110 THE MOTHS OF THE BANNERS. 



wonders of renovation are produced ? The wizard is named 

 Wealth. The giant power has appeared as a Slave of the 

 Ring, and has been evoked by a ceremony at the desecrated 



altar. The noble inheritor of the late Lord A 's poverty 



has intermarried with the ignoble heiress of a Lancashire 

 cotton-spinner; and this is why the old chapel is putting on 

 its new garment. 



It is evening. The chapel-restorers, whose work is well- 

 nigh accomplished, have all departed for the night, and the 

 moon is looking through the great eastern window on the 

 scene of restoration, on the renovated tombs, the reblazoned 

 hatchments, the repolished carvings, the renewed hangings, 

 and, proudly conspicuous over all, on a new banner, which had 

 been raised that morning to replace an old one, of which time, 

 damp, and moths had only left a tattered remnant. 



On the fragments of the ancient banner two Moths yet 

 lingered, the only two which had not been put to flight 

 by the noise and stir of renovation. " Sister," cried one of 

 them who had just descended on the old banner from a short 

 exploratory flight towards the new ; " why art thou thus wil- 

 fully determined on keeping to our ruined habitation ? 'Tis a 

 hard necessity, I acknowledge, to desert this wasted fabric in 

 which our honourable ancestors were born and died ; but it no 

 longer affords us maintenance becoming our exalted rank, and, 

 for the good of my descendants, I have resolved to establish 

 myself up yonder, where our consequence will be properly kept 

 up." " Consequence ! maintenance ! " cried the other ; " let 

 my family perish rather than subsist on the vulgar mongrel 

 texture of that painted gew-gaw ! Deserting this fabric of un- 

 mingled silk, pure even to its last attenuated thread, shall we 

 stoop to provide support for our future progeny on a new- 

 fangled tissue, basely intermingled with cotton yarn? I marvel 

 at thy degenerate vanity : ennobled by my presence, these 

 ruins, however far decayed, retain their pristine grandeur ; and 

 so long as one particle remains upon another, here do I abide. ' ; 



