Oh! it was admirably managed, Adrian--admirably!" "Thank Heaven!" said Adrian, with some difficulty recovering the breath which his astonishment had taken away, "you do not think of embracing that black proposition ?" "Think of it! no, indeed!" said Stephen, throwing himself back on his chair.

"Why, do you not know my age, boy?
Hard on my ninetieth year, I should be a fool indeed to throw myself into such a whirl of turbulence and agitation.

I want to keep what I have, not risk it by grasping more.
Am I not the beloved of the pope?
shall I hazard his excommunication?
Am I not the most powerful of the nobles?
should I be more if I were king?
At my age, to talk to me of such stuff!--the man's an idiot.

Besides," added the old man, sinking his voice, and looking fearfully round, "if I were a king, my sons might poison me for the succession.

They are good lads, Adrian, very! But such a temptation!--I would not throw it in their way; these grey hairs have experience! Tyrants don't die a natural death; no, no! Plague on the Knight, say I; he has already cast me into a cold sweat." Adrian gazed on the working features of the old man, whose selfishness thus preserved him from crime.