of the complete They had fled Brocken Path,

who first brought news escape of the prisoners. across the hills by the and though pursued after getting across, reached the coast, and were taken aboard the Parroquet, which sailed away with them. It is probable that Marie's visitors had their suspicions regarding the escape, but they were gentle, and did not make her uncomfortable. The fact is, the pity of the Governor and his wife was very acute, and the cause of its special acuteness the Governor made known, shortly after, to Murray Farling. But just now they were most concerned for the girl's physical misfortune. Madame Solde said to her: "My poor Marie-does it feel so dreadful, so dark?"

66 'No, madame, it is not so bad. There are many things which one does not wish to see, and one is spared that."

"But you will see again. When you go to England, to great physicians there."

"Then I should have three lives, madame: when I could see, when sight died, and when sight was born again. How wise I should be!"

They left her sadly, and after a time she heard footsteps that she knew. She came forward and greeted Murray Farling.

"Ah," she said, "all has been successful, I know; and you were so good."

"Yes, they are safe upon the seas," he gently replied; and he kissed her hand.

"Now you will read this letter for me. Monsieur Laflamme left it behind in the Cave."

With a pang he took it, and read

thus:

He started at the word: "Yes, yes, Marie."

"I seem to have new knowledge of things, now that I am blind. I think that letter is not altogether real, though it has gratitude. But you would have done it differently. You see, that was his way of saying-good-bye."

What Murray Farling thought, what he knew from the Governor, whom he had met on his way to Pascal House, he dared not say. He was silent.

She continued: "I could not bear that one who was innocent of any real crime, and who was a great artist, and who believed himself to be a patriot, should suffer so here. When he asked me I helped him. Yet I suppose I was selfish, wasn't I?-it was because he loved

Murray Farling spoke breathlessly: "And because you loved him, Marie?

Her head was lifted quickly, as though she saw, and was looking him in the eyes. "Oh no, oh no," she cried, "I never loved him. I was deeply sorry for him-that was all."

"Marie, Marie," he said very gently, while she shook her head a little pitifully, "did you love any one else?"

She was silent for a space and then she said: "Yes,-Oh, Murray, I am so sorry for your sake that I am blind, and cannot marry you."

"But, my darling, you shall not always be blind, you shall see again, I hope. And you shall marry me also.-As if-oh, Marie! as if one's love could live but by the sight of the eyes!"

Blind, I

It would not be

"Poor brave Murray!. could not marry you. just to you."

He smiled with a happy hopeful determination : "But if you should see

again?"
¡“Oh, then, dear. ..

And she married him, and in time her sight returned, though not completely. And Murray Farling never told her, as the Governor had told him, that Rive Laflamme, when he was in New Caledonia, had a wife in Paris: and he is man enough to hope that she may never know.

But he has to this hour a profound regret that duels are out of fashion among Englishmen.

66

ERTAINLY," replied Miss Marsden to my request for information about herself and her work in Siberia, "I will gladly tell you anything and everything, and bring you all the official documents which verify the statements. I want all England to be interested in my lepers. The first leper i saw was when nursing the Russian soldiers in the Turkish war in 1878, and then and there I made up my mind to devote my life to them."

"But you were very young at that time?"

on

"Yes, I was only eighteen; and was scarcely old enough to start leper work; besides, my mother did not wish me to go just then, so I waited till she died. Alas! we have consumption in our family. I have only one brother left, and he is now in New Zealand. In March 1890 I was presented to the Queen, and a few days afterwards the Princess of Wales sent for me and herself wrote a letter explaining my mission to the Empress of Russia, who received me most graciously, expressed the greatest anxiety to assist, and asked me to write and tell her all about the lepers --a privilege which I have gladly availed. myself of through the Countess Alexandrine Tolstoi, who has throughout my work in Russia been my warmest friend and advocate. Without these credentials I could not have hoped for an audience of the Empress, and without the Empress's intervention I feel certain I could never have overcome the official difficulties that lay in the way of my reaching the lepers. To Her Imperial Majesty I owe everything, and for whatever I have been able to accomplish I have to thank her, and her alone. I carry her picture with me everywhere, and hundreds of poor prisoners have kissed it and blessed her. See! here it is," she said, producing a well-worn frame containing a signed portrait of the Empress."

[The sympathy taken by her Imperial Majesty in the 'epers is officially shown by the following extract from a testimonial Miss Marsden received from the Countess Tolstoi :

touched by her Christian devotion she had the kindness to grant her her protection and to help her to accomplish her journey in Siberia. The immense difficulties Miss Marsden has overcome has only deepened her zeal for her cause, for which she would willingly give her life, as she has already given her health.

May all generous souls who know how to appreciate such sacrifices unite with us in asking God to bless this work and the one who has consecrated herself to it.

COUNTESS A. TOLSTOI,

Lady of Honour to Her Majesty the
Empress of Russia.

WINTER PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG,
May 13th, 1892.]

once.

"But I did not start for Siberia all at I travelled about Europe for several months, spending some time at Constantinople and in the Holy Land with a view to studying leprosy wherever I found it. It was not till January that On my

I left Moscow for Yakutsk.

way I visited all the prisons, the etaps— i.e. halting places-vagabond houses, hospitals, and military hospitals. Some of these places are in a very bad state, but throughout Siberia the Government are doing all they can to improve matters, and I expect to see great alterations when I The Tomsk prisons are being rebuilt, the Krasnoyarsk prison is even comfortable, and the same may be said of Omsk, Tobolsk, and Irkutsk."

return.

"How far is it from Moscow to the leper settlement?"

"About 7,000 miles."

"So then you had to travel 14,000 miles altogether?"

"Yes," replied Miss Marsden. “It was a terrible journey, but so long as I reached the lepers I did not care what hardships I went through. But I must tell you about the journey. The first few hundred miles we went by train, then we had to take to sleighs and tarantas (a kind of cart without springs) dragged by horses over the frozen snow. The jolting was very bad at times. Then came a very trying 2,000 miles on the river Lena. For three weeks I lived on board a cargo barge with five or six men for companions, but as I did not know their language I could not converse with them. Professor Tchersky, the explorer, was going down the river in another barge. Part of the time his barge was tied to mine, and as he spoke French I was able to talk with him sometimes-a privilege I much enjoyed. In the day

G 2

time I used to sit or lie on the deck, which was crowded with cargo; while at night I slept on some bales of cloth sacking which we were taking up to Yakutsk; that is to say I slept as well as I could, seeing that the barge being new was very damp and tenanted by beetles and slugs, which used to creep over me and cause me to wake up pretty often. Such unpleasant awakenings at first did away with any wish to lie down again, but afterwards I became used to the interruptions.

a

"The river Lena is broad, rapid, and dangerous, at times almost a torrent. We travelled with the current at rapid pace, and by way of increasing the vessel's speed the master used to let down a sail stretched on a frame over the bow. When we wished to stop the barge was steered for the bank, and some of the crew would jump out with a rope, which they fastened round anything they could find. Five or six barges used to be moored at a station in this way, and woe betide the lower barges if one above broke loose; a collision was almost certain, and possibly a wreck.

"At last I reached Yakutsk, tired, stiff, and dirty, as of course all the time I was on board I could not undress, much less have a bath. Here I was told it was almost impossible for a woman to get to Viluisk, or to reach the lepers, who were hidden far away in impassable woods far up the interior, whilst their condition was so deplorable that nothing could be done to help them. However, the authorities were very kind, and did all they could to assist me, and on June 22, 1891, I began my long ride of 2,000 miles through the forests. The party consisted of Mr. Petroff, a police official, and fifteen Yakuts."

"But did you not get very tired?"

"Yes! never having ridden before, the wooden saddle was very trying, and the jerky movements of the unbroken horse gave me great pain at times. Sometimes, without a moment's warning, he would sink up to his middle, and then one had to hold on as best one could till he dragged himself out again. It was all marshland and forests, and after going through marshes for days my body ached all over, and it was with difficulty that I was lifted on and off my horse. Then there were the branches of the trees to look out for."

miles), the third twenty (thirteen and a half miles), and afterwards we often did about one hundred versts (66 miles). Soon, however, we were compelled to travel by night, as the horse flies prevented our moving by day, and the heat was almost tropical. I slept in a tent which the men pitched for me after the night's journey was over. We halted at the post stations, but it was impossible to sleep in the yourtas, i.e. huts, as they were full of vermin, and cows and calves were herded in the same yourta where human beings were supposed to sleep."

66

Did you see any bears or wolves? " "Yes, several times. We always had to light fires round the encampment to keep them off while we slept, and at times we used to shake a large box filled with stones to frighten them away.

"Arrived at Viluisk, I found the community had heard of my coming, and felt so grateful and pleased that, as you may see in this official Russian document which I hold, they had cleared a path through the forest of 1,500 versts; they had even built little bridges over the more dangerous marshes, but to do this work they had to put aside their agricultural work for the summer. I did not stay long at Viluisk, but pushed on for the forest. This stage

I took thirty men with me, as each tribe has its own leper yourtas, and caste is kept up even among the lepers. We suffered much inconvenience from want of fresh water during this part of the journey, and often had to drink the water from the ponds where the lepers bathed.

It

"Soon after entering the forest I noticed something moving between the trees. was a leper boy. I at once dismounted and walked towards him, but the poor child kept moving backwards, thinking I was frightened at his disease; and as I could not speak his language, it was not easy to make him understand that I wished to talk with him through an interpreter. I found that the community had adjudged him a leper, and ordered him to live alone for the rest of his life. great is the fear of lepers, that if it is decided that a man, woman, or child, has the disease, they are at once sent into the forest to live apart for ever. Even the children of lepers are sent to join their parents."

So

"What sort of places are the leper yourtas?"

"Often they are not more than eighteen feet long and twelve feet wide. The inmates have to sleep on benches along the