OR, WEEKLY THE VISITOR. FOR THE USE AND AMUSEMENT OF BOTH SEXES. VOL. XIII.] Saturday, April 27.1811. KILVERSTONE CASTLE. Those who here expect to meet with romantic fiction, dressed up in the gaudy and do ubtful attire of modern refinement and duplicity, will be dsiappointed. The following little story owes its origin to one of the numerous calamities to which the lot of man is exposed; therefore it in general inculcates resignation to the will of Heaven filial duty, and universal love. Possessed of an ancient pa. ternal estate, Lord Audley, Baron of Kilverstone, dwelt in a vilage in Lincolnshire, exercising those virtues which render a man happy in himself, and a blessing to his fellowcreatures. The Baron had an only son, whose promising ex. cellencies indulged the warmest of his parental wishes, and promised to the world a happy successor to Lord Audley, whose grey hairs approached the grave. The first vestiges of the Reformation had not yet [NO. 1. taken place in this kingdom; yet the good old Baron, from a mind enlarged with good sense and benevolence, had embraced certain principals dissenting from the Roman church. In the neighbourhood of the vilage stood a monastary under the direction of the Abbot of Croyland; the chief of which was an eccleciastic, who, from contracted habits of his education, had hardened his soul with every severity of superstition. Father Peter had acquired a bigotry of principle from example rather than judgment: his monastic learning not advanceing his charity, had furnished him with censures and condemnations; and his aversions were more visible than his charitable compassion. Arbitrary in his principals, so he was arbitrary in his manners. The insolence of the church inflamed his bosom ; and zeal for peculiar modes extinguished that essence of religionuniversal love. To depart from his precepts, was to sin without measure, and amidst a thousand good actions, and a life of uninterrupted benevolence, Lord Audley acquired the hatred and enmity of this ghostly father. The influence which the religious had in those superstitious times over most families, their secret intercourse with the woman, and the rigorous mode they exercised to support their tyrannic authority, gave this haughty churchman many opportunities of instigating mischief towards his neighbour. His blind bigotry induced him to think, that in d-strésing one who dissented from the Church of Rome, he rendered essential service to the God of all; and, through zealous frenzy, he devised a thousand treacheries, and a thousand snares, to oppress and injure the good Baron. The seigniory was Lord Wentworth's, where Audley's lands lay; and he held them by knight's service. To this Lord the treacherous priest addrecsed himself; and, from a forged instrument, alledged to be recorded amongst the archives of the monastry of St. Crowle, in the isle of Axholme, in Lincolnshire, he induced him to prosecute a claim to the estates of Lord Audiey. The secret engines of monastic power were all put in motion on this occasion. The ignorant, deluded through their blindness into zeal, and consequently all his emissaries, were prepared as witnesses to evidence whatever they might be called to; for so far was he from modulating the sallies of passion with piety and virtue, wrath and persecution were the weapons which the holy father wielded with his consecrated hands. Lord Audley, already enervated with age, was but in an ill condition to contend with the wiles of an artful priest; but his benevolent mind knew not the "canker which consumes the wicked." He confided in the God of justice, and smiled at the deBut too vices of his enemies. late he perceived, that the workers of iniquity are not always corrected by the instant band of interposing providence. He was at length alarmed with the reality of his danger; his paternal bosom felt apprehenstons for his son; his age was disturbed in the midst of its infirmities, and the hand of care grasped at his fainting soul. wore, and in which, in palestine, he testified his valour to the Saracens. He regarded the event as accidental, and pursu Lord Audley did not long sustain the shock; death relieved him from all worldly anxiety. With filial and suitable devotion, his only son, Merviled his melancholy walk. HearAudley, laid him in the vaulting the sound again, he looked amidst his ancestors. up, and perceived the coat of mail to tremble on the crooks Called from his travels by where it hung, and the gauntlet his father's approaching disso-moved as if it beckoned him. lution, an utter stranger to the enmity and stratagems of father Peter, he took possession of his inheritance. The contest still went on in the king's court, which at last fixed the day of trial. Some little time preceding this day, young Mervil Audley had retired to the gallery of his mansion, to meditate on the posture of his affairs, and to consider of Lord Wentworth's claim, which alledged its origin al to be owing to a forfeiture at a tilt in Catalonia, where the king's forces lay, and where the late Lord Audley's father had stak'd his estate upon the prowess of a black knight, who was vanquished, and fell in the fatal contest. As he walked pensive to and fro, on a sudden, behind him, at the further end of the gallery, he heard a clash of armour. Turning hastily, he observed the buckler and shield to shake, which once his great ancestor, Moreland Audley, || "This is no common circumstance," cries he. "Let me discover the occasion of that trouble in these arms, which, with their owner, have long been at rest." He asended a few steps, and began to handle the armour, when he distinguished, within the breast plate, a light like the faint rays which glow-worms shed towards evening. Advancing farther, he discovered that the beams proceeded from a small onyx cross, which hung concealed by the armour, suspended by a golden chain from the collar. This unexpected acquisition threw him, for a moment, into surpriseStrange it was, he thought, that such a gem should remain for ages undistinguished, and at the same time possess such transcendant virtue; for it excelled all he had ever seen. It was, as the onyx stone, shadowy, round, and variegated; but around it was diffused a livid light: on its parts were various engravings, of myste rious or emblematical charac sent a letter express to Torre Vecchia, with orders for the messenger to wait the answer of the Marquis, and to return ters, appearing like the Egyp-it without delay. He then tian devices, representing the attributes of the God of nature. (To be Continued.) THE MONK OF THE Grotto. A Tale. (Continued) "Guardian angel! father! friend!" exclaimed Eugenio, hurried away by an involuntary emotion of enthusiasm, and falling at the feet of his uncle. The good Cardinal raised him up, affectionately pressed him to his breast, and insensibly restored calmness and tranquility to his ardent and impetuous soul, by making him sensible of the necessity submiting of circumstances, even for Virginia's sake as well as his own.' "Be it my part to act in this affair," added he, "and my first step shall be that of instantly writing to your fatherin-law." Faithful to his promise, the Cardinal, on that same day, proceeded to the Vatican, and after a private audience of three hours with the Pope, returned to his Palace, emyloyed several hours in writing, after which he desired Eugenio might attend him in his study. "I am overjoyed, my dear son," said he, "that, I at length have it in some degree' in my power to fulfil the promises I have made you. His Holiness, in consequence of my representations to him of the unhappy situation in which you are placed, has consented to entrust you with a mission, which will inevitably conduct you to the path of Fortune.Contrary to custom, he has added you to the legation of Cardinal Doria, my particular friend, who is charged with an important negotiation at the Court of the King of Naples.Besides the thousand sequins attached to the appointment, his Holiness means to present you with a further sum of three hundred sequins; and, at your return, he has promised to convert the thousand sequins into an anual pension. Cardinal Doria, on his part, will exert |