erly. 'It is not to a home of
crime and infamy--to such pollution as this--I would bring him. Nor need
this any longer be endured. The slavery is now unrecompensed. I can earn
nothing. It is four months since I last sent him a few pauls.'

'Come, come, do not give way thus; to-morrow may be the turn to better
fortune. Ask of the Virgin to aid us--pray fervently to those who see
our need, and hope--ay, hope, Mrs. Mary, for hope is faith.'

'My heart grows too cold for hope,' said she with a faint shudder; and
then, with a low 'good-night,' she lighted the little lamp that stood
beside her, and ascended the narrow stairs to her room, while the Fra
proceeded to gather up the papers that lay scattered about: having
accomplished this task, he listened for a while, to ascertain that all
was quiet without, and then, drawing his cowl over his head, set out for
his humble home--a small convent behind the Quirinal.

CHAPTER II. THE LEVEE

For many a year after the failure of the Jacobite expedition--long after
all apprehension from that quarter had ceased to disturb the mind of
England--the adherents of Charles Edward abroad continued to plot,
and scheme, and plan, carrying on intrigues with nearly every court of
Europe, and maintaining secret intercourse with all the disaffected
at home. It would, at first sight, seem strange that partisans should
maintain a cause which its chief had virtually abandoned as hopeless;
but a little consideration will show us that the sympathy felt by
foreign Governments for the Stuarts was less based on attachment to
their house, than a devotion to the religious principles of which they
were the assertors. To Catholicise England was the great object at
heart--to crush that heresy, whose right of private judgment was
as dangerous to despotism as to bigotry--this was a cause far too
portentous and important to be forsaken for any casual check or
momentary discouragement. Hence, for years after the hopes of the
'Pretender's' friends had died out in Scotland, his foreign followers
traversed the Continent on secret missions in every direction, exerting
at times no slight influence even in the cabinets which England believed
to be best affected toward her.

There was, it is true, nothing in the state of Europe generally, nor of
England itself, to revive the hopes of that party. Of the adherents to
the Stuart cause, the staunchest and the best had paid the penalty
of their devotion: some were e