before the beginning, of history. It was well known to the heathen world. The laceration of the body by whips and knives formed part of the religious ritual of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and many other Asiatic nations. On these occasions, if the tokens of the Divine favour were not immediately vouchsafed, the worshippers would proceed to inflict yet severer sufferings on themselves, in order that the spectacle of their anguish might at length move the compassion, and disarm the anger, of their gods.

This use of the scourge was unknown to the Jews, and therefore found no place in primitive Christian worship. It was never used during the early ages of the church; nor did it form part of the severe self-discipline established by the monks of the Thebaid; nor, again, do we find it enjoined by the founders of the earliest Eastern monasteries. It is first mentioned as having been practised by certain enthusiasts in the early part of the fifth century; after which it slowly crept into favour during the generations which followed, until about A.D. 1050 self-flagellation had become a frequent practice among ascetics. Cardinal Damiani wrote an epistle in its praise, and the celebrated Dominic, called Loricatus, a monk of Croce d'Avrillan, introduced the usage of singing penitential hymns, accompanied by the infliction of the scourge, thereby greatly stimulating the zeal of his followers. He is said to have assured them that twenty recitations of the Psalms, during which time the whip was to be continually used, would be as efficacious as a hundred years of the ordinary penitential discipline.

The habit diffused itself more widely among the devout, in spite of the efforts of the more sober-minded among the clergy to discourage it. But it was not till about the middle of the thirteenth century that it assumed the shape of a popular movement. That, it should be remembered, was a period of almost unexampled wickedness; and in no part of the world had it attained a greater height than Italy. The corruption of all who exercised authority, whether in church or state, appeared to have reached its height. The wars of the Guelfs and Ghibellines were conducted with a barbarity which might put to shame the worst deeds of heathen times. The people underwent the miseries of famine, rapine and murder, without the power of resistance, or the hope of deliverance. It is no wonder that many should have felt that the hand of Heaven was afflicting them with extraordinary severity, and have striven by any means that fanaticism might suggest, to mitigate its wrath.

The first outbreak seems to have taken place at Perugia, in the year 1260, where a monk named Regnier preached publicly the necessity of propitiating the Deity, justly offended as He was at men's crimes and impieties, by public humiliation and penance. His words were like the lighted match applied to the train already laid. He was instantly and enthusiastically followed by crowds of persons of all ranks and ages-old men and children, nobles and merchants, labourers and artisans, abandoned women, and ladies of the purest character and most delicate nurture. Two and two they marched, with their heads covered,

that they might not be recognised, but naked to the waist, and marked with red crosses on their backs and breasts-sometimes through the crowded streets of a city, sometimes through waste and solitary regions; twice every day inflicting the severest discipline on themselves, and rising once every night for the same stern purpose. Wild and lawless as their combination might seem to be, they were nevertheless subjected to a very severe discipline. No one was allowed to enrol himself, who had not the means of selfsupport-fourpence a day being the sum required of each-no one, who had not confessed and received absolution; no one, whose proselytism had not the approval of his friends and relatives; no one in fine who could not declare that he had fully forgiven his enemies. These qualifications probably excited general respect and sympathy. We learn that everywhere ready hospitality was accorded them. It is further said that they would never protract their visits beyond a single day, or partake of refreshment twice at the same house. Their demeanour is reported to have been singularly modest and devout. As they advanced in their simple procession, each holding a cross in his hand, they chanted a hymn* deprecating the wrath of God for their sins, and entreated the intercession of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Ever and anon they would halt for the purpose of offering up their prayers.

In this manner they traversed the country. Into whatsoever city they entered, the contagion of their example instantly spread among the people. The busy haunts of the merchant and the trader, the gay resorts of the young and the noble, the monk's cell, the student's chamber, nay, the secret lurking places of the beggar and the thief were instantly emptied-all crowding eagerly to behold the doings of their sombre visitors, if not to join themselves to their brotherhood. Thirty-three days and a half, the period

Specimens of these hymns have been preserved. Lingard gives a stanza from one of them, which has been preserved by L'Evesque.

"Through love of man the Saviour came,
Through love of man He died,

He suffered want, reproach and shame,
Was scourged and crucified.

Oh think then on thy Saviour's pain,
And lash the sinner, lash again."

Dr. Hecker also has preserved "the ancient song of the Flagellants," which has been rendered metrically into English, of which the following are extracts.

"Whoe'er to save his soul is fain,
Must pay and render back again;
Ye that repent your crimes, draw nigh.
From the burning hell we fly,
From Satan's wicked company.

corresponding to the presumed number of years which our Lord had spent upon earth, was fixed upon as the ordinary period of penance; and the effects which are related, and no doubt truly, to have resulted from it, are surprising indeed. It was not only that music and dancing and revelry of all kinds ceased to be heard or seen, and in their place crowds of devotees kneeled publicly in prayer in the streets, or made them resound with hymns and penitential chants. There were deeper and graver changes than these. Men,

who had long cherished a bitter hatred to one another, sought each other out, to sue for forgiveness and reconciliation; drunkards renounced their evil ways; robbers hastened to restore their plunder to the rightful owners; usurers gave up their unrighteous gains; suspected criminals stood foward and made public confession of their guilt; nay, the jail doors were thrown open, and the prisoners allowed to go free, in the certainty of their amendment of life. It is said that never since the days when the church was first set up, had there been such a renewal of man after the likeness in which he had originally been made. Nor does it appear that there was at this period any falling away from the high standard set up. The numbers of the Flagellants did indeed gradually fall off until the whole movement had died out; but apparently only because all who were liable to be influenced by its attractions had already undergone its influence.

Fifty years afterwards it broke out again. In 1296 there was a grand procession of Flagellants to Strasbourg, Spires and Frankfort; at which places they stirred up the people, always too ready to be so incited, to a persecution of the Hebrew population, great numbers of whom were in consequence massacred. At Frankfort one of the principal Jews, roused to fury by the merciless injustice of the mob, set on fire the Town Hall and the Cathedral, both of which were reduced to ashes. In revenge for this deed, not the incendiary only, but the whole of the Jewish residents in the city, with the exception of some few who had taken an early opportunity of escaping into Bohemia, were slaughtered. A similiar atrocity was committed at Mayence; where the Flagellants having stirred up the citizens by accusations against the Jews, some of the latter attempted to defend themselves, and slew about two hundred of their assailants. The whole population of the city, having learned this fact, attacked indiscriminately all the Jewish inhabitants, and murdered twelve thousand of them.

The above incidents show that a change had taken place in the character of the Flagellants-a change such as may always be looked for in the history of such movements. They had ceased to be the sincere and single-minded devotees, who had, in the first instance, in very truth desired nothing but to make atonement for sin and obtain forgiveness. Still more plainly was this seen, when the mischief again broke forth on the occasion of the Black Death-that frightful scourge, which visited Europe in 1348, and is said to have swept away as many as twenty-five millions of men. That was indeed a dreadful period. Its horrors were heightened by strange

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sounds and apparitions, some of which may have been real, though the greater part were no doubt the effect of imagination, and which remind us of the phenomena said to have preceded the destruction of Jerusalem. It is said that a pillar of fire appeared over the Pope's Palace at Avignon, and occupied the same position for fully an hourthat a fire-ball was seen in the skies hanging over Paris, where a multitude of persons beheld it. There were also, other, less doubtful visitations of Divine wrath. An earthquake of unexampled power visited Italy, Greece, and other surrounding countries. The great towns suffered severely, whole streets being laid in ruins, while country villages were swallowed up with the whole of their inhabitants. Deluges of rain overflowed the whole land, destroying the crops, and when the fearful malady itself broke forth, which the physicians were wholly unable to cure, and which the strongest constitution could not resist, it was no wonder that the old fanaticism broke out again with redoubled virulence. As before, the movement was no sooner set on foot than thousands crowded to join it. They marched through the cities in carefully ordered processions, the singers leading the way, and giving the time to the rest. Their heads were covered as far as the eyes; which were always fixed on the ground, every feature expressing the deepest contrition. They were clad in sad-coloured garments, the red cross being imprinted on their caps, breasts and backs, and they carried scourges, the lashes of which were loaded with iron. Lighted candles and gorgeous banners. embroidered with gold were carried before them. As again in the former instance, wherever they made their appearance, they received an enthusiastic welcome. The church bells were rung, the people went out in procession to meet them as they approached the cities, and banquets in their honour were laid out in the market places.

But extravagances and corruptions of the truth now began plainly to show themselves. The Flagellants introduced the discipline, which they had hitherto practised as a matter between Heaven and their own consciences only, into the public services of the church, insisting that all should undergo flagellation, because without it pardon for sin and restoration to Divine favour could not be obtained. It was now practised every day, and in the most public manner. Each morning the Flagellants issued from their monasteries, singing Psalms till they reached the appointed place. Here they stripped themselves to the waist, and bared their legs and feet, leaving only a loose linen covering round the loins. Then they laid themselves down in a circle, each observing a different attitude, according to the crime which weighed on his conscience, and for which he desired to make atonement. If the offence was perjury, the penitent lay on one side holding up three fingers, if adultery, he stretched himself prostrate, with his face to the ground, and so on with all other human sins, each of which had its proscribed position of the limbs and body. Then the master went his rounds, inflicting on each the regulation penalty. They were then ordered to rise and Scourge themselves-this part of the ceremony

being accompanied with the singing of hymns, and the offering up of prayers-that the plagues which would be the just penalty of their wickedness, might be averted. The wild enthusiasm of the devotees continued to grow with its indulgence, until they became persuaded that the blood which streamed from their wounds, became mingled with, and had the same efficacy as, the Blood which the Saviour had offered up upon the Cross. From this they proceeded to declare that by the institution of Flagellation the Sacrament of Baptism was annulled, or rather that the only true Baptism was that of the blood drawn forth by their scourges. At one of their assemblies a letter was read out, which, it was asserted, had been brought down from heaven to the Church of St. Peter at Jerusalem. In thi it was affirmed that our Lord, though deeply grieved at the sins of mankind, had nevertheless decreed, at the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, that all who should join the pilgrimage of the Flagellants for the proscribed period, should be received into Divine favour. Someone presuming to enquire who had sealed the letter thus transmitted, received the ready answer, that it was the same person who had sealed the Gospel. The madness extended itself further and further, until the Italian and German Churches were filled with the devotees; and the regular services, and the ministrations of the clergy were superseded by the intruders.

Nor was it to Italy, or Germany only, that the visits of the Flagellants extended. The zeal, by which they were consumed, would be satisfied by nothing less than bringing all Christendom under their influence. Among other countries our own was included. In the reign of Edward III., about the year 1351, a deputation, said to have amounted to one hundred and twenty men and women, landed on the English coast and proceeded to London, where they seem to have made some stay. Every morning at an appointed hour, the whole band issued forth marshalled in a double line, and moved in solemn procession through the streets, bare to the middle, lashing themselves with their whips, and chanting their sacred hymn. Suddenly, at a given signal, they all fell prostrate with the exception of the last in the procession. This latter then moved along the line of the prostrate bodies, and administered a blow to each as he passed by. When he had got to the end of the row, he himself lay down, and the one now left in the rear rose and went through the same process. They continued this manoeuvre, which in this respect resembled a boys' game at leap-frog, until all had inflicted and received castigation. The experiment does not seem in this instance to have been successful. Whether the colder blood of the English was not so easily roused as that of their brethren in Italy and Germany, or whether the furore was beginning every where to die out, is a question not easy to determine. But the effect was not what the

adventurers had anticipated. "The citizens," says the historian Lingard, "gazed and marvelled, pitied and commended, but they ventured no further. Their faith was too weak, or their feelings were too acute. They allowed the strangers to monopolize to themselves this novel and extraordinary grace. The missionaries made not a single proselyte, and were compelled to return home with the barren satisfaction of having done their duty in the face of an unbelieving generation."

The same decline of influence now showed itself in those countries, where they had hitherto commanded success. Their arrival in the cities ceased to call forth enthusiasm, or even respect. The bells were no longer rung. The citizens stood aloof. The disorders they occasioned were restrained and punished. To redeem their tottering cause, they unwisely attempted to work miracles. At Strasburg they attempted to restore a dead child to life, and their failure precipitated their fall. Grave charges, not only of teaching false doctrine, but of immorality of life, were alleged against them-the truth doubtless being that the sect, in consequence of its success, had been joined by persons who had no belief in its teaching, but sought to accomplish their own purposes through its influence. This is the evil to which all such irregular outbreaks are liable, and constitutes the main reason why sober-minded men, who may approve the object aimed at, are ever slow to participate in them.

The change in public opinion was presently taken advantage of by the authorities. The Emperor Charles IV. published severe edicts against them: Philip vi. of France forbade their entry into his dominions. Manfred, king of Sicily, threatened any with death who took part in their processions.

In Westphalia, and indeed throughout Germany, the Flagellants were now proscribed and hunted down. Finally, Clement vi. interdicted the continuance of their pilgrimages under penalty of excommunication, and even went so far as to proclaim a holy war against them-in the course of which some thousands of the unhappy wretches were massacred. Thus dealt with, the mania gradually died out. It broke out again in the year 1414 with still wilder extravagance, its professors now altogether rejecting the Christian Sacraments, together with every form of external worship, placing their whole hope of salvation in flagellation, and affirming that whosoever recited the paternoster and Ave Maria a certain number of times, accompanying these prayers with strokes of the scourge, would infallibly secure to themselves salvation; which could in no other way be obtained. They were now dealt with by the Inquisition, by which many of their leaders were burnt at the stake. These severities seem to have proved successful; for the frenzy, though it has occasionally broke forth in succeeding ages, never again attained any height.

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S the summer wore on, there came upon Carson that which had come but seldom within the memory of "the oldest inhabitant," a sickly season. The weather had been unusually hot; and with but little rain. The streams which watered the pastures and wheatfields beyond the town, were shrunken tiny rivulets before they reached the lake, and many of them never reached it at all. The springs which fed them had failed for the time, and so had some of the deep wells dug in early days, before the new water-works had been thought of. Even the waters of the lake had perceptibly receded, and had left a strip of cracked and green soil along its margin, just below the line of cottages in the east-end of the town.

In one of these cottages occurred the first case of fever to which Dr. Graham was called. A case of fever was not surprising in the circumstances. It was a case of bad drainage, or rather of no drainage at all. It was surprising that it had not occurred before, and since it had, it was a pity, the neighbours said, that Mike Daly himself, rather than his patient, hardworking wife, should not have been the victim.

In this house, for the first time in Canada, Dr. Graham saw real and painful poverty, and it took him by surprise. He had seen carelessness, unthrift, even waste, before, but not often. He was the more surprised because he knew that the poor woman tossing helplessly on her uncomfortable bed, was one whose services, as a worker by the day, were highly valued by many of the ladies of Carson.

There was nothing in the house beside the bed on which she lay but a few rickety chairs, a propped-up table, a broken stove, with a pot and pan or two, and a few earthenware dishes, and two ragged children-not thin or stunted from long want, but evidently very hungry for the time being, who appealed fretfully to an elder sister, or wrangled together for the crusts which she was dispensing to them.

All this went on in the outer room, but the feverish and exhausted mother seemed to hear or to imagine it all, for she mingled, with the description of her miserable aches and pains, broken apologies and excuses for the noise and confusion.

"We're out of meal and things and they're hungry, and no wonder, and me forced to lie here with my head running around. Himself is here to be sure, but he's not used with the children, and I've been but poorly this while back. And I hope, doctor, you'll just get me up again as fast as you can."

The doctor promised to do his best.

"There's six o' them, not counting Kathie, that I had to send for, and her doing so well at Mrs. Lacy's where I ought to be this day myself,

washing and scrubbing. Ochone, but the very thought of it all tires me out, so as I couldn't tell ye, doctor, dear. Eh! but ye're kind and handy," added she, trying to smile, as the doctor moved her gently on to the pillow, and comforted her in the various ways natural to one who has, besides the knowledge of the skilled physician, the kind heart, the tact and the training that go to make a perfect nurse.

"You may be sure I'll not lose a day in getting you up again. You are not to be easily spared among us, a busy woman like you. Don't fret about the children, Kathie must send them to the neighbours for the day, so that the house may be quiet. You'll feel another woman when you've had a sound sleep. I'll send you something to ease you, and don't fret more than you can help."

He did not send the medicine, he brought it himself, and in so doing, stumbled on the husband sitting, with a black pipe in his mouth, on a log at the door. The man looked downcast and miserable enough.

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Getting over one of his sprees," said the doctor to himself as he met his eye.

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How is she, doctor? It can't be the fever, surely? Where can she have fallen in with that, I wonder?"

"She has fever certainly," said the doctor gravely. "And the question is how she is to get rid of it. She will need great care, Daly."

"Doctor, dear! I'd lie down on the ground, and let her walk over me, with all the pleasure in life, if it would do her a morsel of good, you may well believe that, doctor."

"Yes, but it would do her no good. What she wants is good nursing and nourishment, and she must be kept quiet. Where are you working now, Daly?"

The man looked down, moving uneasily from one foot to the other.

"I've been doing day's work, as I could get it from one and another. It's a slack time, ye see. And now I doubt I'll need to bide at home to take care of herself, if it's the fever she's got. I'll not be leaving her, sir, when she needs

The doctor shook his head.

"No. Little Kathie's nursing will be best for the present. It will do your wife more good to know that you are steadily at work. It will be

a good while before she can do anything again. And she'll need many comforts, Daly-to say nothing of the children."

"I'd go to work pleased enough, God knows, if I had the chance. And any way the most o' them that need men have fallen out with me of late."

"I wonder why?" said the doctor.

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Well, sir, for no special reason, unless it may