the Altieri for the last two years is still unpaid;
the servants at Albano have not received their wages, and the royal
plate is at this moment pledged in the hands of the Jew Alcaico.'

The Pere was silent. The sole effect these stunning tidings had on him
was to speculate to what end and with what object the Cardinal said all
this. It was not the language he had used a short hour ago with Kelly.
Whence, therefore, this change of tone? Why did he now disparage the
prospects he had then upheld so highly? These were questions not easily
solved in a moment, and Massoni pondered them deeply. The Cardinal
had begun with hinting doubts of the youth's identity, and then he had
scoffed at the prospect of his inheritance. Was it that by these he
meant to discourage the scheme of which he should have been the head, or
was it that some deeper and more subtle plan occupied his mind? And if
so, what could it be?

'I see how I have grieved and disappointed you, Pere Massoni,' said
his Eminence, 'and I regret it. Life is little else than a tale of such
reverses.'

The Jesuit's dark eyes glanced forth a gleam of intense intelligence.
It was the light of a sudden thought that flashed across his brain. He
remembered that when the Cardinal moralised he meant a treachery, and
now he stood on his guard.

'I had many things to tell your Eminence of Ireland,' he began in a
calm, subdued voice. 'The priest Carrol has just come from thence, and
can speak of events as he has witnessed them. The hatred to England
and English rule increases every day, and the great peril is that this
animosity may burst forth without guidance or direction. The utmost
efforts of the leaders are required to hold the people back.'

'They never can wish for a fitter moment. England has her hands full,
and can scarcely spare a man to repress rebellion in Ireland.'

'The Irish have not any organisation among them. Remember, your
Eminence, that they have been held like a people in slavery: the gentry
discredited, the priests insulted. The first efforts of such a race
cannot have the force of union or combination. They must needs be
desultory and partisan, and if they cannot obtain aid from others, they
will speedily be repressed.'

'What sort of aid?'

'Arms and money; they have neither. Of men there is no want. Men of
military knowledge and skill will also be required; but more even than
these, they need the force that foreign sympathy would impart to their