ment tinged with religion. The most notable point in it is how Alexandrine, after all her campaigns in the most brilliant society in the world, and after having supped full of adulation, surrendered her whole heart to the mastery of the younger man, of no high pretension to wealth or rank, who, while absolutely fascinated by her charms, always kept his God in the first place, and showed that he did so. In April, Mme. and Mile. d'Alopeus went to reside near Naples, and lived in close intercourse with the rest of the La Ferronnays family, and there we find the coupling of the most exalted selfrestrained piety with all the little extravagances of a lover. For instance, Alexandrine went for the first time since her father's death to the opera, and put on a white dress, in which she enjoyed showing herself to Albert and Pauline. She returned home to Vomero at one o'clock at night, little guessing that Albert followed her carriage all the way up the steep road, pushing the wheels behind at the worst places, merely that he might have one glimpse of the flutter of her dress unseen by her when she left the carriage in the courtyard. The mutual love was confessed, but there were many difficulties in the way. Mme. d'Alopeus had engaged herself to a Russian prince, named Paul Lapoukhyn, and thus could not free herself from the respects due to the Czar. Indeed Alexandrine, being a maid of honour to the Empress, needed his consent to her marriage, and his dislike to French alliances was well known. Besides, the lady had expected a far more brilliant worldly lot for her beautiful daughter than a marriage with a younger son of a family in the situation of the La Ferronays, and though she seems to have been delusively affectionate and caressing when Albert was with her, no sooner was he absent than she and her niece tried to persuade Alexandrine out of her attachment. M. de la Ferronnays too, though, like all the family, charmed with Alexandrine, and greatly flattered by the much-courted lady's preference for Albert, had many doubts as to the prudence of a marriage between his son and one bred up in the excess of Russian luxury, and for many months the affair remained in doubt. At last, in May, 1833, it became expedient for Mme. de la Ferronnays to go on business to France, taking with her the elder ones of the family, and leaving M. de la Ferronnays at Rome, where the two youngest girls, Olga and Albertine, were to be placed at the convent of Trinità del Monte to prepare for Olga's first com munion. Albert was to have been of the party to France, but at Cività Vecchia he told his mother that he was feeling unwell, and would follow her by the packet two days later, when he had been bled. The next morning, however, he was in a violent fever, and poor M. de la Ferronpays first became aware of his dangerous state while from the window of the room. the steamer was still visible carrying away the mother and sisters, who had gone on board the previous night. During the height of Albert's danger, Alexandrine arrived at Rome with her mother, and had the comfort of almost daily seeing the little girls in the convent, and hearing their report of their brother. It seems to have been what passed between him and his father during his illness, and the extreme anxiety of Alexandrine on the other hand, that made their parents at last consent to their engagement; and though Madame d'Alopeus on going to Germany had a short relapse into her original ambitious views for her daughter, constancy at last prevailed, and Albert and Alexandrine were married at Naples on the 17th of April, 1834, first in the chapel of the Palazzo Acton, and afterwards by the Protestant Minister, M Valette. A time of perfect happiness followed. A great villa had been taken at Castellamare, Albert and Alexandrine lived on the ground floor, Charles, his wife and child, above them, and the main body of the family in the upper story. Each set of apartments had a bal cony, communicating with the rest by external staircases. Pauline was on the eve of marriage with Mr. Craven, an English diplomate, and the life during that summer seems to have been like paradise to the whole party. This is Pauline's description: pied the ground floor, whose windows opened 'I said that Albert and Alexandrine occu the night I specially recollect, their sitting-room The ility of different lantheir facility guages and the different nationalities of Eugénie, more expansive than ever, made her | white Pisa was recommended to Albert for the winter, and he took up his abode there with The cloud that was so soon to darken it was showed that it had been doing her injustice his wife in apartments, where Alexandrine already casting its shadow. For one day, six to fear her expensive tastes, for she was a weeks previously, we had been uneasy about Albert; but anxiety, the gnawing worm of bliss, capital economist, with all her elegance. still respected ours, and, though alarmed for Albert was better, and the only shade of the moment, we had quickly recovered the se- trouble was at this time the manner in curity of inexperience. It was not till much which the difference in faith could not fail later, when Alexandrine was near the end of to be felt between two people thus intimateher ordeal, that going back from anguish to an- ly connected. Alexandrine had previously guish, even to the first alarm that disturbed shown herself much inclined to the Roman her serenity, she arrived at the day when for Catholic Church, but since her marriage the first time she saw Albert hastily put his her mother (now Princess Lapoukhyn) had handkerchief to his lips, and take it away spot-written to her that to hear of her changing ted with blood. And that day? It was the tenth after their marriage.'- Vol. i. pp. 198-200. Other symptoms caused it to be thought that Castellmare did not agree with Albert, and he was ordered to Sorrento, where the brothers and sisters frequently visited them. There was as yet no blight upon their joy, and they continued to enjoy their exquisite life. Perhaps few persons were ever more capable of full enjoyment than this family. They had all the happiness inspired by fervent piety; they were full of the delights of the easy mirthful intercourse of a large and united family in the first bloom of youth; they were cultivated and accomplished so as to appreciate the exquisite scenes of nature and art, as well as the historical associations of Italy; and there is also about the whole of their writings and speeches an indescribable air of the very highest breeding, as it with all their simplicity and humility they were unconsciously the very creme de la creme of society. In one of his letters, Albert tells his sisters not to lose their cosmopolitan grace and become exclusively French, English, Italian, or anything else; and even in these black and her faith would nail her (her mother) up in her coffin. This had much startled Alexandrine, and besides, though when among Protestants she was inclined to defend Catholicity, the same impulse led her, when alone among Catholics, to stand up for the doctrines she had been taught. On the whole, however, her religious teaching and impressions seem to have been exceedingly vague, and chiefly to have consisted in pious sentiments affecting a mind of great natural sweetness and purity, and thus she was exactly in the state to be completely mastered by the strength of positive and systematic belief, thoroughly acted on by those with whom her lot was cast. In October, they received a long visit form Montalembert, who had begun apparently by slightly distrusting and regretting Albert's passion for the beautiful Swede, but on his arrival, yielded to her charm and became her fast friend for life. Here is a description of their way of spending their time, taken from a letter to Eugénie : 'Besides my reading of Dante, Montalembert reads us legends. He is now reading us some delicious ones of S. Francis d'Assisi, a very kind Saint, who calls all the creatures his broth ers and sisters. He says, "frate lupo," and talks long to this same wolf, and calls the turtle doves my sisters, &c. Montal. is likewise writing the life of St. Elizabeth, a German and a queen,- for whom he has made many journeys into Germany. He is to read it to us when it is finished. It will be delightful, but I beg you to tell no one of it but Pauline. I am sure he had rather it was not talked of beforehand. So pray let it remain between us two. He is so fond of this Saint Elizabeth, he collects the most minute details about her. He told us a story of a knight who wore the colours of a saint who had appeared to him in a vision: it was pretty. The story did not end there, but it is too long to be told in a letter. Tell me what you think of this life we are leading. For my part, I love it! Besides, we have subscribed to the library at Leghorn, and our tables are covered with Reviews, newspapers (these for Montal.), with W. Scott's novels for Albert, and other books of all sorts for him and for me. Albert is beginning to learn German, but he does not throw himself into it with your laudable desperation. I am'sure you will soon know it.'- P. 227. It is amusing to find Montalembert advising Alexandrine to burn Father Clement a clever English book, well known thirty years ago, which had been lent her by some Protestant friends. She calls it a soidisant antidote to Catholicism, which had had contrary effect from what it was intended to produce.' She is quite right, the Protestants of the book are Presbyterians, and Father Clement is by far the most beautiful character in it and has the best of the argument. In Alexandrine's history it must always be borne in mind that her original doctrine was Lutheranism, and it was the Catholicity- not so much of Rome as of the Church Universal-that was attracting her. She had begun by feeling much drawn to the Greek Church, but the bias was now given by her human affections and the examples she saw. She continues: 'Montal. made me sing a number of ballads and national airs that he had collected in his travels. Among them was a charming German hymn, on words taken from S. Bernard (JESU, wie süss, wer dein gedenkt) saying that nothing is so sweet as the thought of JESUS, nor so sweet as His Presence. Montal. was always asking me for it, though at first he thought it almost profane to let me sing it; but then he was surprised to find that I sang it with an expression approaching, he said, to that which was thrown into it by three pious young women at Ratisbon, who used to sing it at their work.' Pp. 229-30. We cannot help lingering on this innocent brightness, so well crowning the young life of one to whom his mother could write on his birthday, the 21st of January, 1835: It is twenty three years to-day since I embraced you for the first time. I seem to have gone back to that time, for since that day, not one has passed but my heart has been filled with you. You have always been so excellent, that not the slightest cloud has darkened my affection for you, not the shadow of a slight irritation has come between us.' Probably, however, there was much truth in the self-dissection that we have from Albert's own hand, in his journal, which was in the form of a letter, addressed, his sister believes, to the Abbé Martin de Nodier. It is worth reading, because it so curiously shows the difference between the self-reliant character fostered by our public school education and the tender diffidence engendered by the careful training and watching of foreign discipline. marked * 'PI8A, Feb. 1835. You know, dear friend, that you have often accused me of making myself out worse than I am. If you knew my whole life, you would soon change your mind, and find that my good character is terribly usurped, to such a degree that I am sometimes tormented by the thought that there must be deceit in my nature. It is true that I have never been thoroughly bad, and that I never refused the brilliant but fugitive flashes that have guilty? Dante describes such dubious souls as my soul. But am I not even more rejected alike by heaven and hell. I take everything up, at first, with fervour, and at the same time what had found me most ardent, leaves me duiled and disgusted. Often before my marriage, in the most exalted period of my passion, I felt discouraged. I owe this feebleness and inconstancy partly to my weak health and my delicate and irritable temperament, and partly also to an education without positive aim. My father made all imaginable sacrifices for me, but the men to whom he entrusted me abused his confidence. I was naturally gentle and active; without them I might have committed greater errors, but I should have retained more energy. When I left them I had lost the freshness of heart that some privileged souls retain long after their entrance into life, and yet I was as timid as a child. Then I came to Italy, where the climate did me more harm than good, for it increased the excitability of my imagination and the irritability of my temperament. Thenceforth, I have been the sport of the two beings we have within us, sometimes good and raising myself to the highest regions it has been given me to attain, sometimes let * Sillonne.' es to lead me, often dragged by my two natures both ways at once, without strength to gain the mastery over them, and by directing them by my own will to make them contribute to my moral and physical perfection.' Vol. i. pp. 235-7. ting myself be drawn where my other life choos- sailed again for Smyrna, Constantinople and Odessa, enjoying to the utmost the lovely scenery of the Greek waters and all its associations, and in health for complete delight. They were met at Odessa by Alexandrine's mother and her husband, and kept their quarantine in a very agreeable fashion. They were permitted to see and talk to their friends, as long as they did not touch them, and they had a large and comfortable house, and an excellent cook whom Prince Lapoukhyn had put into quarantine with them. In due time they arrived at Korsan, in the midst of the Ukraine, one of the splendid palaces of the Russian nobility, full of copies of the most perfect works of art, and with an orangery in the centre of the house. Such a nature as this seems hardly fit for the active battle of life. There was no doubt much that was morbid in it, and depression of spirits was the natural effect of illness; but Albert seems to have had that remarkable power so inconceivable to the world, which S. Paul mentions among the paradoxes of the Christian life, of being ⚫ sorrowful yet alway rejoic.ng.' One more extract from his Pisa journal we must make to show the sweet tenderness of his nature: 'Feb. 17. My day began with a sad spectacle. Eight convicts were sweeping in front of our door, chained two and two with heavy fetters, and dressed in red, the sign here of being condemned for a term. Only two were in vellow, the token of a convict for life. These two likewise had in large letters upon their breast" Furto Violente." They are but recently sentenced, I think, judging by their clothes, and were no doubt the same who were lately exposed in the square, and condemned for this crime. A dreadful sight are these men, blotted out of society, with nothing more to expect from it but scorn, fear, or pity. What bitter feelings must fill their souls! O merciful God, just God, cause resignation to bring them calmness and hope in a better life! May the example of JESUS, our Saviour, teach them to accept their bitter cup, and recollect that the Divine Pattern of resignation and suffering was also a pattern of virtue and love. O Lord, my gentle JESUS, when forsaken of men, Thy angels sustained Thee, and shed tears for their Master's grief. Grant even to those unworthy of such a grace, that when men abandon the wretched, the angels from heaven may come and sustain those who are unable to hope, save in Theo, and must fail without Thy aid. Oh, pardon them; let one tear be on their heart ere their death.' Vol. i. p. 232. On the whole, Albert's health had not become worse during the winter, and it was 'decided that the summer should be spent at Korsan, Prince Lapoukbyn's estate in the Ukraine. Sea voyages were thought beneficial, and the journey to Odessa was to be made by water. In March therefore the journey was made to Naples, where the whole family were again together, and where the sisters for the last time saw Albert up and walking about. They embarked for Malta, and thence The visit began there joyfully; but before it had lasted a fortnight, the hemorrhage began to recur, and in a few days so violent an attack came on that for a short time there was imminent danger. On one of those days of anxiety Alexandrine, opening her New Testament at hap-hazard, fell upon the words: Honour widows that are widows indeed.' It was her first realization of what was impending over her. However, Albert .regained strength and set out to return, travelling through Austria. In the meantime M. de la Ferronnays had purchased the Château de Boury, in Normandy, and gone to reside there with the rest of the family. This had been a great delight to Albert, who had become weary of his wandering, exiled life, and longed to return to France. At Vienna, however, he was sentenced by his physicians to spend the winter at Venice, a mandate that he accepted with instinctive reluctance. It was at Vienna that he and Alexandrine for the last time went into society, and the last time that she appeared in full dress or was at any public festival. When she arrived at Venice, in October, she was still as it were halting between two opinions: she was still swayed entirely by human affections. She writes to Montalembert on the 23d of October: 'Let me speak to you with the greatest frankness. That of a sister is permissible to me, towards you, for no sister could love you better. I have a sorrow that constantly occupies me. My happiness would be in being of the same religion as Albert; but, besides the doubts that still remain with me, what chiefly withholds me is, that I should break my mother's heartthat mother to whom I owe the very happiness of being married to Albert. I should break her heart physically as well as morally. know she cannot believe that Catholics regard I as possible the salvation of those of a different faith, and she would always think that by changing, I should fix-not only for time but eternity a frightful gulf between myself and my own family. What mother would consent under such an idea? Indeed, I myself, if I were told that my poor father had the worse portion, and that Albert was destined for the better, and that by choosing one I should separate myself from the other for ever, I think that since happiness would be promised to Albert, I should let him enjoy it alone, and that I would go to rejoin my poor father, like the Pagan prince.'- Vol. i. p. 327. Here she tells at length the story of the Frisian chief whom Pauline has already described as a great hero of hers - who refused baptism rather than forsake his forefathers when they were consigned to perdition by Christian teachers, not content to leave them to stand or fall to their own Master. Her mind had not yet learnt to contemplate the obligation of seeking God in His highest Truth, and Hisappointed means of union with Himself, and communication of His grace; as yet it was mere pious sentiment to be derived from prayer, intellectual exercises, or the exaltation of sacred music. She had attended no Protestant worship since she was at Naples she delighted in being present at those in Italian churches, and was ill with grief at the separation when Albert communicated without her. At this point she remained through the early part of the winter, but in the beginning of March, Albert had a terrible attack of inflammation - Fernand was with him, and the others were sent for from Boury. He seemed so near death on the night of the 6th of March, that he asked for a confessor, and then it was that Alexandrine cried in her anguish, 'Have we come to this-have we really come to this! Now I am a Catholic!' At the moment Albert seems to have been too ill, or too much occupied with collecting his thoughts for confession, to notice her words; but he began to rally almost immediately after the priest left him, and a relic of S. François de Sales was brought to him in the course of the day, to which his rapid improvement was so much ascribed by all around him, that Alexandrine became more entirely confirmed in her resolution. Of course the joy her change gave to him was no small assistance in his partial recovery, and she never hesitated for a moment after the words had been spoken, regarding them, as she said, as a moment of inspiration,' and she wrote both to her mother and to Pauline Craven. M. and Mme. de la Ferronnays and Eugénie were daily expected, and Albert, who knew by this time that his state was hopeless, begged her to remain among them, and not make her home, with her own mother, saying however, 'You are too young you will marry again.' He was better by the time his parents arrived, and Eugénie wrote to her elder sister in a spirit of much thankfulness for both the joys that had met them on their arrival, though with no delusive expectations: 'How strange it is,' writes the young girl in this her first experience of trouble, 'to dare to approach everything, utter everything, and thus look grief in the face so very near. I think the reason it can be done is the constant thought of the other life, the certainty that happiness is nowhere but there, that life in this world is only a journey, of which one longs for the end, where weariness will rest, gloom be enlightened, and this our great need of love and thirst for happiness, will be satisfied.'- Vol. i. p. 375. By the 10th of April, Albert was well enough to be taken by easy stages to Paris, where he arrived on the 13th of May, and was placed under the care of Dr. Hahnemann, the inventor of homeopathy, then an old man of eighty. He was so much struck with Alexandrine that he took her hand and told her that in sixty years of practice he had never seen so loving a wife. But this loving wife had become so awake to the full blessings of the Church, that she could write to Montalembert that she should be happier as a widow, as a Catholic, than even with Albert if she were to continue a Protestant. Looking over this letter in after times, she wrote on the margin: O, how winning is truth, since only one of its rays, lighting on my heart, even before I embraced it, could thus make itself preferable to Albert!' This would, indeed, be a perilous book to one who did not feel that Alexandrine's gladness flowed from her new sense of union with the Church; and that the Church is as truly ours as it became hers when she quitted the religion in which she had been, as it were, a mere unit, instead of a member of a great body connected with one Head. On Trinity Sunday, the 29th of May, 1836, after attending mass in church, she dressed herself in white, with a broad blue ribbon crossed on her breast, and then returned to her husband's room, where the Abbé Martin de Noirlieu, his most confidential friend and spiritual guide, said mass at a temporary altar, and then received the abjuration which was made by Alexandrine on her knees, and which was afterwards attested by her husband, his parents, and his |