st plans of the Royalists. He was not a Rohan nor a
Courcelles--a Grammont nor a Tavanne--whose family influence was one
day or other to be dreaded. Let him win what fame he might, gain what
credit, attract what notice, he carried with him no train of followers
to profit by his success and bar up the avenues of promotion; for so
was it--strange and scarce credible though it seems--men were already
quarrelling over the spoils ere the victory was won; ere, indeed, the
battle was engaged, or the enemy encountered.

BOOK THE THIRD

CHAPTER I. A CARDINAL'S CHAMBER

We must ask of our reader to pass over both time and space, and
accompany us, as night is falling, to a small chamber in the house of
the Cardinal Caraffa at Rome, where his Eminence is now closeted in
secret converse with a tall, sickly, but still handsome man, in a long
robe of black serge, buttoned almost to his feet, and wearing on his
head a low square cap, of the same coarse material; he is the Pere
Massoni, superior of the College of Jesuits.

The Cardinal had but just returned from a conclave, and had not taken
time to change a dress, whose splendour formed a strong contrast with
the simple attire of his guest.

'It is, happily, the last council for the season,' said his Eminence, as
he seated himself in a deep easy-chair. 'His Holiness leaves for Gaeta
to-morrow, the Cardinal Secretary Piombino retires to Albano during the
hot weather, and I am free to confer with my esteemed friend the Pere
Massoni, and discuss deeper themes than the medallions in the nave of
San Giovanni di Laterano. There were to have been fourteen on either
side last Tuesday; on Friday, we came down to twelve; to-day, we deemed
eleven enough; in fact, Massoni, we are less speculative as to the
future, and have left but four spaces to be filled up; but enough of
this,--have your letters arrived?'

'Yes, your Eminence, the Priest Carroll from Ireland has brought me
several, and much information besides of events in England.'

'It is of France I want to hear,' broke in the Cardinal impatiently. 'It
is of the man in the throes of death I would learn tidings, not of him
lingering in the long stages of a chronic malady. Did this priest pass
through Paris?'

'He did, your Eminence; he was two days there. The fever of blood
still rages. 'Twas but Monday week, thirty-two nobles of La Vendee were
guillotined, and, worse still, eight priests, old and venerable men,
cures of