over the whole face of the world; here and there received, but for the most part persecuted and rejected. Thus, much of their seed lay dead, even though it was afterwards to produce fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty-fold, and some a hundred-fold. And even with the seed came the tares; with the Church came the heresy: so much of the revelation, at all events, was accomplished during the lifetime of those to whom it was made.

The next two parables carry on the history of the Church beyond the lifetime of its first founders; to them they were a matter of encouragement only, and an exercise of faith, for they never saw their accomplishment : but to us they are matters of history; they are confirmations of our faith, rather than trials or exercises.

These two parables are, the mustard seed, and the lea

ven. The signification of both is the same, but they exhibit the kingdom under different aspects. What S. Chrysostom says of the first of them, may, with equal propriety, be applied to both. His words are these

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Seeing the LORD had said above, that three parts of the seed perish, and one only is preserved, and of that one part there is much lost by reason of the tares that are sown upon it; that none might say, 'Who, and how many are they that believe?' He removes this cause of fear by the parable of the mustard seed. Therefore it is said, another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed.'

We will take these two parables in the order in which they were delivered; premising, that they both are intended to prophesy that the greatest possible effects will be produced from the smallest, most unpromising, and most inadequate beginnings.

By far the greater part of the seed may actually have perished; the remainder may be inactive, or, if active, choked and impeded by heresies and false doctrines. Be it so but that which has taken root,-and some, as we have already learned, has taken root,-is like a grain of mustard seed, the least of all seeds, but the producer of the greatest of herbs. "The Gospel preaching," says S. Jerome, "is the least of all the systems of the schools; at first view, it has not even the appearance of truth, announcing man as GOD; announcing GOD put to death, and proclaiming the offence of the Cross. Compare this teaching with the dogmas of the philosophers; with their books; with the splendour of their eloquence; the polish of their style, and you will see how the seed of the Gospel is the least of all seeds. But," he continues, "the dogmas of the philosophers, when they have grown up, show nothing of life and strength, but, watery and insipid, they grow into grasses and other greens, which quickly dry up and wither away. But the Gospel preaching, though it may seem small in the beginning, yet when it is sown in the minds of the hearers, or upon the world, comes not up a garden herb, but a tree, so that the birds of the air (which we may suppose to be either the souls