Part 44 (2/2)

'The Prince never spoke of him to me till the day before his death. He then said, ”Can you find out that Carthusian for me, Kelly?--I should like to speak with him.” I told him that he had long since left Rome and even Italy. The last tidings of him came from Ireland, where he was living as a dependant on some reduced family.

'”There is no time to fetch him from Ireland,” said his Highness; ”and yet, Kelly, I 'd give a thousand pounds that he were here.” He then asked me if I remembered a certain boy, dressed like a colleger of the Jesuits, who came one night long ago to the palace with this same Carthusian.

'I said, yes; that though his Royal Highness believed that I was away from Rome that night, I came back post-haste from Albano; and finding myself in one of the corridors, I waited till Fra Luke came out from his interview, with the boy beside him.

'”True, true, Kelly; I meant you to have known nothing of this visit. So then you saw the boy? What thought you of him?”

'”I saw and marked him well, for his fair hair and skin were so distinctively English, they made a deep impression upon me.”

'”He had the mouth, too, Kelly--a little pouting and over full-lipped.

Did you mark that?”

'”No, sire; I did not observe him so closely.”

'”How poor and ragged the child was! his very shoes were broken. Did you see his shoes?--and that frail bit of serge was all his covering against the keen blast. O George,” cried he, as his lip shook with emotion, ”what would you say if that poor boy, all wretched and wayworn as you saw him, were the true heir of a throne, and that the proudest in Europe? What a lesson for human greatness that! It was a scurvy trick you played me that night, sir,” said he, quickly changing, for his moods were ever thus, and you never could guess how long any theme would engage him--”a scurvy trick, sir, to pry into what your master desired you should not know. I had my own good reasons for what I did, and it ill became you to contravene them; but it was like your cloth--ay, sirrah, it was the trick of all your kind.”

'Out of this he fell a-weeping over the fallen fortunes of his house, asking again and again if history contained anything its equal; and saying that other dynasties had fallen through their crimes and cruelties, but that his house had been ruined by trustfulness and generosity; and so he forgot the boy and all about him.'

'And think you it was to this youth that his Royal Highness bequeathed the sum mentioned in his will, together with his George, the Grand Cross of Malta, and the St. John of Jerusalem, for so the Cardinal York tells me the bequest runs?'

'As to that I can say nothing,' Kelly replied.

'I have heard,' said the Cardinal again, 'that in a sealed letter to his brother York the Prince acknowledges this boy as his son, born in wedlock, his mother being of an ancient and n.o.ble house.' Then quickly changing his tone, he asked, 'How are we to find him, Kelly? Do you believe that he still lives?'

'I have no means of knowing; but if I wished to trace a man, not merely in Europe, but through the globe itself, I am aware of but one police to trust to.'

'And that?'

'The Jesuits: they are everywhere; and everywhere cautious, painstaking, and trustworthy; they are well skilled in pursuits like these; and even when they fail--and they seldom fail--they never compromise those who employ them.'

'Well,' said the Cardinal, 'they have failed here. They have been on the track of this young fellow for years back; and when I tell you that the craftiest of them all, Ma.s.soni, has not been able to find a clue to him, what will you say?'

'Why, that he must be dead and buried, your Eminence,' broke in Kelly.

'To that conclusion have I come myself, Fra Kelly. Had he been alive he had come long since to claim this costly inheritance. Seven hundred thousand Roman scudi, the Palazzo Albuquerque, at Albano, with all its splendid pictures and jewels, worth double the whole----'

'Egad, I had come out of my grave to a.s.sert my right to such a bequest,'

said Kelly, laughing. 'Has the Cardinal York made search for him, your Eminence?' said he, hastily correcting his levity.

'The Cardinal York is not likely to disturb himself with such cares; and as the legacy lapses, in default of claimant, to the convent of St.

Lazarus of Medina, he probably deems that it will be as well bestowed.'

'Lazarus will have fallen upon some savory crumbs this time,' muttered Kelly, whose disposition to jest seemed beyond all his self-control.

'It was this very day Ma.s.soni hoped to have brought me some tidings of the youth, said the Cardinal, rising, 'and he has not appeared. It must be as you have said, Kelly; the grave has closed over him. There is now, therefore, a great danger to guard against: subst.i.tution of some other for him--not by Ma.s.soni; he is a man of probity and honour; but he may be imposed on by others. It is a fraud which would well repay all its trouble.'

'There is but one could detect the trick--that Luke M'Ma.n.u.s, the Carthusian I have mentioned to your Eminence. He knew the boy well, and was intrusted by the Prince to take charge of him; but he is away in Ireland.'

<script>