The Young Lady's Counsellor by Daniel Wise

109 THE YOUNG LADY's COUNSELLOR.
a tear standing in his eye, and then, clasping the
dead hand with increased tenderness, resumed hia
unmeaning song, but in a softer and sadder key.
" Poor wretch ! what
shall we do with him ? " Inquired
the visiters. As they stood gazing on the
melancholy spectacle, the boy gathered the dust from
the floor in his two hands, sprinkled it upon his head
and broke forth, with a wild, clear, heart-searching
pathos, into his monotonous song. Thus affectingly
did this idiot lad proclaim the depth of the impression
made upon his spirit by the continuous kindness
of his mother, years of whose life had been wearily
spent in self-devoted care for her child. The loveliness
of a mother's devotedness had penetrated the
soul of an idiot.
I have yet another illustrative sketch, by which lo
impress your heart with a conviction that the power
of a kind and lovely spirit is almost irresistible.
The scene is from one of those sad and dreary
events so plentiful in the French Revolution.
A-mong the prisoners in the Abbey was the venerable
Cazotte and his lovely daughter. Elizabeth,