sea, that they may devour thy heritage no more!"

"Amen, and Amen!" responded the sweet voice of Sir Christopher. "So
may all the enemies of the church perish! But O, holy father, sad is
it to see so much heroism in men, so much resigned fortitude in
delicate women, such wonderful courage, such patience wasted, in
promoting error."

"_Quam diu Domine!_" exclaimed the father. "The days of man are but as
a shadow and a tale that is told. He cometh out of darkness, and
returneth thither again. But thy years, O Lord, are everlasting, and
thy counsels like the great deep. O, stamp this truth on our hearts,
and it shall cure our impatience. How long Divine Wisdom shall permit
the raging waves of this pestilential heresy of the arch-deceiver, the
licentious Luther, to beat against His church, threatening as with the
jaws of hell to devour her, it is not for man to know; but we do know
that they cannot prevail, for she is founded on a rock, and bought
with a great ransom, and the Word of God is pledged to her triumph.
But it becomes every true son of Holy Church to have his loins girded,
and to let no weakness of the flesh or fainting of the spirit
interfere, to delay that hoped-for time when this miserable delusion
shall disappear. Verily, heavy is the task imposed on feeble
shoulders; but in the strength of One who can supply strength, will we
prevail."

"Has any information," inquired Sir Christopher, "been received
respecting the new colony to be planted under Lord Baltimore, in
Maryland, or promise of assistance from our friends at home?"

"The English Catholics," answered Father Le Vieux, "are lukewarm. The
air of their foggy isle is tainted. Not much do I expect from this
Cecil, Lord Baltimore. He is, forsooth, a philosopher--a man who
stands half the time upon his head--for he is one of them who are
puffed up with conceit of worldly knowledge, and who, in contradiction
of Holy Scripture, assert, with Galileo Galilei, that this world is a
ball which daily turns round. His company has not arrived, and never
may arrive. Not on the timorous and doubting English Catholics, but on
my own brave countrymen and the faithful Spaniards, must we rely for
the accomplishment of the heaven-inspired thought of our great
founder, the immortal Loyola."

"Expect you," inquired Sir Christopher, "to convert these English
colonies into dependencies of France or Spain?"

"To you and to me, and every true Catholic, it is of little
con