The spot chosen was the Castle Park; the date, the Wednesday and Thursday of the third week in July.  There was provision made for accommodating the expected guests in the Lodge itself and all the adjoining houses.  The duchess filled her schools with stores for the ministers and their families, and all whom they might choose to invite.  No expense of thought or labour was spared.  But there was one thing that might have rendered all the careful arrangements of no avail.  The rain had been falling for weeks, and there seemed no prospect of its cessation.  Happily the fears were disappointed.  From the time the people began to assemble until after the forenoon train on the last day had carried away the last of those who had lingered to the close of the assembly, there was not a drop of rain.  The great day of the gathering was especially bright.  It seemed as if God the great Creator were specially smiling on this effort for His glory and the everlasting welfare of His creatures.  The place chosen for the gathering was most suitable, there being two or three places like amphitheatres on which the hearers could sit.  Everything had been arranged so carefully by those whose hearts were thoroughly in the work that the duchess was able to note after the great gathering was over—­“Truly there was not one thing out of place or unseemly.”  Eternity will unfold the results.  The assembly was characterised “by much freedom and power in the speakers, by refreshing and lively joy and thanksgiving in the Lord’s people, by the awakening of many of the dead, and by holy liberty granted to those that were bound.”  The number at this meeting in 1860 was about 7000.  Meetings of a similar character were held in the three following years.  In one or more of these the number reached 10,000.  About the last of the great assemblies, the duchess wrote—­“_ August_, 1863.  I cannot but wonder to see these meetings increasing in numbers and interest every year; not as a rendezvous for a pleasant day in the country, but really very solemn meetings, where the presence of the Lord is felt, and the power of His Spirit manifested.  I trust that I have been somewhat awakened by the preaching of our own minister, which has been very striking indeed.”

X.

THE END IS PEACE.

At the beginning of 1861 the duchess was brought almost to death’s door.  To use the words of her biographer, “She was visited with a severe and all but fatal illness, which was inscribed by the Lord’s own hand with all the characters of the believer’s death-bed, except that He brought her up again from the gates of the grave, and prolonged her precious life for three years more.”  So alarming was the illness that she made all arrangements for her departure hence.  Various remembrances were set aside for her relatives and friends, and directions were given that certain letters should be written for the promotion of the welfare of some whose interest she had at heart.