whose face a deep crimson blush first
spread, and then a pallor equally great succeeded--'did you say my
father?'

'Yes, sir. It was my fortune to be associated closely with his Royal
Highness at St. Germains and afterward in Auvergne.'

Overcome by his feeling of amazement at what he heard, and yet unable
to summon calmness to inquire further, Gerald sank into a chair, vainly
trying to collect his faculties. Meanwhile Caraffa continued--

'As an old man and a priest I may be forgiven for yielding slowly to
convictions, and for what almost would seem a reluctance to accept
as fact the evidence of your birth and station; but your presence,
sir--your features as you sit there, the image of your father--appeal
to something more subtle than my reason, and I feel that I am in the
presence of a Stuart. Let me, then, be the first to offer the homage
that is, or at least one day will be, your right'; and so saying, the
Cardinal took Gerald's hand and pressed it to his lips.

'Is this a dream?' muttered Gerald, half aloud--'is my brain wandering?'

'No, sir, you are awake; the past has been the dream--the long years of
sorrow and poverty--the trials and perils of your life of accident and
adventure--this has been the dream; but you are now awake to learn
that you are the true-born descendant of a Royal House--a Prince of the
Stuarts--the legitimate heir to a great throne!'

'I beseech you, sir,' cried Gerald, in a voice broken by emotion, while
the tears filled his eyes, 'I beseech you, sir, not to trifle with the
feelings of one whose heart has been so long the sport of fortune, that
any, even the slightest shock, may prove too powerful for his strength.'

'You are, sir, all that I have said. My age and the dress I wear may be
my guarantees that I do not speak idly nor rashly.'

A long-drawn sigh burst from the youth, and with it he fainted.

CHAPTER XIII. THE PERE MASSONI'S MISGIVINGS

It was late at night, and all quiet and still in the Eternal City, as
the Pere Massoni sat in his little study intent upon a large map which
occupied the whole table before him. Strange blotches of colour marked
in various places, patches of blue and deep red, with outlines the most
irregular appeared here and there, leaving very little of the surface
without some tint. It was a map of Ireland, on which the successive
confiscations were marked, and the various changes of proprietorship
indicated by different colours; a curious d