friend, and I had
formerly been useful to him, in assisting him to carry out his great
and liberal ideas for the welfare of humanity. As a return, I prayed the
Holy Father to give me a consecrated hostie for the unhappy Queen Mary
Stuart, and the permission to carry it to her in her prison. The Holy
Father was incredulous of my sad presentiments, as Mary Stuart herself
had been, but he granted me the request. I quitted Rome, and travelled
with relays day and night. Reaching Boulogne, a Dover packet-boat had
just raised anchor; I succeeded in boarding her, and arrived in London
the next evening. The day following, the execution of the queen took
place at Fotheringay. I was with her in her last hours, and from my hand
she received the consecrated water of Pope Sixtus V. I had kept my oath.
I accompanied her to the scaffold, and her head rolled at my feet, as I
had seen it in my vision at Edinburgh. It was the 18th of April, 1587,
and it seems to me as but yesterday. To the intuitive, seeing
spirit, time and space disappear; eternity and immortality are to it
omnipresent."

Given up to his souvenirs and visions, the Italian appeared not to know
where he wandered, and turned unintentionally to the retired, lonely
places in the park. His companion heeded not the way either, occupied
with the strange account of the Italian. A dreadful feeling of awe and
horror took possession of his soul, and, with devoted respect, he hung
upon the words which fell from the lips of his companion.

"It was in the year 1587," said he, as the Italian ceased; "almost two
hundred years since, and you were present?"

The Italian replied: "I was present. I have witnessed so many dreadful
scenes, and been present at so many executions, that this sad spectacle
was not an unusual one to me, and would not have remained fixed in my
memory had I not loved, devotedly and fervently, the beautiful Queen
Mary Stuart. For those who live in eternity, all horrors have ceased;
time rushes past in centuries, which seem to them but a day."

"Teach me so to live, master; I thirst for knowledge," cried his
companion, fervently.

"I know it, my son; I penetrate thy soul, and I know that thou
thirstest. Therefore I am here to quench thy thirst, and feed thy hungry
heart." He remained standing upon the grass-plot, which he had reached
by lonely paths, and which was encircled by trees and bushes. Not a
sound interrupted the peaceful morning stillness of the place,