.

A House of Sorrow.
-- After which follows a Courting Scene.
The deep sorrow and desolation of spirit introduced by the profligate destroyer into the humble abode of peace and innocence is an awful thing to contemplate.

In our chapter headed "The Wake of a Murderer" we have attempted to give a picture of it.

The age, indeed, was one of licentiousness and profligacy.

The reigning monarch, Charles the Second, of infamous memory, had set the iniquitous example to his subjects, and surrounded his court by an aristocratic crew, who had scarcely anything to recommend them but their imitation of his vices, and this was always a passport to his favor, whilst virtue, morality, and honor were excluded with contempt and derision.