preceptor in the French
and Italian tongues. 'Exul sacerdos; vone banished priest. I came into
England twenty-five year ago, "my dear."'

CHAPTER XV

Monsieur Dante--Condemned musket--Sporting--Sweet rivulet--The Earl's
Home--The pool--The sonorous voice--What dost thou read?--Man of
peace--Zohar and Mishna--Money-changers.

So I studied French and Italian under the tuition of the banished priest,
to whose house I went regularly every evening to receive instruction. I
made considerable progress in the acquisition of the two languages. I
found the French by far the most difficult, chiefly on account of the
accent, which my master himself possessed in no great purity, being a
Norman by birth. The Italian was my favourite.

'Vous serez un jour un grand philologue, mon cher,' said the old man, on
our arriving at the conclusion of Dante's Hell.

'I hope I shall be something better,' said I, 'before I die, or I shall
have lived to little purpose.'

'That's true, my dear! philologist--one small poor dog. What would you
wish to be?'

'Many things sooner than that; for example, I would rather be like him
who wrote this book.'

'Quoi, Monsieur Dante? He was a vagabond, my dear, forced to fly from
his country. No, my dear, if you would be like one poet, be like
Monsieur Boileau; he is the poet.'

'I don't think so.'

'How, not think so? He wrote very respectable verses; lived and died
much respected by everybody. T'other, one bad dog, forced to fly from
his country--died with not enough to pay his undertaker.'

'Were you not forced to flee from your country?'

'That very true; but there is much difference between me and this Dante.
He fled from country because he had one bad tongue which he shook at his
betters. I fly because benefice gone, and head going; not on account of
the badness of my tongue.'

'Well,' said I, 'you can return now; the Bourbons are restored.'

'I find myself very well here; not bad country. Il est vrai que la
France sera toujours la France; but all are dead there who knew me. I
find myself very well here. Preach in popish chapel, teach schismatic,
that is Protestant, child tongues and literature. I find myself very
well; and why? Because I know how to govern my tongue; never call people
hard names. Ma foi, il y a beaucoup de difference entre moi et ce sacre
de Dante.'

Under this old man, who was well versed in the southern languages,
besides studying French and I