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

preliminary talk, the conversation was kept up with ease and spirit between the two elder gentlemen, and the youngest boy, who seemed under but small restraint. While our heroine listened for a time with interest to the dedication of that vast theatre by Titus to his gods, in the slaughter of five thousand wild beasts, and the combats of the gladiators, she thought with admiration also, of the mock naval fight, when numerous gallies rode with ease in the artificial waters of the area; but in vain did she hope, that when the feats of the mariners, the gladiators, and the wild beasts, had been duly commemorated, the blood of Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, and other venerated Christians, might be remembered; the party moved forward only to bestow lamentations on the broken marble seats, the overthrown steps and vomitories,-when, as they descended into the area, the cross, from its conspicuous size and position, attracted their attention, and a chill struck on Geraldine's heart on seeing her father return the smile and shrug of Colonel Leonard, as they together looked on the sacred symbol.

"The French, during their occupation of Rome, took the liberty to knock down that huge black cross," said Colonel Leonard, "but the pious souls, here, have stuck it up again, in defiance of all taste, and have also brought back those horrible pictures of the pilgrimage of the crucifixion, which are enough to scare away all but papists."

"Look!" cried Charles Leonard, the youngest boy, "if you will watch those people kneeling, you will see them kiss that old black cross, to gain two hundred day's pardon for all their sins."

"Come, General," said Colonel Leonard, "now is our time, let us kiss and be cleansed!"

The General laughed, and the party advanced to the centre of the area.

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Why does not my father take this opportunity to say, that the kissing that cross can release him from the guilt of no sin whatever?" thought our heroine, as she passed with the rest to the spot hallowed by the martyr's blood, and by the privilege granted by the Church. An aged Capuchin friar had just given place to a young peasant girl, who knelt and kissed, with earnest simple devotion, the holy emblem; and the instant she arose, Geraldine, who had lingered behind the rest of the party, knelt also at the foot of the cross, and devoutly pressed to it her lips.

"Two hundred days' indulgence for Miss Carrington," cried the young Charles, who alone had observed her. The rest turned, and greeted her with mirth as a practical lover of a joke, while the peasant girl fixed her eyes earnestly on Geraldine, and then, reassured by the expression of her countenance, smiled, and pursued her pilgrimage round the area, where were fixed, at intervals, the stations of the Passion.

"I declare I should never have thought you had so much fun in you, Miss Carrington," cried Charles Leonard.

"But," said his sister, laughing, "do you know that these Protestant pranks will not do in Rome, Charles? we must all be on our good behaviour."

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"Ah!" cried the General, entering seemingly into the jest, while he cast an awful glance at his daughter, "so, I find, that I am not to trust you from my sight, Geraldine. Here, take my arm."

"Miss Carrington," said Colonel Leonard, “is only following the proverb of doing at Rome as do the Romans."

"Colonel Leonard," said Geraldine, in a firm voice, regardless of the pressure on her arm, "I am a Catholic, and may therefore well do at Rome as do the Romans.”

6

6

The silence which ensued was first broken by General Carrington, in a voice unchanged to all, save one practised ear: "Why, if it be impossible not to feel an increase of patriotism on the plains of Marathon,' and of piety at Iona,' who can expect to catch no inspiration within the walls of St. Peter's? We are all Catholics, I suspect, if the truth were told, while under that dome. And what think you," continued he, turning still more confidentially round to Colonel Leonard, "will be the enthusiasm of this pretty little daughter of mine, during the ceremonies which are approaching?"

Colonel Leonard, much puzzled, gave another shrug, said something about beauty in tears of devotion, and of the tendency of the female mind to the poetry of religion; while the General devoutly wished his friend, with his party, as far from himself and Rome, as might be consistent with charity, and the welfare of the Leonard family.

"What think you, Colonel," said he, "of wintering at Naples, and returning here for the Easter ceremonies, according to the usual mode with the English in Italy ?"

Geraldine heard not the plans for Colonel Leonard's winter and spring quarters, for her heart fluttered as it had learned to do in England, and many sad though indistinct presages filled her mind. They had now reached the Forum, having intended merely to pass through its grass-grown solitude. But this was not to be: for, on this wholly Pagan spot, all breathed more freely, and amidst the broken capitals and fallen pillars of the ancient senate, the hitherto-silent Henry Leonard was moved to eloquence, and his auditors to sympathy and applause. Geraldine, seated on stones which once had echoed to the harangues, the acclamations, the popular tumults of the ancient republic, gazed and listened with interest to the young and impassioned

orator, as he recalled the days when Scipio there had trod-Cicero there had accused the guilty Cataline and there too had Cæsar fallen, while Brutus had there remembered that he was only a Roman. The senate which had dictated laws to the world which its arms had conquered, had now passed, like its crumbling walls, for ever. Hushed were the

voices of her orators, stilled the throbbing hearts of her patriots, and tears stood in the eyes of the young enthusiast, as with extended arms he invoked the manes of the mighty dead, bidding them bring back the greatness, the freedom, the stern virtue and patriotism of their own, their only Rome; for she alone had been the queen of cities, the empress of the world!

As the speaker paused, Geraldine thought of that highly gifted scholar and orator, who, like Henry Leonard, had been so fascinated by the studies of the schools, and the charms of rhetoric, as to despise the style of the Scriptures, being unable from the false glare of his former studies to relish their humility, or enter into their spirit, till truth having prevailed, and all the powers of that mighty mind and glowing heart won over to its cause, the great convert had burst forth in a strain surpassing all that heathen voice could utter, or heathen thought conceive.* She thought too of the vision of St. Jerome, wherein having replied at the judgment-seat, that he was a Christian, "Thou liest," said the judge, "Thou art a Ciceronian, for the works of that author fill thy heart." But Geraldine's thoughts were recalled from the early ages of the Christian Church, when, aroused by the young orator's appeal, there suddenly appeared from behind the three remaining columns of Jupiter Stator, not the great father of the mythological world, nor any of his in

*Te Deum Laudamus.