a higher power, led her to a practical demonstration of the sentiment, "To hope the best is pions, brave, and wise," was the life and soul of every arrangement, and the soother of those fainter spirits, who were ready to yield, to despair at every sign of failure. Their residence was in a little hamlet of the better class of peasants, faithful to the in-terests of the king. A deep forest extended on the west to a great distance, and in those wilds, spite of all caution, Eva delighted to ramble. One day she had been so long absent that even Eleanora, becoming alarmed, despatched her attendant in quest of her, and herself joined the search. As she passed along through the glades of the deep wood, her attention was arrested by the sight of a pretty boy, lying asleep beneath the shade of a spreading oak, whose dress from his embroidered shoes, to the ruby that fastened the plume in his velvet cap, was of the most exquisite beauty, and taste. The page was clad in a hunting suit of " Lincoln green," slashed with cloth of gold, that gleamed from the mossy bank upon which he rested, as though the sunshine had fallen and lingered there. A crimson bal-dric curiously wrought with strange devices, lay across his breast, a sword with burnished sheath, was suspended from his belt. As Eleanora approached, and gazed upon the sleeping boy, she thought she had never beheld so lovely a youth, and an instinctive desire rose up in her heart, to enroll him in her service. " Wake, pretty one," said she, softly touching his cheek, " wake, and go with me." The yonth started and gazed upon her, and a flush of surprise and pleasure suffused his countenance. "Whose page art thou?" said Eleanora, " and how hast thou wandered into this wild ?" " Noble lady," returned the boy, casting down his eyes with modest hesitation, " my hawk hath gone astray, and I sought him till aweary, I fell asleep." "Thy friends have left thee in the greenwood," returned the princess, " and thou may'st not find them. Wilt go with me, and I will give thee gold and benison, and if thou art loyal, an errand worthy thy knightly ambition." 368 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.