or to proceed there immediately. The thought at once struck the
general that should he succeed in getting Clara out of the convent, he
might go on to Cheltenham with her, and that if Mary was fit to be
removed from the school, it would give Clara occupation to nurse her
friend.

"I shall indeed be most grateful to you," said Mr Lennard, with the
tears in his eyes; "I was sorely perplexed what to do, and I specially
wish that Mary should not remain longer at the school than can be
helped, as from her letter it is evident that she is not only ill, but
very miserable there.

"You must give me your written authority, and I will act upon it," said
the general. This was done. "Now, my friend," he continued, "I wish to
speak to you on the remark made in your letter, in which you say that
you consider the Church of Rome the mother of all Churches, and that it
has the advantage of antiquity. You evidently go first on the
assumption that our Lord instituted a visible Church on earth, and that
that Church, though corrupted, is the Church of Rome. Now I wish to
draw your attention to the origin of that wonderful establishment which
has for so long exerted a baneful influence over a large portion of the
human race. For three centuries true Christians, though becoming less
and less pure in their doctrine and form of worship, existed in Rome as
a despised and subordinate class, the purity of their faith gradually
decreasing as their numbers, wealth, and influence increased. At length
the Emperor Constantine professed himself to be a Christian, which he
did for the sake of obtaining the assistance of the Christians against
his rival Licinius, who was supported by the idolaters. Constantine
being victorious, and Licinius slain, the idolaters saw that they could
no longer hope to be predominant. There existed in Rome from the days
of Numa a college, or curia, the members of which, called pontiffs, had
the entire management of all matters connected with religion. The post
of head pontiff, or Pontifex Maximus, had been assumed by Julius Caesar
and his successors. They had probably no real belief in the idolatrous
system they supported; such secret faith as they had was centred in
Astarte, the divinity of the ancient Babylonians, whose worship had been
introduced at an early period into Etruria, as it had been previously
into Egypt and Greece. They were, in reality, the priests of Astarte,
and from them we derive our festival