I have heard many an act of devotion in my life, had Heaven vouchsafed me grace to profit by them; but such a prayer as this, uttered amid the dead and the dying, with a rich tone of mingled triumph and adoration, was beyond them all--it was like the song of the inspired prophetess who dwelt beneath the palm-tree between Ramah and Bethel.

He was silent; and for a brief space we remained with our faces bent to the earth--no man daring to lift his head.

At length we looked up, but our deliverer was no longer amongst us; nor was he ever again seen in the land which he had rescued." Here Bridgenorth, who had told this singular story with an eloquence and vivacity of detail very contrary to the usual dryness of his conversation, paused for an instant, and then resumed--"Thou seest, young man, that men of valour and of discretion are called forth to command in circumstances of national exigence, though their very existence is unknown in the land which they are predestined to deliver." "But what thought the people of the mysterious stranger ?" said Julian, who had listened with eagerness, for the story was of a kind interesting to the youthful and the brave.
"Many things," answered Bridgenorth, "and, as usual, little to the purpose.

The prevailing opinion was, notwithstanding his own disclamation, that the stranger was really a supernatural being; others believed him an inspired champion, transported in the body from some distant climate, to show us the way to safety; others, again, concluded that he was a recluse, who, either from motives of piety, or other cogent reasons, had become a dweller in the wilderness, and shunned the face of man." "And, if I may presume to ask," said Julian, "to which of these opinions were you disposed to adhere ?" "The last suited best with the transient though close view with which I had perused the stranger's features," replied Bridgenorth; "for although I dispute not that it may please Heaven, on high occasions, even to raise one from the dead in defence of his country, yet I doubted not then, as I doubt not now, that I looked on the living form of one, who had indeed powerful reasons to conceal him in the cleft of the rock." "Are these reasons a secret ?" said Julian Peveril.
"Not properly a secret," replied Bridgenorth; "for I fear not thy betraying what I might tell thee in private discourse; and besides, wert thou so base, the prey lies too distant for any hunters to whom thou couldst point out its traces.

But the name of this worthy will sound harsh in thy ear, on account of one action of his life--being his accession to a great measure, which made the extreme isles of the earth to tremble.