their secret, was enough to overwhelm them with despair. An implacable aristocrat himself, he had been forced by the extravagance of his predecessor, who had transmitted to him an almost revenueless title, to make a mésalliance. He had married the heiress of a financier, and for two-and-twenty years he had been making her dearly expiate the honour of bearing his name. Naturally of a delicate constitution, his savage violence had completed the ruin of her health, and she had for several years been wholly confined to her chamber, and often to her bed. But most provokingly she would not die; and, indeed, since Estelle came to live with her, she appeared to have made some progress towards a recovery that had been pronounced at least improbable. Deserted by her husband, her daughter at school in Paris, and her son necessarily much from home, her loneliness had augmented her disease, but in Estelle she found a companion and a friend to cheer her solitude and chase sad memories from her pillow; and, moved by affection and a just appreciation of the young girl's character, she ardently wished to see her the wife of Armand. She had been forced to marry the Count for his title, and he her for her money; she had seen and felt what a marriage of interest was, and she longed to secure a union of affection for the son she adored.

Such had been the position of affairs for a considerable period, when one morning at an early hour Souvestre presented himself at the Château de Fayolle requesting to see his daughter. The purport of his visit was to make inquiries about Alice. "Was she with her sister? had Estelle seen her?" when Estelle answered, "No; why do you ask?" the father sank into a chair, and, placing his hands before his face, burst into tears. "I see it all," he said; "she's away with that scoundrel, Victor Rivel." At first Estelle could not believe it; Victor, who had declared himself irrevocably attached to herself! Besides, he was hundreds of miles off with his regiment; but when Souvestre had told his story, she saw too much reason to believe his apprehensions well founded.

"For the last three weeks," said he, "I have had a vague suspicion that she was concealing something from me, and she has often staid out a much longer time than I could account for, without being able to explain what she had been about when I questioned her. Still, as I never saw her with any of the young men of the neighbourhood, I believed most of her time was spent with her aunt Rivel, of whom she seemed lately to have become very fond. It was not till two days ago a rumour reached me that Victor was hidden in his mother's house, and was supposed to have deserted. Upon hearing this I forbade Alice to go near my sister's till that fellow was gone. She shed a great many tears, and said it was very hard she might not assist her own relations when they were in trouble; whereupon I told her that if I had any reason to suspect she did not obey me, I would deliver Victor into the hands of the Provost-Marshal as a deserter. I was in hopes this had frightened her, for she said no more on the subject: but last evening she was not in the house when I came in to supper, nor has she been home all night."

Estelle hoped she would be discovered concealed at Madame Rivel's; but Souvestre, who had already been there, had found the house shut up and apparently nobody in it.

This was a great blow to both father and daughter; nor were they much more reconciled to the matter when, at the expiration of a week, Madame Rivel reappeared with the certificate of a marriage betwixt Victor Rivel and Alice Souvestre, the ceremony having been performed by her late husband's brother, who was in orders. She excused herself for the part she had taken in the transaction, by declaring that she had only done it to prevent worse mischief, since Alice was determined not to abandon Victor, and would rather have gone with him unmarried than not at all.

Estelle feared this might be true; but whether it was or not, the misfortune was irremediable now, and all they had to do was to bear it as well as they could; but the blow fell heavy on Souvestre, who doated on Alice because she resembled her mother, and he never held up his head again as he had done before. On Estelle, too, this step of Alice's was a severe affliction. Her sister's alliance with a man of blasted reputation reflected disgrace upon herself, and removed her still further from Armand de Fayolle. She blushed when she thought of entering so noble a family with such an ignominious connection attached to her; and although neither the Countess nor her son knew what had occurred, it was never absent from her own mind. The continual brooding over this idea depressed her spirits, rendering her thoughtful and reserved, insomuch that it became visible to everybody that there was something wrong with her. To add to this, Estelle had, by and by, another source of anxiety. Her father's melancholy seemed to be taking a fast hold of his mind, causing him to neglect his business, besides injuring his health. His circumstances, which were not prosperous before, were fast deteriorating; and Estelle began to wonder where the money was to come from for the next rent-day. It is true, she knew that she had only to mention their embarrassments to the Countess or to Armand, and they would be relieved from them; but her delicacy and pride shrank from a degradation the memory of which would cloud the sunshine of future and better days.

This depression and uneasiness was not unobserved by Madame de Fayolle, who at length obtained a partial confession of the cause, one day when Estelle, who imagined her to be asleep, had seated herself in the adjoining dressing-closet to peruse a letter she had just received from her father. A large mirror that hung opposite the Countess' bed reflected the figure of the young girl, who she saw was in tears.

"What is the matter, Estelle?" she said. "Why are you weeping?" "It is nothing, Madame," answered Estelle. "Only a note from my father."

The Countess inquired what there was in it to distress her; and, after some questioning, succeeded in extracting an avowal that her father had fallen into a state of despondency that caused him to neglect his affairs, which were rapidly falling into confusion.

"And the rent-day's at hand, I suppose; is not that it, Estelle? And the Count is not an indulgent landlord. Dry your tears, child, and bid your father banish the subject from his mind. I'll provide for the emergency. Give me a pen and ink, and I'll write to Chardon to bring me the money."

One of the disadvantages of Estelle's situation was, that it was one

of almost constant confinement, the Countess (with the not unusual selfishness of an invalid) scarcely ever allowing her out of her sight. But on this occasion, being seized with a fit of remorse on that head, she bade her carry herself the cheering intelligence to Souvestre.

"Tell him to keep his mind at ease in regard to his rent, and that you will henceforth pay it." Estelle knelt down by her bedside, and kissed the wan, thin hand that lay on the coverlet.

"How good you are to me!" she sobbed.

"You know, Estelle, I look upon you as my daughter," said Madame de Fayolle, significantly leaning forward and kissing her forehead. Estelle blushed to the eyes, and made haste to hide her conscious face; for, although she had observed with surprise that the Countess took no alarm at Armand's evident admiration of her, but rather encouraged it than otherwise, this was the first time that she had verbally intimated her approbation of the connection.

66

When Estelle reached the farm, she found her father very much excited by a rumour that had reached him, to the effect that Alice had been seen in the neighbourhood apparently in great distress. "I wish I knew where she was," he said, "for I daresay that scoundrel has deserted her, and she's ashamed to come home."

It appeared, on inquiry, that the rumour originated with a little girl, who said that, being sent one morning very early to fetch water for the kettle, because her mother was ill, she had seen Alice Souvestre at the door of Madame Rivel's house, which was situated at the outskirts of the village. She saw her lift the latch and knock with her fist, and then go round to the kitchen-window and knock there; whereupon she, the little girl, had called out to her that Madame Rivel was gone away, and there was nobody there. The child added that Alice started when she heard her voice, and seemed annoyed at being observed. "She looked very pale and thin," said she, "and her clothes were very shabby; and when I told her Madame Rivel was gone, she clasped her hands and said, Oh mon Dieu!"

Victor's mother had left the place in consequence of her brother's resentment, and the ill odour into which she had fallen with the little public of the neighbourhood, on account of the part she had taken in the marriage of her son and Alice; but it was highly probable that the young people knew nothing of this removal; and the conclusion Sou vestre and his daughter came to was, either that Victor had deserted his young wife, or that he was somewhere in hiding, and had sent her to procure assistance from his mother. However this might be, their inquiries elicited no further information; but this vision of one so dearly loved and mourned-the pale face and wasted figure, the clasped hands, and the ejaculation betokening so much anguish-struck cold upon the hearts of her father and sister. By night and by day, sleeping and waking, she was before them; and a sad foreboding haunted their minds that this rumour was but the foreshadowing of some evil tidings about Alice.

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CARDINALS, THEIR ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

THIS article is designed to be historical, and not controversial. At a time when so much was being said respecting the appointment of Cardinal Wiseman, we were prompted by curiosity to make some inquiries respecting the rise of cardinals, and the precise place which they occupy in the Church of Rome. In the Bible, not a shadow was to be seen, either of the name, or of the thing, which it signifies. Among the office-bearers appointed by Jesus Christ, we meet with apostles, and elders, and bishops, and deacons, and doctors, but no trace of a cardinal is to be found. Their origin must therefore be sought in another development of Christianity than that which took place under Jesus Christ and his apostles. Finding no mention of cardinals in the Word of God, we attentively considered the many able and eloquent speeches recently delivered against the papal aggression, but could only learn that a cardinal was an elector of the pope, and one of his privy counsellors, and that he wore, as the insignia of his office, red slippers and a red cap. How the cardinals came to be the sole electors of the popes, and why they wore red slippers instead of black ones, we were impatient to learn. It was also understood that the recently appointed official ought to be styled His Eminence, and it was natural to desire further information respecting the origin of a title so exalted. With these views, the pages of Cardinal Bellarmine were consulted, where only so much was ascertained as to stimulate curiosity to further inquiries. A little more was learned in that highly entertaining volume, "Polydori Virgilii Urbinatis, De Rerum Inventoribus," which contains an account of the origin of both pagan and popish rites, ceremonies, offices, festivals, and titles. The greatest amount of information, however, was found in a book entitled "Il Cardinalismo," or History of the Cardinals, an Italian work, which was translated into English in the latter half of the seventeenth century, and which is a volume distinguished by extensive and exact learning, and pervaded by a severe literary taste, and by a spirit of pure and elevated morality. These, together with a volume published by pontifical authority, and entitled "Rituum Ecclesiasticarum," were the sources and they are all popishwhence the facts contained in the following paper were drawn; and they are mentioned, not merely as vouchers for what is afterwards stated, but, also, that those who feel interested in such inquiries, and who are unacquainted with accessible books on the subject, may know where to apply for further information.

The name cardinal signifies chief or principal; and is derived from the Latin word CARDO, a hinge. Hence, by a pun upon the Latin root, one of the popes said they were cardinals, because they were cardines, the hinges of the church militant, upon whom its door was to be turned. Like many other things of great eminence, both in the physical and intellectual world, the origin of cardinals is involved in much obscurity. Once they did not exist in the church at all. Our readers must not, however, suppose that they sprang from nothing, and are an exception to the general rule, that every effect must have a cause. Polydore Virgil remarks, that as medieval writers, who wished to flatter princes, traced their origin backward to Ulysses, or Achilles, or the pious Eneas, so when the cardinalate had reached the summit of its power and splendour,

and was possessed of extensive patronage, those writers who wished to pay court to their eminences, exerted their ingenuity in showing that cardinals existed from the most remote antiquity, not only from the days of the apostles, but from the times of Samuel and the Hebrew republic. As an example of this, he refers to one author who thus proves the divine origin and great antiquity of cardinals. "Quod in 1 Regum* lib., cap. 2, Pulcherrime scriptum est; domini enim sunt, CARDINES, terræ et posuit super eos orbem." In our version the verse runs thus, "For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them." In the Latin version, the word corresponding to pillars is CARDINES, and, by help of the pun before referred to, the writer finds in this passage divine authority for the cardinalship. "The hinges of the earth are the Lord's, and he turns the world upon them." And these hinges must mean the cardinals; for, says he, "as a gate or door is governed by its hinges, so the Roman Church is governed by the counsel of the cardinals.'

The best informed authors are of opinion, that the name cardinal was first conferred on places, and thence derived to persons. That word signifies chief, or principal, and those churches in Rome which were the most distinguished for their standing, for the number of the Gentiles which had been converted in them, or on other accounts, were called the cardinal churches, to distinguish them from other places less principal. "So that the title of cardinal was first given to places, that is, to the principal churches, but it was afterwards applied to the persons who governed them: at first they were called the Holy Cardinal Churches, but afterwards it became the Cardinals of the Holy Church." (" Il Cardinalismo," p. 68.) There are three orders of cardinals-cardinal-bishops, cardinal-priests, and cardinal-deacons. These orders were thus originat

ed.

The presbyter who ruled over a cardinal-church, came, from the place, to be called a cardinal-priest. Rome being divided into a number of deaconries, the chief of which were called cardinal; and the deacons who resided in these were called cardinal-deacons. In like manner, there were certain episcopates which were called cardinal, and the persons filling these came in course of time to be called cardinal-bishops.

The origin of these titles cannot be traced to any precise period. They were the offspring of time, rather than of authority, and were of gradual growth. In the days of the apostles, and for some ages thereafter, no such distinctions were known, as either cardinal-churches, or cardinal-office-bearers, of any description. While the church was in adversity; while she wept in widowhood beside the streams of the Pagan Babylon; while her services were interdicted and required to be performed in caves; while she was animated by the tempest-beaten hardihood of a faith that had been cradled in storms, and never known a lasting calm; while her members and rulers were all true to their exalted Head; while their hearts, purified by the furnace-fires of sanctified sorrow, like molten gold, flowed into one another in ardent charity, the affectionate appellation of brethren sufficed for all the followers of Jesus Christ. But after the church, by virtue of a much-enduring faith, had triumphed over all the powers of the empire, and trodden under her feet that ancient system of idolatry, beneath whose shade Rome had grown

* First Samuel in our Bible. The Popish Bibles have four books of Kings.