CHAPTER XII. "Oh ! qu'il arrive d'étranges choses dans les voyages; et qu'il serait bien plus sage de rester chez soi !" VOLTAIRE LADY EDITH felt a daily increasing anxiety respecting Allan's long silence, preceded as it had been by a tone of depression in his letters, a hopelessness even in the consolations of religion itself, so utterly desponding, that she felt it painfully unaccountable. Anything her kind heart could have borne, inured as she was to suffering, that concerned only herself, but there was a nervous agitation which excited her deepest sympathy in the manner of Beatrice which showed how now, deeply she felt the long suspense, as week after week passed heavily on and no letter from Sir Allan appeared. "The heart of a young man," thought Lady Edith, anxiously, "is a strange enigma, and though I believed that Allan would be a model of constancy in his attachments, yet who ever is constant to his first love?-how soon he learns to consider it a mere boyish freak, perhaps to be laughed at and forgotten! There are many girls abroad so artful and alluring that I must not wonder if Allan has been fickle, and the love Beatrice felt for him was always that of a sister; therefore, much as she feels this change in Allan, I see that her sorrow is but such as my own, a sorrow that saddens the heart, but does not break it." A character so energetic as Lady Edith's was not likely to sit with folded hands and downcast eyes, wondering what would happen next, but she at length enclosed a letter to Lady Stratharden, now become one of her intimate friends, at Rome, requesting her to see Sir Allan personally, and to ascertain, if possible, the cause of his long silence, as well as of his evidently increasing melancholy. The answer she received filled Lady Edith with surprise and perplexity, by informing her that it had become quite out of the question for any one to see Sir Allan, as he was in very broken health, and exclusively attended by his mother, and by Mr. and Miss Ambrose, his uncle and aunt, who devoted themselves without ceasing to his society. Lady Stratharden added, that her own endeavours to see Sir Allan being so persevering, Lady McAlpine had favoured her, the day after her departure from Rome, with a few lines, which she now enclosed, as being most characteristic of her mind, frivolous, superficial, and ignorant to extreme, with a perfect conviction that she was fully competent to master every subject of science, politics, or religion, after having read one or two articles in one or two magazines on the subject. The letter was a strange farrago, which Lady Edith read over several times with wonder and regret, added to much uneasiness. It was as follows: "DEAR LADY STRATHARDEN,-During my son's precarious state of health and spirits, produced by successive family bereavements, his uncle has deemed it best to suppress all visits, such as yours, or letters such as Lady Edith's, that might awaken old remembrances and painful associations. Till the hour of his majority, it is the intention of my brother and myself, being his guardians, to keep Allan at Rome, where, in conformity with his father's injunction, that my brother and I shall forfeit the guardianship unless he be educated a Protestant, Mr. Ambrose has secured him a strictly Protestant tutor, recommended by our excellent and most liberally-minded friend, Cardinal Albertini, to whom Lord Eaglescairn kindly introduced me. Our good Cardinal is the best of men, and so clever! Allan does not yet confide in his new tutor so entirely as I could wish, thus rendering it essential that my brother should break off all those old influences which might prevent our gaining an increased influence over the scarcely yet formed opinions of Sir Allan. It will give you pleasure to hear that I have lately opened Cardinal Albertini's eyes to some of the worst errors in Romanism, for he encourages me quite freely to argue every point with him. It is astonishing how very open to conviction I find our good worthy Cardinal, but he says I have a singular genius for logic! I have very nearly brought him round on the subject of confession, though, truth to say, he has more to advance in its favour than you can have any conception of. I shall spare no trouble to convert him, and he has promised to read Mrs. Trollope's Jesuit carefully over, on condition that I study, with my son, some very candid and safe books he is to send me. Allan does not like our disputations, but I make a point of his being present, that the Cardinal may have this opportunity to say many things very impressive to a young intellect. If I see the slightest tendency to Romanizing either in my own mind or Allan's, depend on my at once extinguishing it. I perfectly understand my ground, and our excellent Cardinal says he has met with no other Protestant who never goes beyond her depth, and who has so clearly discriminated between where liberality is cherished, or bigotry is to be avoided. A list is kept at the College here of those English persons who are thought likely to apostatize; and an officious friend informed me lately that my name and Sir Allan's have been recently added. Fancy how absurd! The Cardinal laughed heartily when I told him, and said he would erase them himself, as there could not be a greater mistake. Allan yesterday repeated these lines in reference to our good Cardinal, on whom he is inclined sometimes to be satirical. 'He could pick pins up, yet possess the vigour "I met the Pope yesterday, dressed as usual in an entire suit of white, taking a constitutional walk surrounded by officers in full uniform. His carriage, which followed, was drawn by six white horses. As Allan remarked, it was an imposing sight; imposing in every sense, for it was a beautifully got up little theatrical procession to enchant the common people. Cardinal Albertini's whole idea of religion consists in processions, and the Pope is so entirely governed by Cardinal Lambruschini and by Cardinal Antonelli, that as Allan says, 'these cardinals kiss the Pope's foot, but they tie his hands.' "His Holiness is only infallible under the direction of the Jesuit cardinals, so completely is he subordinate to their authority. During service in the churches here, no one seems at all impressed except the new converts, who make themselves very absurd about the images and processions; I am told even the Pope himself is astonished to |