singular operation. The angel Gabriel, then, the faithful friend of the Bridegroom, having entered, we may represent him to ourselves as thus addressing the Virgin Mary: “Hail! highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.”1 But she being disturbed, made no reply. Her disturbance was not from guilty confusion, nor from the angelic apparition, for with such sights she is supposed to have been familiar, but according to the words of the Evangelist, “she was troubled at his saying,”