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Up and away; and tarry not. It is the will of the Lord!"

Again the celestial vision faded from his eyes; and be was once more awake, and sitting upright in his bed His mind was much troubled

by what he had heard and seen.

"God help me!" spake the monarch, with a deep-drawn sigh. "What shall I do? What means all this? Is it that a night-mare has lain on my breast? or, mayhap, some fiend that has taken this shape of light, wishes to tempt me. What shall I do? God guide me!"

He was silent for some minutes, absorbed in meditation.

"Heavenly powers," he resumed, "why should I steal? What need have I of my neighbour's goods? And saith not God's law, thou shalt not steal?""

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Again was he wrapped in thought for a time. "Yet," he pursued, "that was truly a messenger of heaven; no fiend ever looked so beautiful! But, oh God! to steal!"

He sighed, as though he would yield up his spirit at the thought,

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To steal!" he continued. "What should I steal for? What have I to wish for in this world? Am I not as rich as rich can be? No man on the face of God's earth, be he Kaiser, be he king, or be he count, hath half so much as I have! And are not the princes of the land my tributaries and my servants? My realm is so wide that it nowhere hath its like: for doth it not extend from Cologne on the Rhine to Rome on the Tiber? from the wild and distant banks of the Danube in the East, to the shores

of the troubled and unknown ocean in the West? and are not Gallicia and the Iberian land mine own, won with my good sword, and kept by my wisdom and power? Does not all this broad surface call me sovereign; and am I not lord and master of the properties as well as the lives of all those who dwell on it? Why then should I steal? And wherefore should God will it so? I would not willingly disobey the commands of my Maker; but I cannot bring myself to believe that he would cover my gray hairs with shame, and convert my glory into disgrace, by ordering me, in this my old age, to turn thief."

He had scarce spoken the words, when, weary with thought and anxiety, or, perhaps, affected by the operation of a supernal influence, a deep slumber sealed his eyes once more; and once more, for the third time, the angel of the Lord stood before him. The aspect of the celestial ambassador was now so beautifully severe, that the monarch could not bear to look on it; and the tones of his voice, musical and melodious still, jarred on his sense of hearing like the notes of an untuned instrument, played by an unskilful performer.

"Karl," he spake, "why tarry? Wouldst thou disobey the Omnipotent, who holds kingdoms and empires in the hollow of his hand? Arise, arm, and forth to steal! Once more I tell thee that thou art lost for ever- life and land, body and soul if yon sheeny, crescent moon kiss the western horizon ere thou art up and away in obedience to the will of the Lord! Do as thou listeth. Thou knowest thy fate. A thief and all:

nothing if not. This the last time I shall warn thee. Farewell!"

The angel disappeared: the amber-gold and roseate clouds above opened to receive him; Charlemagne caught through the aperture a glimpse of heaven; and he heard the voices of the blessed singing aloud in eternal chorus the song of the Lamb, "Hosannah in the highest!"

"God's will be done!" exclaimed the monarch sighing; for he was still unhappy, though he no " longer doubted or disbelieved. God's will be done! What is to be must be. And I will go forth and steal, as he has commanded, even though I should be taken like a thief in the act, and meet a thief's end-to be hanged by the neck like a dog. Come what will, shame or sorrow, I will forth."

He sprang from his couch as he spake the words, and set about to dress himself.

"Well! well!" be soliloquized, as he went on, "it can't be helped! But God, who knows all things, knows full well that, rather than do this disgraceful act of my own accord, I would willingly resign into his hands all that which he has bestowed upon me: cities and castles, and land and water, and all that therein live; and, taking shield and spear in my hand, exist on the chances he might send in fair adventure. That I would! and that would be my fondest wish in preference. But he has commanded it, and I must not disobey, for fear I should forfeit his favour. His will be done!"

He had now completed his equipment; and was armed back and breast, head and heel. Cuirass and helm, cuisses, and greaves, aud gauntlets

were on; it only remained to take his sword and couteau de chasse, his spear and his shield, all of which were every night laid on his bed beside him; - and, then to saddle his horse, and set forth on his reluctant mission.

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"Would to God I had never been born!" he murmured, as he stole forth his chamber; or that it had never come to this. But there is no remedy for it now.'

He passed by his pages as they lay at the outer door of his apartment dead asleep; and he wondered that he woke them not, as he stepped over them in his mailed suit, which clanked at every motion, sufficient to disturb any ordinary sleeper. The porters in the hall of the palace slept also; and the warders at the gates, as well as the centinels on the towers, were torpid as dead men-so deep was their repose.

"It is wonderful!" said he to himself, hand of God is here."

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He proceeded to the stable where his best horses were kept, and approached the stall of his favourite steed unobserved. The grooms were all asleep; yea, the very horses slept likewise; all except his favourite, who whinnied and neighed at his approach; but in so low a strain as not to awaken the others.

"God help me!" sighed he once more, as he mounted his caparisoned steed and rode forth. "God help me! I would give seven of the fairest castles that strew the shores of yon lordly river, an I were hence without being seen. What will those knights and nobles I leave sleeping within this proud palace say, if I am discovered going out alone in the dead of the night, like a thief

in the darkness? God help me; for I am a helpless man.

Through court-yard and portal passed he unobserved, for the palace seemed like the enchanted city in the Eastern tale-petrified. All within it slept like the dead. The gates opened to his touch; the portcullis sprang up at his appearance; the bridge lowered itself as if by magic at his approach. Unseen, unheard, and unnoticed of aught living, he stood without the precincts of the imperial residence-"the world before him." And so he rode forth, with a heavy heart, on his thief's errand that blessed night.

It was one of those lovely, late autumn nights, which seem to fall with such fondness on the beautiful banks of the Rhine. The sheeny crescent moon hung its lamp low in the western skylighting the concave of heaven as twilight does the "long-drawn aisles and fretted roofs" of a cathedral - the stars shone out in twinkling radiance, vivifying by their apparent activity all around the broad bright river flowed onwards on its glorious course, dispensing, even in the solitude of the night, its blessings on both shores --the sombre pine-forests, which then covered the mountain tops, slept in the density of their own shadow - and the vine-covered hill-sides

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laughed out in all the glow of an abundant vintage, "purple and gushing. The scene was one which no land that lies beneath the sun could surpass in sheer loveliness-and which few on the wide earth could equal or even approach. And in this scene, and under that sky, stood

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