One only grace for me--
This heart to give forevermore
To God alone and thee."

"To bed, children, with you all," said the good lady, covering her face
with her handkerchief, for the tears started from their source in her
noble soul on hearing this delightful hymn sung by the poor orphans,
whose countenances looked like those of angels' while chanting it. "God
forgive those," she said to herself, in a half-audible tone, "that would
rob these poor children of that divine religion that teaches her
children such heavenly hymns."

This incident recalled to her mind vividly the days of her girlhood,
when, in the "sunny south," she heard Catholic hymns sung and Catholic
devotion practised in the convent where she, though a Protestant,
received her education. And probably her conscience, too, reproached her
for the neglect of the good resolutions she formed while there.




CHAPTER X.

A RAY OF HOPE.


Many times during what we shall call his captivity within the gates of
the strangers Paul had contrived to write letters to Father O'Shane in
the city of T----, as well as to his uncle in Ireland; but from some
cause or other, to his innocent mind inexplicable, the letters never