nise his
writing. One of the witnesses, too, is believed still to be living in
a remote part of Ireland; I have his name and can trace him; but even
better than this, the Cardinal York admits the fact, and owns that he
retains in his possession a last legacy of the Prince for the child born
of this marriage.

'Your Eminence smiles incredulously; but what will you say when I add
that the same child was inscribed in our College under the name of
Gerald Fitzgerald; was well known to my predecessor, the present Bishop
of Orvieto; quitted the College to acquire the protection of the
Prince, from which he most unaccountably strayed or was withdrawn, and
ultimately reached France.'

'Where he has, doubtless, been guillotined for his royal blood,' broke
in the Cardinal.

'No, your Eminence; he lives, and I have traced him. Nay, more, I have
found that he is one in every way adapted for such an enterprise as I
speak of; possessed of the most heroic courage, with a character fertile
in resources; all the winning graces of his father are united in him,
with a steadfast energy that few of the Stuarts could ever have laid
claim to. In a life of struggle and adversity--for he has never known
his rank, nor has the slightest suspicion of his birth--he has never
once descended to a single act that could impugn the highest station.
In a word, to declare him a Prince to-morrow needs not that we should
obliterate his past life or conceal its vicissitudes.'

'Be it so as you say. Is it such pretensions you would oppose to the
recognised and established monarchy of England? A youth of at least
highly questionable legitimacy, friendless and penniless; and this, too,
in an age when thrones propped up by all that can aid their prestige are
tottering to their fall!'

'We want him but as the banner to rally around; we need him as the
standard which will draw Scotland to the side of Ireland, and both for
one cause--the Church. A Prince of the House of Stuart is the emblem of
all that defies the heresy when the day of trouble comes. It is vital
that Ireland should not follow in the steps of France, and Christian
blood be shed to establish the reign of the infidel! If the pestilence
that now rages in France extend through Europe, as many wise heads
predict it will, the day will come that the last resting-place of our
faith will be that small island in the west. Think, then, how important
it is that we should give to the struggle that is approa