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CHAPTER IX.

MR. FITZGERALD had not been very long resident at Ashton Hall, when he paid his addresses to Miss Aylmer. Otherwise circumstanced, perhaps Fitzgerald was one of the most unlikely people on whom she would have bestowed her hand; but here, as in many circumstances we have seen, Millicent's better judgment was overruled by her attachment to the Romish Church.

Bigoted to popery, and unrelenting in everything in which it was in his power to vex or to oppress those of the Protestant religion, Fitzgerald seemed to live but to exalt and uphold the former. His munificent fortune gave him ample means of adorning, with all that is outwardly seductive, the

Roman Catholic form of worship. Fond of outward show, he omitted nothing that could contribute to the most splendid observance of its rites. At his own residence, his chapel was of the most gorgeous description; its adornments, its altar, its plate, its paintings, its sculpture-all were calculated to strike the beholder with admiration; nor was the character of its music forgotten it was sublime in the extreme, at least in as far as it was possible, and money was profusely lavished on its performers.

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All this was greatly the effect of education and inordinate vanity; but Fitzgerald had greater faults,-faults which were likely to paralyse every effort towards domestic happiness; he was not only proud, as we have had occasion to remark, and that in no common degree, but overbearing and tyrannical: he never forgot what he esteemed an injury;

that command of our pardoning God, "Forgive," seemed to him as if it had never been written: his revengeful temper indeed knew no bounds; and an evil day was it for that man who made Fitzgerald his enemy.

He was extremely generous to those whom he believed to be in his interest, or whom he wished to gain over; but he never gave the smallest sum otherwise. And with him it was no unfrequent topic, " that really Protestants were rich enough to take care of themselves." As he knew nothing of true generosity of mind, neither did he look for it in others; and was certain to ascribe to encroachment on his party, and a wish to proselytise, any aid being afforded by a Protestant to a Roman Catholic.

Educated by a most bigoted Roman Catholic priest, he had imbibed that fearful sentiment" of implicit blindness and unlimited submission to the Roman pontiff," which so long, in the society of the order of Jesus, or Jesuits, was productive of so much mischief, and which yet, alas! reigns fearfully prominent in many. When, however, it suited his purpose, like these followers of Loyola, he would affect a liberality which he did not feel, merely to deceive, even as they did, affirming, at times, that heretics might be saved; in a word, fulfilling

that prediction, as it has been called, of Bishop Brown's concerning them.—(Note 3.) We have remarked that he was not wanting in judgment; but it was greatly warped by prejudice. His schemes were laid deeply. He affected a great contempt for politics, but was in reality a skilful politician, and was, by every means in his power, seeking the subversion of the Established Church of the realm. He was an advocate for peace and unanimity, in the very moment he was straining every nerve to spread dissension, and widen the breach between Roman Catholics and Protestants; but, with consummate skill, he never betrayed himself;-others might draw what inferences from his conduct they chose, but Fitzgerald never could be convicted of any thing derogatory to himself; some few, indeed, there were who, with sage discernment, read beneath his fascinating address and apparent liberality, the dark, designing traitor, whose very life was devoted to the overturn of what he artfully insinuated he studied to uphold.—But this number was few.-Others, overcome by

his conciliating manners and apparent honesty, scrupled not to believe all he advanced; and often, in their intercourse with him, did serious detriment to the truth, and were, in reality, the victims of their own credulity.

Fitzgerald bore a fair character: the world loveth its own. It avails little to many what the religion of the mortal, at whose shrine, either for the sake of self-aggrandisement or honour, they offer incense; the giddy multitude stop not to inquire: would to God that they did so! that, by the light of divine grace, they might see the depths of that abyss, on whose brink they thus sport. Let not those, however, whose eyes have been opened to see their danger, triumph, or exultingly exclaim, Stand by,' &c., I am holier than thou,' but individually be convinced of this important truth, By grace of God I am what I am.'

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The sister Allegra, notwithstanding all her pretensions of being dead to the world beyond her cloisters, still found means to keep up a constant correspondence with the Roman Ca