ETHEL WOODVILLE;

OR,

WOMAN'S MINISTRY.

OR,

WOMAN'S MINISTRY.

A Tale for the Times.

"La speme de' malvagi

Svanisce in un momento,

Come spuma in tempesta, o fumo al vento.

Ma de' giusti la speme

Mai non cangia sembianza;

Ed è l' istesso Dio la lor speranza."-METASTASIO.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

HATCHARD AND CO. 187 PICCADILLY.

MDCCCLIX.

249. E.379.

ETHEL;

OR,

WOMAN'S MINISTRY.

CHAPTER I.

"For him—awake-asleep-there came no vision of sweet

rest:

Undying memory, like a flame, burned in his guilty breast:
Dark as the weary gloom around, his soul was dark within;
For, oh! he lived but in the sound of shamelessness and sin-
Fast flew the fatal hours-he trod life's very brink alone;
Yet had no hope, no fear, no God! His heart was turned to
stone."-CHARLES SWAIN.

MORTON was laid on the best bed the house afforded, in a wretchedly cold, uncarpeted room, and Raymond despatched a messenger instantly for medical aid.

It was some hours before consciousness returned to the unhappy infidel, and then the scene was fearful to witness. His agony of remorse, wild ravings, and shrieks for mercy, thrilled through Herbert's heart. He now more than ever felt that there is a God, though long he had defied him, whose hand had been stretched forth in wrath to stop his career of defiance.

VOL. II.

B