lives exhibit too little the holy influence of the faith we profess : but tell me, how can the wife of Edward serve the alchemist ?" " Noble queen," said Procida, speaking earnestly and with great agitation, " thou knowest not the peril in which thy generosity may involve thee." " Speak, and fear not," reiterated she, " Eleanora fears no evil in the practice of kindness." Fixing his keen eyes upon her face, as if to detect every emotion which his words might awaken, the Jew replied bitterly, " Procida for his attachment to the noble house of Swabia, is proscribed and hunted from Sicily, his daugh-ter, a Jewess, can scarce claim the protection of law ; and concealed as she is in the suburbs of Burgos, her beauty has already attracted the curiosity of those from whom her father cannot defend her. Did I dare claim so great a boon I would beg a place for her among thy maidens." Eleanqra paused. The prejudice against the Jews was so intense as to affect even her upright mind ; and the scandal it might bring upon the royal household to enroll an unbeliever among its inmates, startled her apprehen-sions : but the father stood before her with the air of one who had intrusted his last treasure to her keeping, and she could not find it in her heart to crush his confidence in her generosity. " Bring thy daughter hither," added she, thoughtfully, " with me she shall be safe." " The blessing of him that is ready to perish, rest upon thee," said the scholar, fervently, as he left her presence. When the Queen of England next visited the apart-ments of her brother, she was accompanied by a young girl of such surpassing loveliness as to attract the attention of the philosopher himself. Her features were of that per-fect form generally described as Grecian, while her dark hair and soft black eyes, suggested the idea of a brunette ; but the fairness of her complexion and the brilliant color of her cheek, that varied with every emotion, gave a char-acter of exquisite delicacy and sensibility to her countenance. 426 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.