oined his friend with a cheerfulness of air and voice that an ascetic, or
a puritan, might have attributed to levity, after the scenes through which
he had so lately passed.

"The Virgin and San Francesco keep thee in mind, old friend!" said the
Signor Grimaldi, cordially kissing the two cheeks of the Baron de
Willading. "We both have reason to remember their care, though; heretic as
thou art, I doubt not thou hast already found some other mediators to
thank, that we now stand on this solid terrace of the Signor de Blonay,
instead of being worthless clay at the bottom of yonder treacherous lake."

"I thank God for this, as for all his mercies--for thy life, Gaetano, as
well as for mine own."

"Thou art right, thou art right, good Melchior: 'twas no affair for any
but Him who holds the universe in the hollow of his hand, in good faith,
for a minute later would have gathered both with our lathers. Still thou
wilt permit me, Catholic as I am, to remember the intercessors on whom I
called in the moment of extremity."

"This is a subject on which we have never agreed, and on which we probably
never shall," answered the Bernese, with somewhat of the reserve of one
conscious of a stronger dissidence than he wished to express, as they
turned and commenced their walk up and down the terrace, "though I believe
it is the only matter of difference that ever existed between us."

"Is it not extraordinary," returned the Genoese, "that men should consort
together in good and evil, bleed for each other, love each other, do all
acts of kindness to each other, as thou and I have done, Melchior, nay, be
in the last extremity, and feel more agony for the friend than for one's
self, and yet entertain such opinions of their respective creeds, as to
fancy the unbeliever in the devil's claws all this time, and to entertain
a latent distrust that the very soul which, in all other matters, is
deemed so noble and excellent, is to be everlastingly damned for the want
of certain opinions and formalities that we ourselves have been taught to
think essential?"

"To tell thee the truth," returned the Swiss, rubbing his forehead like a
man who wished to brighten up his ideas, as one would brighten old silver,
by friction; "this subject, as thou well knowest, is not my strong side.
Luther and Calvin, with other sages, discovered that it was weakness to
submit to dogmas, without close examination, merely because they were
venerable, and they winnowe