one died in January, the other was beheaded in May; and she who, by
exciting and encouraging the unholy love of the king, had unchained his
fierce passions and taught him to break through all restraints, was
herself, full early, their victim.

Shall we pass from the palaces of England to the tents of
Mesopotamia--from the last days of chivalry to those of the ancient
patriarchs and shepherds of the earliest of recorded ages?

When the wandering Jacob reached the abode of his mother's kindred, the
land of Haran, he met, at the same fountain at which Rebekah had watered
the flocks of the messenger of Abraham, the daughter of her brother
Laban. He had seated himself by the well, and when the maiden came, he
aided her to water her flocks; and he was thus introduced to his kinsmen
by Rachel; and he told them that he was the son of Rebekah, of whom,
perhaps, they had long lost the recollection; and with all the
hospitality of the East--that hospitality which ever prevails among a
simple and pastoral people--he was welcomed by the kindred of the
mother.

The brother of Rebekah had two daughters. Leah, the elder, was
tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful; and both sisters loved their
cousin, while the heart of Jacob clung to the younger, the fair damsel
who first welcomed him; so that he overlooked the claims of the
elder,--the plain, if not disfigured, Leah. He brought no offerings with
him to conciliate the favour of the father, and, according to the custom
of the East, to facilitate his marriage. But he offered his personal
service as an equivalent. And the son of Isaac served seven years for
the daughter of Laban. But this long period was passed; and dwelling, as
Jacob did, in the presence of Rachel, a member of the household of her