pression runs?"

"Is it possible!" exclaimed the general; "but I ought not to be
surprised when I saw the characters they admitted into their house. I
thought that French abbe and Father Lascelles had some other object in
view than the establishment of a colony; but perhaps you have been
misinformed."

"I tell you, general, I haven't a doubt about the matter," answered Mr
Sims. "They and Mrs Lerew attended the Romish church together, and I
am told had been baptised with all ceremony a few days before. I know
that two or three priests have been staying at the Hall ever since, and
Mrs Lerew goes there regularly. They are about to have a chapel built
in their grounds, and an architect came down from London about it; and
in the meantime they have got a room fitted up in the house. What
surprises me is that the vicar should allow his wife to turn; but that
she has done so seems probable, for she was not at church last Sunday.
Should Lerew object to his wife's perversion, he has only himself to
thank for it; he has led her up to the door as carefully as a man could
do, and cannot be surprised at her going inside. Of course she thinks
it safer to join what she has been taught to look upon as the true
church, and has therefore honestly gone over to it; while whatever he
may think, putting honesty and honour aside, he considers that it is
more to his advantage to retain his living, and lead others in the way
he has led his wife."

"I suspect that you are right," observed the general; "too many have set
him the example. He, like them, has been trained in the school of the
Jesuits, who are fully persuaded that evil may be done that good may
come of it, and banish from their minds the principles which guide
honest men, and which they themselves would advocate in the ordinary
affairs of life. I can only wish that, unless Mr Lerew's mind is
enlightened, he would go over himself; as I am afraid, while he remains
in the Church of England, he may lead others in the same direction."

"Not much fear of that," observed the lieutenant; "except a few silly
young people of the better classes, and the poor, who look out for the
loaves and fishes in the shape of coals and blankets and other creature
comforts, I don't think many are influenced by him. He is more likely
to empty his church, and to fill the Dissenting chapels."

"Still," said the general, "he sows broadcast the germs of Romanism
through the doctrines he preaches, whi