rt of that
Minister--the strongest friend and ally of the Hanoverian cause. The
Jesuit father had seen and read this remarkable paper, and deemed it
a conception of the finest and most adroit diplomacy. It had even
stimulated his own ardour to rival it in acuteness; to impose Gerald
upon the Presbyterian party, as one covertly cherishing views similar
to their own; to make them, a minority as they were, imagine that the
future destinies of the country were in their keeping; to urge them on,
in fact, to the van of the battle, that so they might stand between two
fires, was his great conception, the only difficulty to which was how to
prepare the young Chevalier for the part he was to play, and reconcile
him to its duplicity!

To this end he addressed himself zealously and vigorously, feeding
Gerald's mind with ideas of the grandeur of his house, the princely
inheritance that they had possessed, and their high rank in Europe. All
that could contribute to stimulate the youth's ardour, and gratify
his pride of birth, was studiously provided. Day by day he advanced
stealthily upon the road, gradually enhancing Gerald's own standard to
himself, and giving him, by a sort of fictitious occupation, an amount
of importance in his own eyes. Massoni maintained a wide correspondence
throughout Europe; there was not a petty court where he had not some
trusted agent. To impart to this correspondence a peculiar tone and
colouring was easy enough. At a signal from him the hint was sure to
be adopted; and now as letters poured in from Spain, and Portugal, and
Naples, and Vienna, they all bore upon the one theme, and seemed filled
with but one thought--that of the young Stuart and his fortunes. All
these were duly forwarded by Massoni to Gerald by special couriers, who
arrived with a haste and speed that seemed to imply the last importance.
With an ingenuity all his own, the Pere invested this correspondence
with all the characteristics of a vast political machinery, and by
calling upon Gerald's personal intervention, he elevated the young man
to imagine himself the centre of a great enterprise.

Well aided and seconded as he was by Guglia Ridolfi, to whom also this
labour was a delightful occupation, the day was often too short for the
amount of business before them; and instead of the long rides in the
pine forest, or strolling rambles through the garden, a brisk gallop
before dinner, taken with all the zest of a holiday, was often the