ther barristers encreased, the jokes about my theological learning became more frequent. Sly questions on the opinions of Augustin and Ambrose about celibacy, with troublesome enquiries whether the esoteric and exoteric system of doctrine continued to be kept up in monasteries, so that the initiated knew much more than the novices, went off like grapeshot across the table. I was once on the point of calling out one of my jovial companions who asked if, among the Church writers, I intended to take for my model Dionysius Exiguus, or the Little, and add that title to my name! But this kind of desultory warfare was carried on with such dexterity that there was no fair opportunity of bringing it to a pitched battle on Battersea Common, or some other convenient place. There was indeed something very awkward in attempting to settle a question of orthodoxy by a couple of pistol shots. It is a sad thing to have les rieurs against you.

My controversial spirit would have been

laughed away, more readily indeed than Father Sohan can exorcise a devil, had it not been for an incident which recalled me to my former seriousness.

As my servant came in, one morning to clear the table after breakfast, he brought me a packet which had the appearance of an official letter. As it commonly happens, when a letter surprises us, instead of breaking it open, I looked at the address, examined the seal, asked whether it had come by the post, and, on receiving an answer in the negative, minutely enquired about the sex, age, dress, &c. of the messenger. The information I received being quite unsatisfactory, I finally opened the packet. It contained several sheets of paper, stitched together in the shape of a Protestant sermon; or, perhaps, more like an article prepared to have sentence passed upon it by some inexorable editor of a prosperous Review or Magazine.

Within the folding of the first page, I found a note, in a female hand unknown to me. The note was this:

E

"A person whose mind is harrassed by religious doubts, requests the assistance of the Irish Gentleman, who, having travelled in search of a religion, found it to his satisfaction in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The applicant in the present instance, has fallen in with the enclosed manuscript, which contains some startling observations on the work published by the Religious Traveller.

"The removal or confirmation of the objections contained in those observations, is of vital importance to the writer of this note, and, probably, of some interest to the Traveller himself. If the Traveller will have the goodness to notice this application, he is requested to leave his answer, directed to A. B. at Messrs.

Bankers, Threadneedle-street. Should he think it worth his while to write upon this important subject, from Italy, or any other part of the Continent, the same gentlemen will receive and forward his letters."

I now looked at the beginning of the manuscript, and, being indisposed for controversy,

owing to the anticipation of a dejeune, at three in the afternoon, to which I was invited at Richmond, I threw the papers carelessly aside. The thought, besides, crossed me that perhaps Mrs. Drugget, (the ci-devant Miss from whose formidable affection I so narrowly escaped) had been tempted to plague me by making her Methodistical husband enter the lists of controversy with me. But the style of the note contradicted this suspicion. Had the note come from that quarter, the innate vulgarity of Mr. and Mrs. Drugget would have betrayed itself. Who could these papers come from? Before I attempted to guess, I was on my way to the Temple, where some friends were waiting for me, that we might proceed together to Richmond.

CHAPTER III.

The Manuscript.

I returned to my lodgings too tired to go out that evening. The dejeune had indisposed me for a regular dinner, and I contented myself with a solitary chicken at home. But time began to hang heavy upon me, and I looked for something to occupy my idleness. Here then was the manuscript; but I feared it would be heavy work. I was nevertheless determined to try the strength of the writer against me. By finding the manuscript itself transcribed in this place, the reader will readily conjecture that, whatever might be my vexation at finding a stout controversialist, where I expected a contemptible adversary, the weight of the writer's reasoning did not fail to make an impression on my mind. The following is a faithful copy :-