The Knights Templars.

and night fell upon a still unwon field . The loss of the Templars was severe . Seventeen hundred men , along with the Grand Prior were slain . A truce was made for three days , at the end of which Burian and his men were driven into the

castle , which they defended with great gallantry . The King at length sent to Burian to surrender the castle , threatening him with the severest punishment should he resist . Thereupon the castle was given up , and Uratislaf , returning to

Moravia , became Preceptor of Eichhorn , in which . thirty Templars took up their abode under him . ( To be . continued . )

Woman And Masonry.

WOMAN AND MASONRY .

It is with reverence akin to awe that I approach this subject , knowing that , for ages , there has hung between the sex that I represent and the subject of which I would speak , a veil of deep impenetrable mystery—a mystery that is as sacredly

guarded to-day as it was thousands of years ago , when the mantle of silence shrouded the germ of the mystic brotherhood , and will be for ages to come , so long as two hands are left on earth to meet in the clasp of fraternal love . Though this

veil must hang before us through all time 1 — shrouding from our unworthy eyes the " Holy of Holies "—though no woman ' s foot may ever tread the sacred aisles—no woman ' s eye gaze on the glories of the inner shrine—yet we are not entirely

shut out . The glory of the Shekinah shines afar —even on the brow of womanhood . Though admitted to the outer courts—to the vestibule of the

temple , whose foundation is charity — whose pillars are wisdom , strength , and beauty , and whose summit is the approaching smile of God himself , it is meet that one should tell what Masonry has done for woman . And she who

proudly boasts the title of a " Mason ' s Daughter " now asks the privilege to be that one . It were folly to attempt to tell you what Masonry is . You , who hold all its mysteries in your hand—its secrets in your heart—and with your

eye can trace through all its labyrinth of ways and means . Masonry—that is as incomprehensible to us as the vital principle of life—but , like life , is known to us b y results . " By their fruits ye shall know them , " and it is the fruits of

Masonry that woman eats , while the labour and toil are spared her . She basks safely in the sunshine of its blessings , guarded and watched over by a

Woman And Masonry.

band more faithful than lover , brother , or husband . There is a strange fascination to us , who naturally love the wonderful , the brave , the strongin . the thought of this vast league , so innumerable

in number , so united in purpose , so silent in existence , so unconquerable in action . Like the religion of Jesus , on which the principles of Masonry are founded , it has marched with steady footsteps down the long vista of years , and has made every

obstacle a stepping-stone to its present glory . Christianity went alone ancl insulted from the hill of Calvary to the tomb of Joseph , and now waves her sceptre over the world when the tomb of the Cassars has mouldered back into dust . Masonry , her more earthly sister , with hushed breath and noiseless footstep , walked scatheless through fires

of oppression and storms of prejudice and falsehood , and now divides with her the sceptre of the world . The church has many false brethren—in Masonry this is impossible . The one , being the

nursery of the spiritual , necessarily more intangible in its creeds , and often receives within its folds the vilest impostors , whose only merit is their power to deceive . The other , though founded upon divine laws , is a human institution , and deals

with human attributes—things that can be seen and heard and known by men—that can be grasped by the great over-ruling power , and so held up before the guilty one , that , though on the awful stillness of that dread tribunal there falls no

whisper of reproach , his life condemns him to his very face , and he yields unansweringly to the just decree .

Show me a tie on earth more binding than the boon of Masonry . There is none . The Christian may forget his sacramental vows , and turn his back upon the Saviour who has died for him ; the husband may turn from the wife of his

bosom , whom he has sworn before high heaven to cherish , even to the portal of the grave ; the father may forget his child , whose blue eyes once held all heaven for him ; the brother may neglect the tender sister that shared the cradle of his infancy ,

the mother ' s " good-night '' kiss , and the gambo around the father's knee ; a son may even coldly look upon the mother that bore him ; but the vow sworn at this altar can never be revoked ! Time or distance cannot annul it ; and the wretch who would seek to violate it would be branded with a sign more indelible than that of Cain . No land