peatedly into the courtyard, and by a loud uproar
without convey the notion of a press of visitors.'

'Has he asked after Barra or myself?' said the chieftain, after a pause.

'Yes; he said twice, "We must have our old followers up here--to-morrow
or the next day." But his mind is scarcely settled, for he talked of
Florence and the duchess, and then went off about the insult of that
arrest in France, which preys upon him incessantly.'

'And why should it not, Kelly? Was there ever such baseness as that of
Louis? Take my word for it, there's a heavy day of reckoning to come to
that house yet for this iniquity. It's a sore trouble to me to think it
will not be in my time, but it is not far off.'

'Everything is possible now,' said Kelly. 'Heaven knows what's in store
for any of us! Men are talking in a way I never heard before. Boyer
told me, two days ago, that the garrison of Paris was to be doubled, and
Vincennes placed in a perfect state of defence.'

A bitter laugh from the old chieftain showed how he relished these
symptoms of terror.

'It will be no laughing matter when it comes,' said Kelly gravely.

'But who _have_ called here? Tell me their names,' said O'Sullivan
sternly.

'Not one, not one--stay, I am wrong. The cripple who sells the
water-melons at the corner of the Babuino, he has been here; and
Giacchino, the strolling actor, comes every morning and says, "Give my
duty to his Royal Highness."'

A muttered curse broke from O'Sullivan, and Kelly went on: 'It was on
Wednesday last he wished to have a mass in the chapel here, and I went
to the Quirinal to say so. They should, of course, have sent a cardinal;
but who came?--the Vicar of Santa Maria maggiore. I shut the door in his
face, and told him that the highest of his masters might have been proud
to come in his stead.'

'They are tired of us all, Kelly,' sighed the chieftain. 'I have walked
every day of the eight long years I have passed here in the Vatican
gardens, and it was only yesterday a guard stopped me to ask if I were
noble?--ay, by Heaven, if I were noble! I gulped down my passion and
answered, "I am a gentleman in the service of his Royal Highness of
England"; and he said, "That may well be, and yet give you no right to
enter here." The old Cardinal Balfi was passing, so I just said to his
Eminence, "Give me your arm, for you are my junior by three good years."
Ay, and he did it too, and I passed in; but I'll go there no more! no
more