are a stranger in England, Mr. Mallock, I think."

I told him I had not been in the country for seven years.

"You will find a great many changes," he said; "and I think we are on
the eve of some more. Certainly His Majesty has wonderfully established
his position; and yet, if you understand me, there is a great and
growing disaffection. It is the Catholic Faith that they fear; and I
cannot help thinking that some victims may be required again presently,
though I do not know what they can allege against us. There is a deal of
feeling, too, against the Queen; she has borne no children--that is
true; but the main part of it arises from her religion: and so with the
Duke of York also. Certainly we are in the fashion in one way: but those
who are on the top of the wave must always look to come down suddenly."

Here again, Father Whitbread did not tell me anything that I did not
know; yet he put matters together as I had not heard them put before;
and he seemed to me altogether a shrewd kind of man whose judgment I
might very well rely upon; and as we went up the Strand he spoke again
of the Queen.

"His Majesty hath been urged again and again to divorce her; but he will
not. He said to the Duke himself in my hearing one day that an innocent
woman should never suffer through him--which is good hearing. But Her
Majesty is not very happy, I am afraid."

When we came to the Maypole, which I had already seen, in the midst of
the Strand, he spoke to me of how it had been carried there and set up
with great rejoicing, after the Restoration. It was a great structure,
hung about by a crown and a vane; and he said that it stood as a kind of
symbol against Puritanism.

"There are many," he told me, "who would pull it down to-morrow if they
could, as if it were some kind of idol."

He saw me as far as the door of my lodgings; but he would not come in.
He said that he had no great desire to be known more widely than be was
at present known.

"But if you have time to come in to-morrow morning about ten o'clock to
Mr. Fenwick's lodgings in Drury Lane--over the baker's shop--I shall be
there, and Mr. Ireland also--all Fathers of our Society; and I will very
gladly make you known to them. My own lodgings are in Weld Street--at
the Ambassador's."

I thanked him for his kindness, and said I would be there; and so I bade
him good-night.

* * * * *

Although I had learned very few things that day whic