and made the topic for every idler's comment. My only plan since then, in dignity as in policy, has been to approve and patronize your open conversion to Catholicity during the hateful months of my stay in England. It is for me no effort to say, 'My native land good night.' My nature is too akin to her gloomy clouds and chilly temperament. Give me my contrast, in the sunny skies and light-hearted peasantry of the continent."

Geraldine was in too much excitement of happiness to analyse her father's sentiment; it was enough for her that he treated her with love and confidence, and with wrapt interest she listened to his subsequent history, especially to the fact, that during many years the subterranean chapel in the abbey ruin had been the sacred spot where General Carrington had met his spiritual father, and attended the duties of his holy faith.

It was early in October when our travellers entered Italy, on the eve of the festival of the Rosary, and there were sights and sounds of joy, as they journeyed onwards, to make the heart feel as if born anew. The rustic altars and the garlands, the votive offerings, the evening litanies, gave a foretaste of the feast which lay before them, when, on the ninth morning of their journey, the postilion stopped on the noted spot on the level of the Campagna, and the General, making his daughter stand on the seat of the open carriage, exclaimed, with the exulting Italian, "Roma!"

"Ah!" cried Geraldine, "do I really behold Rome! Rome from whence seems to arise the mystic chain of communion with the heavenly Jerusalem, and towards which, even from my childhood, my heart has so strongly yearned! Surely it is in mercy to the weakness of his creature that God permits me such earthly happiness!"

"You are in the land of enthusiasm," said her father, smiling, "and therefore may give vent to your feelings without dread of sneer or sarcasm;" but Geraldine could exclaim no more; her heart was too full of emotion as she continued to gaze on the "Eternal City," round which, in homage nature sinks subdued.

On the morning succeeding this, to her, memorable day of her entrance into Rome, Geraldine visited the principal object of interest within its consecrated walls, and the joy of her heart continued unabated. Her father was her sole guide and companion, and his fervour, if not equal to her own, was at least sufficient to encourage the free expression of her sentiments. Again and again did they visit St. Peter's; and no Jewish maiden, within the temple raised by the favoured king to the Jehovah of her nation, could feel more the majesty of the divine presence, than did our Christian heroine, when kneeling before the altar whereon was the consummation of the typical rites, offered to the same triune Deity, in the temple of the Christian world. She traced the humble rise of the Jewish church, flying from their enemies, wandering in the desert, and fixing their temporary altar where they could best hope for security,-to the prosperous time, when, all things being ripe, God commanded that a temple should be built unto him, and his "glory filled the house :" she then recalled the similar progress of the Christian visible church, passing through the red sea of persecution, and desert of famine, fixing their altar where they could best hope for security, at length could erect to Him this thrice sacred edifice for the covenant of the new law: saying with Solomon, "Is it then to be thought that God should indeed dwell upon earth? For if the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much

less this house which I have built? But have regard to thy servant, and to his supplications, oh Lord, my God hear the hymn and prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day, that thy eyes may be open upon this house night and day, upon the house of which thou hast said, My name shall be there. And when a man shall know the wound of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands in this house, then hear thou in heaven, in the place of thy dwelling, and forgive!"

After having given all the time, and thought, and feeling, he considered due to St. Peter's, General Carrington, accompanied by a learned Italian friend, took our heroine at once from Christian Rome to the ruins of her predecessor, that chronological and historical order might be preserved in her sight-seeing. Geraldine felt some regret at postponing her visits to the other basilicas, especially those of St. John Lateran and Santa Croce, but she had no avowed wish opposed to that of her father: accordingly, the following month was devoted to the fulfilling the plan laid down, and, at its close, Geraldine had visited every spot of classical interest in ancient Rome, and this under every advantage which could enhance her enjoyment. Like every Protestant female of education, she had, from her childhood, been made familiar with the poetical fictions, as well as the historical facts, of Roman antiquity, and could understand, if she could not always sympathize in, the classical enthusiasm of her friends. Still she had not found in the antiquarian or mythological details of temples, tombs, palaces, triumphal arches, baths, and aqueducts, sufficient food for the present state of her mind; and the retrospective, and more general view which succeeded the individual sight-seeing, was more in accordance with it. She would now gaze from the tower of the Capitol,

or from the terrace of the Palatine Hill, over the ruined trophies of the Queen of the Seven Hills: tracing her history from the pastoral to the iron and then golden ages of her splendour, and through those degenerate years which might be termed the ages of brass and clay, to the terrific scourges which at length laid low the mistress of the world. In silent awe and admiration she beheld fulfilled the prophecy of the hallowed seer of Patmos, and as she traced the immense extent of the ruins, could not but join in the predicted lament: "Alas! alas! that great city, which was clothed with fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and was gilt with gold and precious stones, and pearls, for in one hour are so great riches come to nought!" The centre-the personification-the essence, as it were, of Paganism, who had said in her proud heart, "I sit a queen, I am no widow, and sorrow I shall not see,' now lay humbled in the dust; and Geraldine, touched by the remembrance of her genius and her glory, would forget that" she had drunk of the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus," till the distant dome of the Christian temple meeting her view, would bid her join the song of triumph, saying, “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath judged your judgments on her, Alleluia !"

Amongst the majestic ruins stood one which was fraught with constant interest to the Christian; and Geraldine, no longer occupied by its details, would unweariedly sit on the moss grown corridors of the Coliseum and gaze on the vast area beneath. The sainted forms of the early martyrs were grouped before her, in venerable age and maiden youth, around were the countless multitudes, their subdued, but heartless tones of expected entertainment, mingling with the low growl of the beasts of prey in the

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dens below. Then arose the increased stir of excitement, as the guards withdrew from the victims, and the keepers threw open the doors of the den, when the wild yells of the beasts were overpowered by the deafening shouts of the populace. So wrapt would Geraldine frequently become in these vivid retrospective visions, that it was difficult to rouse her attention to the present soothing and lovely scene presented in that vast area; yet gladly did she now look on the cross which marks the consecrated ground, and watch the succession of devout Christians kneel and fervently kiss the symbol of their faith, and hope, and love;-once the scorn, and now the standard of the Eternal City.

One evening, one bright Italian evening, when Geraldine had revisited this favourite spot with her father, they, for the first time, encountered one of the many parties of their English acquaintance, from whom they had hitherto escaped recognition. Protestants, English Protestants in Rome, were exactly the beings most formidable to the General's morbid sense of ridicule, and his tactics had hitherto preserved him from the encounter. The meeting, however, was now on neutral ground, and nothing seemed likely to prevent each party from being as correctly pagan as could be desired. Colonel Leonard, fellow-officer with General, when Major, Carrington, in the early and glorious conflicts in the Peninsula, had, since the peace of Europe, become a successful author on subjects connected with his past career, and at the time of this meeting in the Coliseum, was the guide, tutor, and playmate of his two fine boys, just emancipated from Eton, filled with classical learning and enthusiasm, and with levity on every Christian theme. Their elder sister, and a valiant old lady, their grandmother, formed the family party. After the introduction, and some