orld tells us that patriotism soon passes
away. Where all is in public, public virtue, by the natural sympathies
of the common mind, and by the wholesome control of shame, is likely to
obtain ascendancy; where all is in private, and shame is but for him who
refuses the abnegation of his conscience, each man seeks the indulgence
of his private vice. And hence in Secret Societies (from which may
yet proceed great danger to all Europe) we find but foul and hateful
Eleusinia, affording pretexts to the ambition of the great, to the
license of the penniless, to the passions of the revengeful, to the
anarchy of the ignorant. In a word, the societies of these Italian
Carbonari did but engender schemes in which the abler chiefs disguised
new forms of despotism, and in which the revolutionary many looked
forward to the overthrow of all the institutions that stand between Law
and Chaos. Naturally, therefore," added L'Estrange, dryly, "when their
schemes were detected, and the conspiracy foiled, it was for the silly,
honest men entrapped into the league to suffer, the leaders turned
king's evidence, and the common mercenaries became--banditti." Harley
then proceeded to state that it was just when the soi-disant Riccabocca
had discovered the true nature and ulterior views of the conspirators
he had joined, and actually withdrawn from their councils, that he was
denounced by the kinsman who had duped him into the enterprise, and who
now profited by his treason. Harley next spoke of the packet despatched
by Riccabocca's dying wife, as it was supposed, to Mrs. Bertram; and of
the hopes he founded on the contents of that packet, if discovered. He
then referred to the design which had brought Peschiera to England,--a
design which that personage had avowed with such effrontery to his
companions at Vienna, that he had publicly laid wagers on his success.

"But these men can know nothing of England, of the safety of English
laws," said Leonard, naturally. "We take it for granted that Riccabocca,
if I am still so to call him, refuses his consent to the marriage
between his daughter and his foe. Where, then, the danger? This count,
even if Violante were not under your mother's roof, could not get an
opportunity to see her. He could not attack the house and carry her off
like a feudal baron in the middle ages."

"All this is very true," answered Harley. "Yet I have found through life
that we cannot estimate danger by external circumstances, bu