"For shame, it is wicked to rejoice over the fallen," said a woman in the crowd, and in the next moment the sound of a pistol was heard proclaiming that the horse had paid his penalty for the accident, and would never throw another rider! And now for a moment, before these pages close, let us contemplate the death-bed of the selfish and avaricious young lord, who in the three stages of ease, affluence, and luxury--and as boy, youth, and man,--had only laid up his "treasures on earth." But they could not assuage one torturing pain, or prolong his life for a second! Far more than bodily pangs, oh! harder to endure a thousand times, were the stings of conscience which now assailed him. In dark array rose all the scenes of suffering he might have relieved, and had not; he saw himself again the selfish child, the covetous youth, the grasping landlord, and the unrelenting man. The events of that same day were even yet more fresh in his memory. Had he but listened to his cousin's wants, instead of his own selfish plans, might he not have lived?--was it not one last opportunity of amendment offered by a merciful God, ere He swept him from the earth, and called him to give a strict account of his stewardship? And it was that cousin, who would now have all his wealth, to whom he had denied in the morning so small a portion. The anguish of the sufferer's mind was to be read upon his despairing countenance, and as his weeping mother, now, indeed, with pardon on her lips, bent over him, he murmured: "Lost, lost, there is no hope for me." "There is always hope for the truly penitent," replied Mrs. Sidney, through her tears--"hope in a Saviour--hope in our Maker's mercy." The dying man turned upon his pillow, for a few minutes he was silent, though it is believed he joined in the fervent prayers which arose from the lips of his mother and cousin; and let us hope, though tardy his repentance, it was accepted. It was evident he was sinking fast, and before sunrise he expired. Almost his last words were, "William, yes, William will atone with the money for the wrong I have done. Yet he does not seem so glad as I was when I became a lord!" It was all over, and William, the next heir, was indeed the lord of that wide domain, and of his cousin's accumulated riches; but _his_ first act was a fervent prayer for divine assistance. Knowing, as he did, that at no time is it more needed than, as our Litany beautifully expresses it, "in all time of our wealth." That he did make amends for his cousin's avarice by a wise as well as generous use of his wealth, my young readers will readily believe; and William, Lord Sereton, was as much beloved as his cousin had been disliked. And Mrs. Sidney, grieving as she did, notwithstanding his faults, for the loss of her only child, found no small consolation in the affection of that family, whom his death had raised from many cares to rank and affluence. THE TRIAL OF ADVERSITY.