most anxious to see
him.'

'Shall I send for the Colonel, my lord?' said Baroni, shaking Tancred's
Arabian cloak.

'Well, I think I should let him return naturally,' said Tancred;
'sending for him is a scene; and I do not know why, Baroni, but I
feel--I feel unstrung. I am surprised that there are no letters from
England; and yet I am rather glad too, for a letter----'

'Received some months after its date,' said Baroni, 'is like the visit
of a spectre. I shudder at the sight of it.'

'Heigho!' said Tancred, stretching his arm, and half-speaking to
himself, 'I wish the battle of Gindarics had never ceased, but that,
like some hero of enchantment, I had gone on for ever fighting.'

'Ah! there is nothing like action,' said Baroni, unscrewing his pistols.

'But what action is there in this world?' said Tancred. 'The most
energetic men in Europe are mere busybodies. Empires are now governed
like parishes, and a great statesman is only a select vestryman. And
they are right: unless we bring man nearer to heaven, unless government
become again divine, the insignificance of the human scheme must
paralyse all effort.'

'Hem!' said Baroni, kneeling down and opening Tancred's rifle-case. The
subject was getting a little too deep for him. 'I perceive,' he said
to himself, 'that my lord is very restless. There is something at the
bottom of his mind which, perhaps, he does not quite comprehend himself;
but it will come out.' Tancred passed the day alone in reading, or
walking about his room with an agitated and moody step. Often when his
eye rested on the page, his mind wandered from the subject, and he was
frequently lost in profound and protracted reverie. The evening drew
on; he retired early to his room, and gave orders that he was not to be
disturbed. At a later hour, Colonel Brace returned, having succeeded in
his principal enterprise, and having also sung the national anthem.
He was greatly surprised to hear that Lord Montacute had returned; but
Baroni succeeded in postponing the interview until the morrow. An hour
after the Colonel, the Rev. Mr. Bernard returned from Bethlehem. He was
in great tribulation, as he had been pursued by some of the vagabonds of
that ruffianly district; a shot had even been fired after him; but this
was only to frighten him. The fact is, the leader of the band was his
principal catechumen, who was extremely desirous of appropriating a very
splendid copy of the Holy Writings, richly bound,