appear to have required all the nails which could possibly be employed in a crucifixion, it is not unusual in southern Europe to meet with fragments of old iron, for which the same sacred origin is claimed. Thus, for instance, at Catania, in Sicily, I have seen one of these nails, which is believed to possess miraculous powers, and exhibited only once a year with great solemnity. There is another in a private oratory of the Escurial; and I was surprised in observing in the same case a relic of St. Thomas à Becket. All the nails, from the time of Constantine, are rejected as spurious by Cardinal Baronius ;* yet a former pope had expressed his belief in their authenticity ;† and the ingenious idea of miraculous vegetation might have been easily applied to them. But to trace the other parts of this real or fabulous history, and more especially their insertion in the iron crown of Lombardy, would require, though scarcely deserve, a separate essay.

Annal. Eccles. A.D. 326. No. 54.

+ See a letter from Innocent VI. ap. Raynald. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1354. No. 18.

THE LUTE.

BY L. E. L.

OH! sing again that mournful song,
That song of other times!
The music bears my soul along,
To other, dearer climes.

I love its low and broken tone;
The music seems to me

Like the wild wind when singing lone
Over a twilight sea.

It may not sound so sweet to you,

Το

you it cannot bring

The valleys where your

childhood grew,

The memories of your spring.

My father's house, my infancy,
Rise present to my mind,
As if I had not crossed the sea,
Or left my youth behind.

I heard it, at the evening's close,
Upon my native shore ;

It was a favourite song with those
Whom I shall see no more.

How many worldly thoughts and cares

Have melted at the strain!

'Tis fraught with early hopes and prayers-
Oh, sing that song again!