s occasionally call her 'puta.' A pope has been known to start from
his bed at midnight and rush out into the corridor, and call out 'puta'
three times in a voice which pierced the Vatican; that pope was . . . "

"Alexander the Sixth, I dare say," said I; "the greatest monster that
ever existed, though the worthiest head which the popish system ever
had--so his conscience was not always still. I thought it had been
seared with a brand of iron."

"I did not allude to him, but to a much more modern pope," said the man
in black; "it is true he brought the word, which is Spanish, from Spain,
his native country, to Rome. He was very fond of calling the church by
that name, and other popes have taken it up. She will allow you to call
her by it if you belong to her."

"I shall call her so," said I, "without belonging to her, or asking her
permission."

"She will allow you to treat her as such if you belong to her," said the
man in black. "There is a chapel in Rome, where there is a wondrously
fair statue--the son of a cardinal--I mean his nephew--once . . . Well,
she did not cut off his head, but slightly boxed his cheek and bade him
go."

"I have read all about that in 'Keysler's Travels,'" said I; "do you tell
her that I would not touch her with a pair of tongs, unless to seize her
nose."

"She is fond of lucre," said the man in black; "but does not grudge a
faithful priest a little private perquisite," and he took out a very
handsome gold repeater.

"Are you not afraid," said I, "to flash that watch before the eyes of a
poor tinker in a dingle?"

"Not before the eyes of one like you," said the man in black.

"It is getting late," said I; "I care not for perquisites."

"So you will not join us?" said the man in black.

"You have had my answer," said I.

"If I belong to Rome," said the man in black, "why should not you?"

"I may be a poor tinker," said I; "but I may never have undergone what
you have. You remember, perhaps, the fable of the fox who had lost his
tail?"

The man in black winced, but almost immediately recovering himself, he
said, "Well, we can do without you, we are sure of winning."

"It is not the part of wise people," said I, "to make sure of the battle
before it is fought: there's the landlord of the public-house, who made
sure that his cocks would win, yet the cocks lost the main, and the
landlord is little better than a bankrupt."

"People very different from the landlord," said