me.'

'It is, then, a good appointment,' said Gerald, taking the pen. 'But
what is this? The Cardinal York has already signed this.'

In Caraffa's eagerness to play out his game he had forgotten this fact,
and that the Irish bishops had always been submitted to the approval of
his Royal Highness.

'I say, sir,' reiterated Gerald, 'here is the signature of my uncle.
What means this, or who really is it that makes these appointments?'

The Cardinal began with a sort of mumbled apology about a divided
authority and an ecclesiastical function; but Gerald stopped him
abruptly--

'If we are to play this farce out, let our parts be assigned us; and let
none assume that which is not his own. Take my word for it, Cardinal,
that if the day comes when the English will carry me to the scaffold,
at Smithfield or Tyburn, or wherever it be, you will not find any one so
ready to be my substitute. There, sir, take your papers, and henceforth
let there be no more mockeries of office. I will myself speak of this to
my uncle.'

The Cardinal bowed submissively and moved toward the door.

'You will receive these gentlemen to-morrow?' said he interrogatively.

'To-morrow,' said Gerald, as he turned away.

The Cardinal bowed deeply, and retired. Scarcely, however, had his
footsteps died out of hearing, when Gerald rang for his valet, and
said--

'When these visitors retire for the night, follow the Signor Purcell to
his room, and desire him to come here to me; do it secretly, and so that
none may remark you.'

The valet bowed, and Gerald was once more alone.

It was near midnight when the door again opened, and Mr. Purcell was
introduced. Making a low and deep obeisance, but without any other
demonstration of deference for Gerald's rank, he stood patiently
awaiting to be addressed.

'We have met before, sir,' said Gerald, flushing deeply.

'So I perceive, sir,' was the quiet reply given with all the ease of one
not easily abashed, 'and the last time was at a pleasant supper-table,
of which we are the only survivors.'

'Indeed!' sighed Gerald sadly, and with some astonishment.

'Yes, sir; the "Mountain" devoured the Girondists, and the reaction
devoured the "Mountain." If the present people have not sent the
_reactionnaires_ to the guillotine, it is because they prefer to make
soldiers of them.'

'And how did you escape the perils of the time?' asked Gerald eagerly.

'Like Monsieur de Talleyrand sir, I always treated the