he
had fought against the Pope for the Republic of 1848, and by the
other fact that he had since wrought the Pope a yet deadlier injury by
turning Protestant.

Ringing a garrulous bell that continued to jingle some time after we
were admitted, we found ourselves in a sort of reception-room, of the
general quality of a cellar, and in the presence of a portress who was
perceptibly preserved from mold only by the great pot of coals that
stood in the centre of the place. Some young girls, rather pretty than
not, attended the ancient woman, and kindly acted as the ear-trumpet
through which our wishes were conveyed to her mind. The Conservatorio
was not, so far, as conventual as we had imagined it; but as the
gentleman of the party was strongly guarded by female friends, and
asked at once to see the Superior, he concluded that there was,
perhaps, something so unusually reassuring to the recluses in his
appearance and manner that they had not thought it necessary to behave
very rigidly. It later occurred to this gentleman that the promptness
with which the pretty mendicants procured him an interview with the
Superior had a flavor of self-interest in; and that he who came to the
Conservatorio in the place of a father might have been for a moment
ignorantly viewed as a yet dearer and tenderer possibility. From
whatever danger there was in this error the Superior soon appeared to
rescue him, and we were invited into a more ceremonious apartment on
the first floor, and the little Virginia was sent for. The visit
of the strangers caused a tumult and interest in the quiet old
Conservatorio of which it is hard to conceive now, and the excitement
grew tremendous when it appeared that, the signori were Americani and
Protestanti. We imparted a savor of novelty and importance to Virginia
herself, and when she appeared, the Superior and her assistant looked
at her with no small curiosity and awe, of which the little maiden
instantly became conscious, and began to take advantage. Accompanying
us over the building and through the grounds, she cut her small
friends wherever she met them, and was not more than respectful to the
assistant.

It was from an instinct of hospitality that we were shown the
Conservatorio, and instructed in regard to all its purposes. We saw
the neat dormitories with their battalions of little white beds; the
kitchen with its gigantic coppers for boiling broth, and the refectory
with the smell of the frugal dinner