a borne
away on the wild blast. The sound of the bells through the city was not
heard: all except St. Peter's were dissipated and lost. The great bell
of the mighty dome, however, rose proudly above the crash of elements,
and struck three, and as the Pere counted the strokes, he sighed
drearily. For the last hour the lightning had been less and less
frequent; and instead of that wide-spreading scene of open Campagna,
dotted with villages, and traversed by roads, suddenly flashing upon him
with a clearness more marked than at noonday, all was now wrapped in an
impenetrable darkness, only broken at rare intervals, and by weak and
uncertain gleams.

Why does he peer so earnestly through the gloom, why in every lull of
the gale, does he bend his ear to listen, and why, in the lightning
flashes, are his eyes ever turned to the winding road that leads to
Viterbo? For him, surely, no ties of kindred, no affections of the heart
are the motives which hold him thus spell-bound: nor wife nor child are
his, for whose coming he watches thus eagerly. What can it be, then,
that has awakened this feverish anxiety within him, that with every
swell of the storm he starts and listens with more intense eagerness?

'He will not come to-night,' muttered he at length to himself; he will
not come to-night, and to-morrow it will be too late. On Wednesday they
leave this for Gaeta, and ere they return it may be weeks, ay, months.
So is it ever: we strive, and plot, and plan; and yet it is a mere
question of seconds whether the mine explode at the right instant. The
delay is inexplicable,' said he, after a pause. 'They left Sienna on
Sunday last; and, even granting that they must travel slowly, they
should have been here yesterday morning. What misfortune is this? I left
the Cardinal last night, at length--and after how much labour--persuaded
and convinced. He agreed to all and every thing. Had the youth arrived
to-night, therefore, his Eminence must have pledged himself to the
enterprise; indeed he rarely changes his mind under two days!' He paused
for a while, and then in a voice of deeper emotion, said: 'If we needed
to be taught how small is all our wisdom--how poor, and weak, and
powerless we are--we can read the lesson in the fact that minutes decide
destinies, while whole lives of watching cannot control the smallest
event!' A brilliant flash of lightning at this instant illuminated the
entire plain, showing every object in the wide expan