“‘I’ll just tell you what I did,’ Mr. Leighton chimed in again, ’and I think it is a devilish good plan—­it shows what one can do.  I went straight an end, as fast as I could, to what was to be the end of my journey.  This was Sicily; so straight away I went there at the devil’s own rate, and never stopped any where by the way; changed horses at Rome and all those places, and landed in safety in ——­ I forget exactly how long from the time of starting, but I have got it down to an odd minute.  As for the places I left behind, I saw them all on my way back, except the Rhine, and I steamed down that in the nighttime.’

“‘I have travelled a good deal by night,’ said Theobald.  ’With a dormeuse and travelling lamp I think it is pleasant, and a good plan of getting on.’

“‘And you can honestly say, I suppose,’ said Denbigh, ’that you have slept successfully through as much fine country as any man living?’

“’Oh, I did see the country—­that is, all that was worth seeing.  My courier knew all about that, and used to stop and wake me whenever we came to any thing remarkable.  Gad!  I have reason to remember it, too, for I caught an infernal bad cold one night when I turned out by lamp-light to look at a waterfall.  I never looked at another.’”

* * * * *

SCRIPTURAL ANTIQUITIES.

We resume our quotations from this treasurable little volume already noticed in No. 551, of The Mirror.  Taken altogether, it is an exhaustless mine of research upon subjects which have awakened curiosity from childhood to old age—­from the little wonder-struck learner on the school form to the patient inquirer with spectacle on nose.

The Raven and the Dove at the Deluge.

“We shall quote the interesting account which the Sacred Volume supplies us, of the singular messenger employed by the patriarch, to procure information as to the state of the diluvial waters;—­’And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:  and he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro (in going forth and returning), until the waters were dried up from off the earth.  Also, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground:  but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark:  for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.  Then he put forth his hand, and took her and pulled her (caused her to come) in unto him into the ark.  And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark:  and the dove came into him in the evening; and lo! in her mouth was an olive leaf, plucked off.  So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.  And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him any more.’  This narrative, though simple in its style, is expressive