among the Brother Penitents; not forgetting a small vial containing a liquid, meet for the soothing and healing of such wounds as the patient might produce by his self-chastisement; for he did not question, that besides the cilique and its hooks being worn habitually, till the penance was finished, that a few lashes from a knotted cord would be occasionally resorted to by the penitent, as a stimulant to his contrition. Nothing could be more consolatory or affectionate than the admonitions of the good Father; who did not in the least deem it necessary, in the present exigency, to enjoin practices of rigour and mortification, so impressed was he with the idea that his beloved convert was inclined rather to exceed than fall short of his wishes on the sub. ject; and, after a conference, which Wolf. steïn was delighted to see draw to its close, he took leave of him, pouring on his head a torrent of prayers and benedictions. No one who has a peep behind the

mask can suppose that Wolfstein harboured the slightest thought of a visit to the pious fraternity whither Felix believed him bent. He knew that the superior, though enveloped in the cloak of sanctity, was a crafty, ambitious, covetous man; he had been the trusty agent of many a manoeuvre of Father Joseph's, and, with two such admirable coadjutors, nothing could be easier than to evade the lulled penetration of the simple, credulous Felix. It might seem, that a whole month's exile at the present period from the sunshine of the Lady of Marchfeldt's smiles would, in itself be an insupportable penance to so impetuous a lover as Wolfstein; but this very impetuosity he so well appreciated, and so greatly dreaded, that even had it not proved necessary to the furtherance of his schemes, he would have invented some motive for a temporary disappearance from court. His temper was furious, and by no means at all times within the curb of his own

will: during his residence at Marchfeldt, the presence of Louisa had repeatedly proved insufficient to restrain his intemperate and brutal sallies;-the deception it now behoved him to practise required the utmost stretch of his patience and address, and he rejoiced to escape for a while where he might breathe freely, without the incumbrance of his irksome vizor.

CHAPTER IV.

"Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers; Not of that dye which their investments show." Hamlet.

THE ostensible cause of Wolfstein's retirement was soon murmured amongst the court circle, some of whose members were inexpressibly edified thereby; and Father Joseph, who enjoyed the credit of having worked this miracle, was considered by them as a fit object for canonisation. In the number of the credulous and confiding were both the Erdenheïms, from their habit of believing, without examination, whatever was believed by the Imperial pair whom they so faithfully served. Westermann gave it credence from an innate disposition to faith, hope, and charity: Madame de Rosebeck, because she declared it was the most inter

esting thing imaginable to contemplate the dawnings of sanctity; and that, were it usual for female penitents to do penance in a convent of monks, she would, for the sake of making her observations on the spot, seize that opportunity to pay a visit of mortification to the Friars Penitents; more especially as it was long since she had found time for any similar exercise, and,

"You know," said she," one really accumulates, without thinking of it, such a host of peccadilloes, one's bosom gets as full of cobwebs as a philosopher's apart

ment."

Princess Stolberg, and Ulrica of Lindau, were probably the only females at court who were not deceived: the one he had scarcely attempted to impose on, satisfied that he had in his hands the means to ensure her silence; the other had calmly watched him and his changes, and, comparing her own observations with those wafted around her from so