essed
himself to examine the condition and study the symptoms of the youth.
The case was not of much bodily ailment, at least save in the exhaustion
which previous illness had left. There was nothing like malady, but
there were signs of a mischief far deeper, more subtle, and less
curable than mere physical ills. The look of vacancy--the half-meaning
smile--the dull languor, not alone in feature but in the way he lay--all
presented matter for grave and weighty fears. The very presence of these
signs, unaccompanied by ailment, gave a gloomier aspect to the case,
and led the Pere to reflect whether such traits had any connection
with descent. The strong resemblance which the young man bore to the
Stuarts--and there were few families where the distinctive traits were
more marked--induced Massoni to consider the question with reference to
_them_. They are indeed a race whose wayward impulses and rash resolves
took oftentimes but little guidance of reason; but these were mere signs
of eccentricity and not insanity. But might not the one be precursor
to the other; might not the frail judgment, which sufficed for the
every-day cares of life, utterly give way in seasons of greater trial?
Thus reasoning and communing with himself he sat till the hour struck
which apprised him of his audience with the Cardinal.

It was not yet the season when Rome was filled by its higher classes,
and Massoni could repair to the palace of the Cardinal without any of
the secrecy observable at other periods. Still he deemed it more in
accordance with the humility he affected to seek admission by a small
garden gate, which opened on the Pincian hill. The little portal
admitted him into a garden such as only Italy possesses. The gardens of
England are unrivalled for their peculiar excellence, for the exquisite
flavour of their fruit, and in their perfection of order and neatness
they stand unequalled in the world; the trim quaintness of the Dutch
taste has also its special beauty, and nowhere can be seen such gorgeous
colouring in flower-pots, such splendour of tulip and ranunculus: but
there is in Italy a rich blending of culture and wildness--a mingled
splendour and simplicity, just as in the great halls of the marble
palace on the Neva, where the haughtiest noble in his diamond pelisse,
stands side by side with the simple Boyard in his furs: so in the *
golden land,' the cactus and the mimosa, the orange and the pear-tree,
the cedar of Lebanon and