at he has applied every energy of his powerful mind to the
service of the exiled family of Stuart. The death of his brother, the
dilapidation of his own fortunes, have only added to his hereditary zeal
for the House of Stuart a deep and almost personal hatred against the
present reigning family. He is, in short, a political enthusiast of
the most dangerous character, and proceeds in his agency with as much
confidence, as if he felt himself the very Atlas who is alone capable of
supporting a sinking cause.'

'And where or how did you, my Lilias, educated, doubtless, under his
auspices, learn to have a different view of such subjects?'

'By a singular chance,' replied Lilias, 'in the nunnery where my uncle
placed me. Although the abbess was a person exactly after his own heart,
my education as a pensioner devolved much on an excellent old mother who
had adopted the tenets of the Jansenists, with perhaps a still further
tendency towards the reformed doctrines, than those of Port Royal. The
mysterious secrecy with which she inculcated these tenets, gave them
charms to my young mind, and I embraced them the rather that they were
in direct opposition to the doctrines of the abbess, whom I hated so
much for her severity, that I felt a childish delight in setting her
control at defiance, and contradicting in my secret soul all that I was
openly obliged to listen to with reverence. Freedom of religious opinion
brings on, I suppose, freedom of political creed; for I had no sooner
renounced the Pope's infallibility, than I began to question the
doctrine of hereditary and indefeasible right. In short, strange as it
may seem, I came out of a Parisian convent, not indeed an instructed
Whig and Protestant, but with as much inclination to be so as if I had
been bred up, like you, within the Presbyterian sound of Saint Giles's
chimes.'

'More so, perhaps,' replied Darsie; 'for the nearer the church--the
proverb is somewhat musty. But how did these liberal opinions of yours
agree with the very opposite prejudices of my uncle?'

'They would have agreed like fire and water,' answered Lilias, 'had I
suffered mine to become visible; but as that would have subjected me to
constant reproach and upbraiding, or worse, I took great care to keep my
own secret; so that occasional censures for coldness, and lack of zeal
for the good cause, were the worst I had to undergo; and these were bad
enough.'

'I applaud your caution,' said Darsie.

'Y