ng his hand in a gentle manner upon his arm,
said, "Pray, my dear lord, let me entreat your lordship to remember the
precepts of our great Master: 'Love your enemies; bless them that curse
you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully
use you, and persecute you.' And surely, my lord, no one knows better
than you do that this is the spirit of our religion, and that whenever
it is violated the fault is not that of the creed, but the man."

"Under any circumstances," said the bishop, declining to reply to this,
and placing his open hand across his forehead, as if he felt confusion
or pain--"under any circumstances, this person must take the oath of
secrecy with respect to the existence of this cave. Call him up."

Reilly, as we have said, saw at once that an angry discussion had taken
place, and felt all but certain that he was himself involved in it. The
priest, in obedience to the wish expressed by the bishop, went down to
where he stood, and whispering to him, said:

"Salvation to me, but I had a hard battle for you. I fought, however,
like a trump. The strange, and--ahem--kind of man you are called upon to
meet now is one of our bishops--but don't you pretend to know that--he
has heard of your love for the _Cooleen Bawn_, and of her love for
you--be easy now--not a thing it will be but the meeting of two
thunderbolts between you--and he's afraid you'll be deluded by her
charms--turn apostate on our hands--and that the first thing you're
likely to do, when you get out of this subterranean palace of ours, will
be to betray its existence to the heretics. I have now put you on your
guard, so keep a sharp lookout; be mild as mother's milk. But if you 'my
lord' him, I'm dished as a traitor beyond redemption."

Now, if the simple-hearted priest had been tempted by the enemy himself
to place these two men in a position where a battle-royal between them
was most likely to ensue, he could not have taken a more successful
course for that object. Reilly, the firm, the high-minded, the
honorable, and, though last not least, the most indignant at any
imputation against his integrity, now accompanied the priest in a state
of indignation that was nearly a match for that of the bishop.

"This is Mr. Reilly, gentlemen; a firm and an honest Catholic, who, like
ourselves, is suffering for his religion."

"Mr. Reilly," said the bishop, "it is good to suffer for our religion."

"It is our duty," replied Reill