Court, declines to ask the lawyers for
farther help.[29] There is an end of that job and its fee. Nevertheless,
his 'blatant brother' shall soon see if law is as inadequate, and
advocacy as impotent, as he fancies. Providence is this time in their
favour. Pompilia was consigned to the 'Convertite' (converted ones). She
was therefore a sinner. Guido has been judged guilty: but there was no
word as to the innocence of his wife. The sisterhood claims, therefore,
the property which accrued to her through her parents' death, and which
she has left in trust for her son. Who but himself--the Fisc--shall
support the claim, and show the foul-mouthed friar that his dove was a
raven after all." (He too can drive left and right horses on occasion.)

This he actually did. But once more the Pope intervened: and Mr.
Browning proceeds to give the literal substance of the "Instrument" of
justification as it lies before him. In this, Pompilia's "perfect fame"
is restored, and her representative, Domenico Tighetti, secured against
all molestations of her heir and his ward, which the Most Venerable
Convent, etc. etc., may commit or threaten.

What became of that child, Gaetano, as he was called after the new-made
saint? Did he live a true scion of the paternal stock, whose heraldic
symbols Mr. Browning has described by Count Guido's mouth?--

"Or did he love his mother, the base-born,
And fight i' the ranks, unnoticed by the world?" (vol. x. p. 277.)

This question Mr. Browning asks himself, but is unable to answer. He
concludes his book by telling us its intended lesson, and explaining why
he has chosen to present it in this artistic form. The lesson is that
which we have already learned from his Pope's thoughts:--

"... our human speech is naught,
Our human testimony false, our fame
And human estimation words and wind." (vol. x. p. 277.)

Art, with its indirect processes, can alone raise up a living image of
that truth which words distort in the stating.

And, lastly, he dedicates the completed work to the "Lyric Love," whose
blessing on its performance he has invoked in a memorable passage at the
close of his introductory chapter.

TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE GREEK, WITH "ARTEMIS PROLOGIZES."

Another group of works detaches itself from any possible scheme of
classification: These are Mr. Browning's transcripts from the Greek.

The "Alkestis" of Euripides, imbedded in the dramatic ro