uld that it were so!' exclaimed Massoni eagerly.

'What do you mean by that?'

'Would that he were one who could boldly assert his own proud cause,
and vindicate his own high claims; would that he had come through the
terrible years of his suffering life with a spirit hardened by trials,
and a courage matured by exercise; would, above all, that he had not
come from the conflict broken in health, shattered and down-stricken!
Ay, sir, this youth of bold pretensions, of winning manners, and
persuasive gifts is a poor fellow so stunned by calamity as to be
helpless!'

'Is he dying?' cried the Cardinal with intense anxiety.

'It were as well to die as live what he now is!' said the Pere solemnly.

'Have the doctors seen him?--has Fabrichette been with him?'

'No, sir. It is no case for their assistance, my own poor skill can
teach me so much. His is the malady of the wounded spirit and the
injured mind.'

'Is his reason affected?' asked Caraffa quickly.

'I trust not; but it is a case where time and care can be the only
physicians.'

'And so, therefore, falls to the ground the grand edifice you have so
long been rearing. The great foundation itself is rotten.'

'He may recover, sir,' said Massoni slowly.

'To what end, I ask you, to what end?'

'At least to claim a princely heritage,' said Massoni boldly.

'Who says so?--of what heritage do you speak? You are surely too wise to
put faith in the idle stories men repeat of this or that legacy left by
the late Prince.'

'I know enough, sir, to be sure that I speak on good authority; and I
repeat that when this youth can prove his descent, he is the rightful
heir to a royal fortune. It may be, that he will have higher and nobler
ambitions: he may feel that a great cause is ever worthy a great effort;
that the son of a prince cannot accept life on the same humble terms as
other men. In short, sir, it may chance that the dream of a poor Jesuit
father should become a grand reality.'

'If all be but as real as the heritage, Massoni,' said the Cardinal
scoffingly, 'you called it by its true name, when you said "dream."'

'Have you, then, not heard of this legacy?'

'Heard of it! Yes: all Rome heard of it; and, for that matter, his Royal
Highness may have left him St. James's and the royal forest of Windsor.'

'Your Eminence, then, doubts that there was anything to bequeath?'

'There is no need to canvass what I _doubt_. I 'll tell you what I
_know_. The rent of