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THE Reformatory in Charnwood Forest, for the Midland Counties, Mount St. Bernard's Abbey, near Loughborough, Leicestershire, under the Patronage of their Lordships the Bishops of Birmingham, Nottingham, NorthThe brothers of the Third ampton, and Shrewsbury. Order of Cistercian Monks, at Mount St. Bernard's Abbey, will be employed in instructing the juvenile delinquents in reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic; in teaching them various trades, such as those of a tailor, carpenter, blacksmith, gardener, mason, &c. and particularly in imparting to them a knowledge of agriculture. They will have the charge of the boys night and day. They will work with them at the above trades, aud also in the fields. They will have a code of rules for their conduct, both among themselves and for the management of the boys. They will take simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience for three years, after a novitiate of one year; they will say the office of the Lay Brethren, viz. the Beads. They will have flesh-meat three times a week. They will wear a distinctive and religious dress; and they will be regarded as part of the Cistercian Congregation, both in life and after death. Having so important and difficult a work to accomplish as the Reformation of these juvenile delinquents, the brothers of the Third Order should be thoroughly virtuous, mild, patient, able to govern their tempers, firm, self-denying, courageous, pious, and with an aptitude for the government of boys. With these qualifications, with the blessing of God, they will have an opportunity of doing great good, of acquiring great merit, and of giving great glory to God.

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THE JEW OF VERONA:

AN HISTORICAL TALE OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1846-9,
IN ITALY.

From the Italian of the JESUIT FATHER BRESCIANI.
CHAPTER X.

BARBERINA OF INTERLAKEN.

ASER, disguised as the traveller of a commercial house in Dantzic, and having committed to Spini the interests of the Roman faction, went first into Tuscany to confer with Guerazzi and Montanelli; he visited the Conspirators of Leghorn, Pisa, and Lucca, warmly exhorted them to exert themselves in the enterprise, and proceeded to Genoa. There he was expected by Pellegrini, Reta, Canale, Bisio, and other members who were all sufficiently, notorious. He continued his route to Turin, and held consultations with Sinco, Brofferio, Borella, Valerio, and a number of other "little great men," who were for exalting the throne of Savoy to the stars. Carrying with him a few samples of silks, he wished to make a tour to Milan, and thence descend into Switzerland by Mount St. Gothard and the Splugen. But his friends in Piedmont advised him not to venture within reach of the Austrian police, that he might rely upon it they would leave no stone unturned in their exertions, and they invited him to meet them in the evening at the Caffè of St. Charles, where they would find means to discuss, at full length, the affairs of the society in Lombardy, Venice, and Central Italy. Aser, therefore, about nine in the evening, passing under the porticoes of the Piazzas, joined Brofferio in the Caffè, and accompanied him to Santa Pelagia, to a house which opens upon a narrow street, which, particularly at night, was almost solitary. There they ascended to the third story, and passing through an obscure gallery, they entered a fine apartment highly ornamented with richly-papered walls, round which were hung fine steel engravings, in splendid frames, beautifully relieved with garlands of flowers and arabesques. The pictures were representations of the efforts which have been made by different nations to work out their freedom. On a large circular table of white marble, stood a lamp with six branches bearing ground crystal globes, which shed a brilliant light through the room; round it were scattered the most furious journals. Aser found there before him several proscribed, ill-omened looking personages, reading, stretched on the elastic-cushioned seats, in a variety of rude postures. Some with their legs hanging over the arms

[PRICE ONE PENNY.

of their chairs; others laid on the sofas, with their boots resting on the embroidered cushions: one was seen with his head covered, and his cravat hanging in disorder over his bosom, and his elbows resting on the table, reading in an audible voice the following passage of Desmoulins :-"When the brethren of France give the word, Italy will strangle her princes and her popes." Then, in a tone of intense hatred, and with a hideous grin, he added, "Capital! Yes, I myself, with these hands, would strangle a dozen, beginning with the Theologian Gaule, and ending

"Wait a moment before ending," cried another, with a horse-laugh; "I'll give you a strong, well-waxed cord to string up all the Jesuits in Piedmont, and three or four of these jewels of the Sacred Heart into the bargain." Aser and Brofferio joined the rest in this hyæna and wolfish laugh; and the latter, taking the hand of some of those abandoned young men, embraced them, and then threw himself luxnriously into a "veilleuse."

"Well, what is going on in Rome?" said a little emaciated fellow, seated by the side of a corpulent self-conceited personage. "Do we gain ground there yet? Ah, that Pius IX.! And the good folks think he protects us! I believe if we don't mind what we're doing, he'll blow us all up into the air."

While Aser was conversing with these two leaders of the conspiracy, a young man entered, wrapped in a large cloak of impermeable camlet cloth, with a fur boa folded round his neck, fine moustaches and long hair, with its massy curls reaching to his shoulders. He wore boots of English leather, with spurs which jingled at every step, and cracked his riding-whip as he entered. Saluting the company, and seeing Aser, he tapped him with his whip on the shoulder, and turning a pirouette, planted himself directly in front of him, with his eyes fixed steadily upon him. Aser eyed him from head to foot, and stood considering, rubbing his forehead to refresh his memory, as if he had an indistinct recollection of a former acquaintance. The young man, raising his hand, pressed a small clasp, and detached his moustaches from his lip. When he had removed them, Aser remembered, and exclaimed, VO, Babette! You here, and in this garb!"

This was the famous Babette of Interlaken, a worthy descendant of Weisaupt, and styled by the Pastor Veyermann, "The Great Virgin of Helvetian Communism." She was cast from her childhood among the "Free Corps," as the helpmate of a camp-follower; she grew up surrounded with drunkenness, robbery, rapine, and blood, and she knew God

only from the imprecations which continually rang in her ears. She could curse like a trooper, drink like a toper, smoke like a Turk, and brandish a dagger like a fencingmaster. She seemed possessed of the devil, such was her strength of muscle, the vigour of her arm, the fascination of her eye, the audacity and fierceness of her anger. As she had one day crossed Lake Leman, from Roll to Tonon in the Ciablese, after a conspirator who had fled from Lausatine, with a considerable sum belonging to Young Switzerland, she fell among four carbiniers, who seeing her land from her skiff, surrounded her in a small wood on the banks of the lake. Babette fixed her piercing eyes on them, and pointing a pistol at the breast of the formost, she shouted, "Ah, vile scoundrels, four of you against a single girl!" and in a twinkling she bounded out of the wood, attained her skiff, and a few strokes with her oars soon placed her beyond the reach of the carbiniers, who stood gazing after her from the shore. Such was this gentle Babette; a young woman of only twenty-four years, yet already so fierce and treacherous. Babette at the present meeting with Aser, said to him, "Make haste, Ochsenbein awaits you at Berne; he has business which he wants you to transact for him in Upper Germany. My friend, the Jesuitism of both Catholics and Protestants is at its last gasp; but we must smother the flame of Romanism, which is ever vivid in Italy, and especially in Rome. On your return I will give you a few hints on this business, in which you will be seconded by many of our valiant brethren. But when will you leave for Berne ?"

"On Wednesday," replied Aser; but I must first write to Sterbini on the affairs of Italy."

"If that's the case, I will deliver your letter with my own hand."

"How, with your own hand! Are you going to Rome? What for? Pray tell me ?"

"I shall pass through Rome without stopping," replied Babette, on my way to Sicily. You must know that Cestio, a Catholic of the Grisons, one of the first among the Just of Wutzling, after having been admitted to the most important secrets of our college, decamped from Nidan, and at Lucerne turned informer to the Sonderbund. He will not be allowed to live any longer! The chastisement of this Cestio has been committed to me, as a thing rendered difficult by the infinite craftiness of the knave, and the subterfuges to which he has recourse to avoid pursuit."

"How do you know that he is in Sicily?" asked Aser. "You know what our police is," repied Babette. "When Cestio found that our leaders were aware of his treachery and of the place of his retreat, he quitted Lucerne, and crossed the inaccessible mountains into the Vallese, where he made an engagement with a peasant of Grampel. There he remained concealed as a labourer until June, when it happened that some mowers from the Lower Vallese came to the same place, and among them was a young man from Bex, whom Cestio recognized to have seen him among the riflemen at the match of Aarau. That was enough: he ascended the steep rocks of the Simplon, scaled the glaciers, and by narrow paths and over steep rocks and precipices, he descended into the valleys of Italy; and step by step, under various names, reached Genoa. There, in a commercial house, he had an elder brother, who, having supplied him with clothing, and replenished his purse, placed him on board the Castore, and sent him to Naples. In the Swiss guard he had a cousin, a captain, who received him with open arms, and wished to enrol him in the first regiment; but prudently reflecting that some of our new members might recognise him, and report him to his pursuers of Berne, he resolved to pass into Sicily; and there he actually went with letters of introduction to the governor of the island.

"He was offered the post of tutor to the two sons of a prince of Palermo, which he readily accepted, and still occupies; but I swear it, he shall not occupy that position long.

In consequence of the threatened disturbances in Palermo, the prince resides mostly in a magnificent villa among the delightful hills of Bagheria; and lately, we were informed, that he has removed with his sous to another beautiful residence in the neighbourhood of Syracuse. But were he to secrete himself in the deepest pits, or, if you will, in the abysses beneath Mount Etna itself, I will reach him with the point of my trusty stiletto, which will pierce even through adamart."

"Be prudent," said Aser; "the Sicilians are not to be trifled with; if your life is burdensome, this will afford you a favourable opportunity of relieving yourself of it; for if the prince whom you speak of be well disposed toward Cestio, he well knows how to protect him, or to avenge his

death."

These communications passed between Aser and Babette in a suppressed voice, while Brofferio was discussing with two Savoyards from Moutier and Bonneville the surest means of corrupting the piety and fidelity of the villagers of Savoy, who remained stanch in the ancient simplicity of their manners-thanks to the zeal of their curates-whom those wretches graced with the names of tonsured marmots, dormice, and mountain bears.

Aser remained in consultation with this assemblage until after midnight. On the succeeding day he wrote to Sterbini the following letter:

“My dear Friend,-I send you this by a safe hand, and I request that you will show the bearer of it every possible kindness and courtesy,-you, who are affability personified above all to the brave; and the hand which will deliver it to you, though so small and white, is possessed of a power that will leave the print of its five fingers wherever it has occasion to press.

"1st. You will henceforth receive my letters and those of the brethren from the couriers of Leghorn, where we have instituted a living telegraph, on the plan of those of the Chinese.

"2nd. At present the most important matter before the Sacred League is the Jesuits. We do not wish in Italy to go beating about the bush respecting those reverend fathers, as was done in Switzerland. Their Little Councils and their Grand Councils of the Cantons, and their Federal Diets in the Vorost of Zurich, of Lucerne, and of Berne, occupied several years before they effected the extirpation of that evil seed from the Helvetian soil. After all, nothing less would suffice than the whole force of the Free Corps to remove them. At present the central committee, consisting of Mazzini, Zaleski, and Druey, have adopted the resolution of rooting them out from the soil of Italy and Germany more readily, and with the most simple arts, without striking a blow or shedding a drop of blood, which we must save for the expulsion of the foreigners. Pius IX. is showing a good many attentions to the Jesuits, believing that he will thereby distract us, and that our eye, intent solely on the regeneration of Italy, is not directed to those reverend gentlemen, whom he loves and esteems. But it is precisely because we desire the regeneration of Italy, that we cannot think of leaving in its bosom characters who are so very repugnant to it. The Civic Guard is at our disposal. Against us, we shall have the double chin, gray-haired old fathers; they will do everything in their power against us; they preach and cry out, 'In the name of Jerico! what's all this? Have we forgotten those times of the cholera, when the Jesuits so distinguished themselves in their noble sacrifices to the Romans? What, banish them from Rome! That shall never be;' and drawing their cloaks round their dignified persons, with their hands on their swords, they will swear to defend them. All a farce! One

of our young Civic Guards is worth a hundred of them. Forward, Sterbini; it is the will of thy brethren.

"3rd. On the 2nd of November, King Charles Albert set out for Genoa, where everything is in readiness for the

popular festivals, at which we intend to set the post-labourers and all the rest of the populace in motion against the Jesuits. "4th. In France, Guizot, Montativet, and the other moderates perceived in the distance the English-fashioned reform banquets, and the scent alone turns their stomachs. I will write to you from Frankfort on the affairs of Vienna and Berlin. At present I am starting for Geneva, thence to Berne, and Constance, and various other cities on the Rhine, and finally to Schwerin. I have executed the commission for the muskets. Keep the Civic Guard to its duty: Pius IX. will want things his own way, military regulations, articles of discipline, &c.; accept everything, thank him, and then do as you think fit. I recommend to you the Roman youth, render it warlike; the alien will not be conquered by Our Fathers.' You understand. Adieu,

The affairs of Rome were daily advancing towards the brink of the unfathomable precipice, which the miners of Young Italy had dug beneath it. They no longer worked in secresy and silence, but in the fall light of day, before the eyes of all Christendom; they robbed the Pontiff of the august prerogatives, with which he was invested, over his temporal dominions. He had no sooner made one concession to the people than the demonstrations of gratitude with which it was accepted, were followed by renewed clamours and demands still more exorbitant. Perverse arts were used to corrupt the Roman youth, and the most detestable influences of seduction were practised in every direction, so that the young and inexperienced fell inevitably into the snares without a chance of escape. Every youth of twenty years was enrolled in the Civic Guard; no pretext, no excuse availed, or could exempt even those who were still engaged in their studies, and had but half completed their course: nay, so much did they presume on the wild forbearance of the Roman people, that they had formed even in the schools of the Sapienza a regiment of students, whose leaders and officers were the professors of law, mathematics, and medicine. Many youths, to avoid being ensnared in these nets of perdition, took the clerical habit, or exiled themselves from Rome as travellers, as if they were going by the order of their physicians, or for the purposes of commerce, or in search of new pursuits. The Sovereign Pontiff, with the eye of a watchful father, saw clearly that the impious were wounding the most sensitive point of the glory of Rome. The hearts of his beloved and ingenuous youth were robbed of the precious treasures of piety and virtue. He wept over the scene, and exclaimed, they are robbing me of my young children! They are staining their bright innocence! They are slaying those beautiful souls!"

Ah!

One morning, an aunt of Alisa, the sister of her mother Flavia, came to visit her. Polissena, under pretext of making some purchase, had gone out, and had secretly entered the establishment of a milliner, where she had an appointment with Masi, the secretary of Prince Canino. Alisa's aunt sat down with her niece, and finding themselves alone, she said, My daughter (I call you such, as your mother's last recommendations give me the right), you certainly know that Aser left Rome suddenly several days past; I know that you are good and discreet. That Aser, my daughter, has made you the subject of remark through the half of Rome, and some have gone so far as to assert that, under so rich and fine appearance, he is even a hired assassin."

"Alas! my aunt, what do you say! An assassin!" cried Alisa. "I believe Aser to be noble and generous: he loves me fondly; he has saved my life, and in so doing narrowly escaped with his own; his attentions have been limited to watching me in the streets, or at the theatre, and he has

never set foot within my father's house. My own friends call me cold, ungrateful; they would that at least I should show myself more tractable and humane; but I preserve in my inmost heart the advice of my beloved mother, who often said, when she came to see me at St. Dionisins, Remember, dear Alisa, that a young lady should always be modest, that she should never give to any young man the least proof of levity.' I will always observe this distance in my behaviour.” As she said this two heavy tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I cannot doubt you," replied her aunt, "but this is too much the subject of conversation in Rome. He is at least some sort of freemason."

"You mean to say, dear aunt, that his whole soul is devoted to Italy, and that he thinks of nothing but the greatness and liberty of his country; but I cannot convince myself, do what I will, that it is the same as being a freemason or Carbonari: my own father desires the same triumph of Italy, and yet he is a good Christian, and he loves and reveres the Pope with absolute devotion, which the Carbonari do not."

"Your father might, however, be more Roman than he is," said her aunt; "for if we are to believe him, there is nothing good left in Rome. He prides himself so much on his splendid uniform of captain of the Civic Guard, that he positively imagines himself a second Napoleon; and whenever he meets me he seeks to carry me by storm to enrol Severuccio in the battalion of the Speranza. Only imagine! And he not eleven years of age. I have more than enough to do with Mimo and Lando, who, since they have entered that bewitched Civic Guard (I should say so), are altogether beyond my control."

66

Oh, that reminds me, aunt! tell me, what is the reason that they have not come as usual to spend the evenings of Thursdays and Sundays with us? Tell them both that I expect them, and that it is a shame to see them thus abandon their music."

"What would you have, my love," said the poor mother; "since the opening of those barracks, I don't know them for the same. You know what a dear, good boy, my little Lando was; how affectionate, how sweet tempered and graceful in his manners; well, now he has become a perfect viper. He was a model of modesty, and belonged to the Ristretto of Padre de Vies; every week he frequented the sacraments, and every morning with the rising sun he paid his visit to the altar of St. Louis to hear mass. Now, must I say it, Alisa? I can scarcely prevail upon either of them to attend the last mass on Sundays, so occupied are they in training themselves up for the review which their colonel holds at two o'clock in the Piazza del Popolo, or that of San Pietro. They have to clean their guns and rub their armour with polishing dust; then they call their sister to burnish the bands of their knapsacks, and poor Nanna has to bespatter her hands with chalk; she polishes here and scrubs there; cleans the straps and rubs the clasps, so that your cousin has become in fact their orderly. But it's worse for her if she shows any reluctance, for then Mimo flies at her with a volley of names, and throws the wadding in her face."

Here Bartolo, who had just returned home, entered Alisa's room to salute his sister-in-law.

"Good morning, Adele, how do you do?" "Very well, if I were not a mother; but that character, so sweet and delightful in itself, has become sad and full of bitterness. My dear Bartolo, I am really tired of living!" "What is the matter? Have some of your sons fallen ill ?"

"God grant that they were both so!"
"Why, really, that does sound strange!"

"

Adele turned to Alisa: 'My dear girl, will you fetch me a cup of lemonade? I am quite thirsty; but mix it yourself, for no one can make it so delicious." After Alisa was gone, she turned again to Bartolo with tears in her eyes. Yes,

brother, I am reduced to such a pass with my sons, as to wish sincerely that they were unable to rise from their beds. This Civic Guard has ruined them."

"And how?" asked Bartolo.

"How?" she repeated; "because, from being pious and well-behaved children, it has made them two villains, fit for the galleys. Mimo and Lando pilfer from me incessantly, and so much of the silver plate has already disappeared, that I am terrified to death lest their father should perceive it. In fine, dear Bartolo, the government ought to remedy this, or Rome will become an abomination."

"The government has no concern in it," replied Bartolo ; "the Pope speaks, commands, entreats, beseeches; but the thing is done, and it is impossible to make head against it. Besides, it is natural; would you have barracks like sacristies? They smoke and laugh, and are perhaps not very choice in their terms, but in the end our Romans are very good boys. You will see, dear Adele, things will come to rights by and by; when once we have settled the confederation of Italy religion will flourish more than ever."

66

You make much of those hopes of yours," returned Adele sadly; "but they do not weigh much in the heart of a mother, who sees her sons, so anxiously brought up in the fear of God, falling headlong into perdition. I would at the same time remind you that you also should keep a more watchful eye over Alisa, and upon those reports which are circulated among the friends of Flavia, respecting that young Swede. But here is Alisa with the lemonade." About the end of November, at two in the afternoon, a carriage drove up to the Sermy Hotel on the Piazza di Spagna. It contained the Baroness of Derberg, who appeared in a splendid travelling-dress and accompanied by several attendants. After taking possession of the finest apartments in the hotel, she sent an invitation to the physician, Sterbini, to attend her in the evening. It may be supposed that Sterbini was punctual. A Baroness of Derberg! who could she be ? Some sister of the Sacred Alliance' of Germany? With these cogitations he reached the Sermy Hotel. He was admitted to the baroness, in whom he beheld a most prepossessing and beautiful young lady, in an ample dress of dark purple velvet à la Mary Stuart, with a massive gold chain round her neck sustaining a number of precious jewels. The baroness, with a graceful inclination of her head, offered her hand, which he kissed respectfully." Be seated, my dear Sterbini," said she, as she took a letter from a pocket-book. "I am the faithful bearer of this despatch, which was confided to me as a great trust by our friend Aser, at Turin. Read it." While he was perusing the letter, with her elbow resting on the arm of his chair, she watched every change in the countenance of Sterbini, who, when he had finished, raised his eyes smilingly to the lady, saying: "Pardon me, baroness, but it appears from Aser's manner of expressing himself, that this letter was consigned to a gentleman, and not to so graceful a traveller."

"Don't let that disturb you," replied the young lady; "Aser had much to distract him when he wrote. I congratulate you on your good fortune in Rome, everything seems to smile upon you: persevere manfully; Germany fixes its eyes on you, Vienna and Paris are waiting for the signal.” "Your arrival will inspire us with the courage necessary for so great an enterprise," said the doctor, "and hope you will give us much powerful aid and advice. Shall we have the advantage of possessing you long among us? "I start to-morrow for Civita Vecchia," returned the baroness; "and will go thence to Malta."

Sterbini soon took his leave, and on the following morning Babette departed to Civita Vecchia, whence she embarked for Sicily in search of Castio.

(To be continued.)

ABGAR, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN KING. AN HISTORICAL TALE.

(For the Lamp.)

IN those remote ages when Armenia was a country and a kingdom, it was a considerable territory, comprising fifteen provinces, Great Armenia and Little Armenia. The former a large track of land in Arabia, formed, as it were, a circle round the famous mount Ararat, on which had reposed Noah's Ark, and extended as far as the central point of the Caucasus, including many small states. Little Armenia joined the larger in its narrowest or extreme point, forming an island in Asia Minor.,

Changes, and nothing but changes, have been the lot of this once happy and fertile land, until it has passed into the hands of other masters, the Turks possessing all Asia Minor to the west of the Euphrates, and to the cast the mountains of Georgia, Mesopotamia, &c. The Russians are now masters of Georgia, of a large part of Great Armenia, and numerous towns and provinces extending to the Caspian Sea.

As this is not a history of Armenia, it is not necessary to trace its rise or fall, but only to recal a memory, almost effaced, that must be ever replete with interest to others, and pride to them, that the first Christian king was an Armenian.

Abgar, king of Armenia-Abgar, who in that idolatrous age was the first to clothe Christianity in purple,--Abgar, the virtuous and valorous, the first Christian king many Christian kings have reigned since then; but to thee be the glory of the first, and Armenia was thy birthplace! This first Christian king, then, reigned over Great and Little Armenia when Christianity took root in that idolatrous land. Abgar, like his predecessors, had worshipped images, and great were the difficulties to be overcome to establish the pure doctrine of the church. His manly beauty, and his fair Georgian wife, gave promise of a race worthy to succeed them in their new faith, in their rare virtues, and their wonderful beauty. Isabelle, their first fair child, was born before the light of faith had burst upon them; but in her tender infancy she was surrounded by the few Christians they could draw to their court, and the apostle Thaddeus filled her mind with holy things. While she was still an infant, they were blest with another child, a son; their joy was now complete. They had followed a long line of Pagan ancestors, they were the founders, and might hope to perpetuate a Christian dynasty.

They gave the name of Leon to their boy, who was one of those rare infants over whose birth one might believe the fairies had presided; his large clear eyes beamed with so much intelligence that the soul seemed to dwell already in its fulness of power, it was neither the smile for the expression of a young child. As he grew old enough to express his wants or wishes, a change came over the character of the boy, or it might be that the character was the same, but the expres sion different; his words, even the first he uttered, were imperious; he was, said the admiring courtiers, born for power, and, far from checking that love of power, their servile adulation increased it. Pass over the early years of boyhood, varying little with the erroneous education given to princes then and since, and see him at the age of fourteen, unusually tall for his years, bearing on his arm his fair sister, to join their royal parents in the church their piety had erected to their new worship. It was to be opened that day with great pomp. Thaddens, the learned, was to preach a long and wise discourse, setting forth the great theme, "Christianity," in its most attractive garb of truth, to the Christians who came from afar to profit by his doctrine. The church was already thronged by the new believers, ardent as are all whose belief is new; but even they rose with one accord to salute the two lovely children as they entered. Isabelle no longer a child in years, for she was now sixteen; but the slender, sylph-like form seemed younger; they were both so beautiful; he in