other reason, I assure you; he! he!'

'You should place another statue on the right.'

'Perhaps we shall,' said the man in black; 'but we know of no one amongst
the philologists of Italy, nor, indeed, of the other countries inhabited
by the faithful, worthy to sit parallel in effigy with our illustrissimo;
when, indeed, we have conquered these regions of the perfidious by
bringing the inhabitants thereof to the true faith, I have no doubt that
we shall be able to select one worthy to bear him company--one whose
statue shall be placed on the right hand of the library, in testimony of
our joy at his conversion; for, as you know, "There is more joy," etc.'

'Wood?' said I.

'I hope not,' said the man in black; 'no, if I be consulted as to the
material for the statue, I should strongly recommend bronze.'

And when the man in black had said this, he emptied his second tumbler of
its contents, and prepared himself another.

CHAPTER XCIV

Prerogative--Feeling of gratitude--A long history--Alliterative
style--Advantageous specimen--Jesuit benefice--Not sufficient--Queen
Stork's tragedy--Good sense--Grandeur and gentility--Ironmonger's
daughter--Clan Mac-Sycophant--Lickspittles--A curiosity--Newspaper
editors--Charles the Simple--High-flying ditty--Dissenters--Lower
classes--Priestley's house--Saxon ancestors--Austin--Renovating
glass--Money--Quite original.

'So you hope to bring these regions again beneath the banner of the Roman
See?' said I, after the man in black had prepared the beverage, and
tasted it.

'Hope!' said the man in black; 'how can we fail? Is not the Church of
these regions going to lose its prerogative?'

'Its prerogative?'

'Yes; those who should be the guardians of the religion of England are
about to grant Papists emancipation, and to remove the disabilities from
Dissenters, which will allow the Holy Father to play his own game in
England.'

On my inquiring how the Holy Father intended to play his game, the man in
black gave me to understand that he intended for the present to cover the
land with temples, in which the religion of Protestants would be
continually scoffed at and reviled.

On my observing that such behaviour would savour strongly of ingratitude,
the man in black gave me to understand that if I entertained the idea
that the See of Rome was ever influenced in its actions by any feeling of
gratitude I was much mistaken, assuring me that if the See of Rome in any
encount