The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-24 00:00:00

EVENING-, 24, 1851.

" A sewcely avelthle ' to' droprci from her hps.
"`lt-now becomes my painful duty,' said Mr. L--,
to tell you that there is too much reason to ;ear that
you have been an impostor from first to last.'
" Marie raised her eyes, and without manifesting the
slightest emotion, gently said, 'lt is too true, sir.'
" The whole party looked at one another in aniazt-
ment2 at her unparalleled self-control.

" Well, then,' said Mr. L--, it only remains for
you to tell us who you are, where you came from, and
what hive been your motives for acting in so extraordi-
a way ?'
" With great firmness Marie replied that there were
some circumstances connected with her early history
which she must decline to communicate. Indeed, she
would rather die than reveal the circumstances under
which sho had left her family. Thus much she would
say, that she was a native of M--; that her father
was a surgeon; that he and her mother died when she
was younr, leaving her to the care of an only brother:
he treated her unkindly, and she had long since left him.
For two years before coming to London she had had a
situation at
of two little girls. Their mother and father dying, they
were sent to the care of their guardian. Being again
throw❑ upon the world, she had had recourse to the ex-
pedient of going into a convent. Growing tired of its
discipline, and having heard of Mr. L— in the north, as
man of benevolence and kindness, on coming to London,
she determined to find him out.
" Well,' said Mr. L—, 'if I were to express what I
think of your conduct, it would only give you pain, and
under present circumstances do little good. I presume
that you have no uncle?'
"' No.'

" How were his letters managed?'
" ' I wrote them all myself in your house, andihad them
translated and rewritten by Mr. —, a teacher of
languages in
The teacher of languages was applied to, and the
following was his explanation:—
" I have called on you,' said Mr. L— , in refer-
ence to some letters which have been sent to my house,
written by Miss G—, and translated here.'
" Oh, it is Mr. L— I suppose?'

Yes.' _ _
" ' Well, I am glad to see you. I was thinking of call-
ing upon you to know if you can tell me about Miss
CliffJrd, as she has not been here for some time.'
" It is a Miss G-, not a Miss Cliffird,' said Mr.
L-.

" No, it was a Mrs. or Miss Clifford who came here,
and the letters wore sent tr%
Mr. auu Airs. L louked perplexed and puzzled.
" She was a short stout young lady,' said Mr. —,
and she came to me, and said she wanted some letters
translated for her niece, a Miss G—, at Mr. L—'s,
C— terrace. She asked me if I was a Catholic. I
said, "if you come to me on business I will attend to
you, but if it is about religion, I have no time to talk on
that subject." She said it did not matter, only she
thought if I were a Catholic I could better enter into
the feelings with which she wrote these letters.'

"Ar. and Mrs. L---- could not yet make it out. Here
was a new character appearing on the stage in the shape
of a Miss Clifford.

" Mr. -- proceeded, ' She told me that her niece
had apostatized from the Catholic Church, and that she
had been so angry with her at first that she had declared
she would never write to her again, but latterly she had
relented, and wished to try to bring her back to the true
Church. Her niece did not speak English, so she wished
the letters to be in French; besides which she should
save her word by our writing them.' He then !produced
two packets, one of Marie's English originals, and the
other her orders to him to translate them. did them
up,' he added, in :case I might be out, as she said she
was going to call; and I wrote the account outside, 131
pages at is. a page, Cl. 11s. -
" ' But these letters were from a gentleman, a priest,'
said Mr. and Mrs. L—; 'not from a young lady.'
" Mr.:— was puzzled in his turn. He rang for his
French assistant, a tall, grave, young man, and they be-
gan to chatter away in French.
"‘ Those letters, Miss Clifford's letters, were from a
priest,' said —.

" A priest! no.' said the young Frenchman. They
were from a lady!'
" Why, how could you translate these letters and
think they were from a lady ?' said Mrs. L-; and
she eagerly seized one of Marie's copies to show the im-
possibility of understanding the writer to be a lady.
She ran her eye down a page. There is frequent
mention of the General,' said she, the General of the
Jesuits.'

" It does not say what general,' they replied, 'it
might be a father or brother, a military general.'
" Here he talks of keeping his retreat,' she said again.
" Ladies have retreats, too,' they replied.
"And true enough, as she looked down page after page,
she saw that they would suit equally with either of
Marie's assumed characters, an aunt or an uncle."

Having thus discovered the imposture, Mr. and Mrs.
L. determined to institute some inquiries at the con-
vents of I. and S. The following is the account of
the interview with the authorities of the two convents.
The first visit was to 1., where the following collo-
quy took place:—
" Mrs. L.—' We called to make some inquiries about a
young person who was educated here. bhe was after-
wards a governess in the family of some friends of ours,
and left on account of ill health. It is necessary that
she should find another home ; and as our friends were
not fully satisfied, we thought that, perhaps, you would
favour usi with a little information respecting her.'

~ s.—~What is her name ?'
" Mrs. L.—' M-- L-- G--.'

" Mrs. L.—' Perhaps she was here before you?'
" Oh, no! I have been Superioress of this con-
vent for a number of years. lam quite sure that we
have bad no one here of that name.'
" Mrs. L.—' She states that she was twice here: on
one occasion for a period of two years; and that she has
been seventeen years in a convent of your order. She
says that she used to write letters for Madame D'H--'
(Very Reverend Mother).
S.—' That cannot be, for Madame D'H-- never
has any one but a religious person to write for her. She
cannot speak English, and she never comes to Englani.'
"Mrs. L.—' It is just possible that this young person
may have changed her name. Perhaps you may recog-
nise the handwriting,' producing a specimen.
"S.—' This is the handwriting taught in our schools,
certainly.'
"Mrs. She says that Madame de la R--, who
died last June, and who joined your community when
she became a widow, was her aunt.'
" S.-4 Madame de la R-- was never married, and she
is still living.'
" Mrs. L.-4 Perhaps you would know this young per-
son's portrait. I have brought it with me.'
" S.—' No ; Ido not know this face. I am sure she
was never here.'

" After a pause the Superioress added, "Perhaps you
will allow me to take it out of the room for a few
minutes, to see if any one else can recognise it.'
" The lady:left the room—the piano ceased, the voices
in the hall dropped, and a quiet debate appeared to be
going on. In a few minutes she re-appeared.
" No, we do not know the person; but we think that
Madame (Reverend Mother), who is now at
S--, would be able to tell you. She may have been
brought up there.'
"Mrs. I did not know that there was any school
at S--, except the poor school.'
"S.—' Oh, yes! there is a very large school for an
inferior class of pupils to those who are brought up
here. Madame will be here to-morrow, or you
could bee her at S--- this evening, if more con-
venient.'

" They thanked her, and returned to town by the next
train. They went back to Mr. and thence
hastened to S--.

" It was nearly eight o'clock when they entered the
outer gate in the street, by the side of the Catholic
chapel; and pasing through the little court, or garden
to another entrance, they rang the bell. A novice in
her white cap drew back the little sliding panel, and in.
quired their business.

" We wish to see Madame . We will not de•
tain her many minutes. We have been to I--, ex.
pecting to find her there, or we would not have come al
so late an hour.'

" The novice withdrew, and prosentli another came,
unlocked the door, and showed them into a little room
close to the gate. The floor was covered with oil-clotb,
and there were a few wooden chairs.

"Presently a third person appeared, and led them into
another little room adjooining the first. It was carpeted,
and a little better furnished than the other. It looked
out into the large court-yard, where several nuns with
measured steps were passing to and fro. A large range
of buildings surrounded this court; but they had scarcely
observed thus much when another messenger came up
to ask the name of each. The names were given, and
she withdrew.

"Finally Madame --,
the Reverend Mother, ap-
peared. Mrs. L-- again stated the case as at I—,
and asked if Madame could oblige her with any
particulars respecting Marie.
" 0 yes! She was with us for a month about a year
and a half ago.'
" Only a month ! She says that she was:seventeen
years in convents of your Order, and that she had been
for the two last years a postulant.'
" She was not with us longer than a month or five
weeks. She was introduced to me by the Reverend
, a priest in Liverpool, as a
young person who
had become a Catholic, and was very much persecuted
by her Protestant friends. She was obliged to leave
home and wanted an asylum, and he said that it would
be kind if I would take her.'
" She says that she was six weeks in your Liverpool
convent, and two years at I—.'
" She never set foot in our Liverpool convent. I
brought her to town with me the same night, and we
made her up a bed in the little parlour, because the
house was full. She wanted to go to I--, and she was
there for one day, but I sent her back again, for we have
none but young ladies there, and we only employ per-
sons of confidence.'
"`She says that she has been in convents of your Order
at Amiens, Manott6, Paris, Chattiiinroux, Carrouge,
Nice, and Limerick.'
"' It is very true that we have convents at all these
places, but she has never been in them.'
" I should like to be quite sure that it is the same.
Do you know this portrait?'
" 0 yes! That is she certainly.'
" ' Will you kindly tell me why she left you?'
"' Yes. After she had been with us a little while she
became restless, and said that her temporal affairs re-
quired her return to her friends. She showed me some
sort of deed, and a lawyer's letter, and said that she
should lose her property if she did not go.'
" And how did she go?'
4, She said that a friend of her family lived in
Street, and that if she went to her, she knew that she
could soon get back to her relations in the north. I
sent, but probably the lady had, moved, for no such per-

son could be found. She went out another day, and
came back. saying that she bad found her friend, and
that sho would come for her at halt-past six o'clock. I
offered to send a. re.pot,sible person to ascertain that it
was all right; trot sLe said there was no occasion, as she
was quite satisfied. A lady in a cab came that night,
and she went. As her health was delicate, and she did
not feel well enough to do any thing, we were not on the
whole sorry that sne decided on leaving.'
"Mrs. L-- thanked Madame ---, and rose to
leave. The lady requested that her nume might not be
brought forward, and Mrs. L-- promised that it
should not. She was a very well conducted young
person while with us,' added Madame ---, I have
nothing to say against her.'
Notwithstanding Marie's confession that she was an
impostor, the Rev. S. L. did nut at once abandon her
to her fate, neither aid he, as we are inclined to think
he ought to have done, give her into custody ; but
having learned from bar that certain ladies at Ghent,
who kept a school, and with whom she said she was
acquainted, would receive her, he shipped her off on
board the Ostend packet, the steward of which saw her
take the train for Ghent; on visiting Ghent some few
months afterwards, the Rev. S. L. made inquiries for
Marie, but no trace could be found either of her or of
the ladies she had mentioned, and since that period she
has been seen in London, and is probably at this moment
a spy in some Protestant family. That Marie is a spy
in the hands of the continental Jesuits we think is evi-
dent, and while we state this we at once acquit the
Indies of the establishments at I. and at S. of all com-
plicity in the plot. On the Liverpool priest who intro-
duced her to these ladies much suspicion rests,
but he, we are inclined to believe, was a mere sub -
ordinate ; the concoctors of the plot are to be found
in France, and perhaps the biographer of St. Elizabeth
of Hungary could, if he chose, enlighten us as to the
real history of Marie L. G. The letters from the
supposed Mr. Clifford were, it is true, all posted in
London (in almost every letter he states that he has
sent it in the church parcel to be forwarded), but of
the various letters addressed to him at Manotte, at
Marseilles, at Nice, not one was returned ; there must,
therefore, have been accomplices at all these places,
and at all these places the French Jesuits have
large establishments. The objects of the imposture
were various, and it was so cunningly contrived that
one or other of them must inevitably succeed. The
Romish priests boast of the numbers who have recently
left die Anglican Churoh for Rome, but, thoc• are far
outnumbered by those who have left the Romish
Church and embraced Protestantism, but who dare
not make open profession of their faith until they
have found refuge in some Protestant household,
where they may be safe from the persecution to
which they would he, by order of the priests, sub-
jected. Now the case of Marie L. G., should her im-
posture be discovered, was the one of all others cal-
culated to induce Protestants to shut their doors
against any proselytes from Rome, and thus to " give
a heavy blow and a great discouragement " to the
progress of these conversions, while, in the mean-
time, the spy was making herself acquainted with the
minutest details of.. the history of the Protestant mi-
nister and his flock, which were, no doubt, regularly
transmitted to the Jesuit head-quarters, and there
carefully recorded for future use. But this was not all,
nor near all that the Jesuits hoped to accomplish by
locating the spy in the family of the Rev. S. L.; the
main and principle object was no doubt to endeavour
to blast the character of an exemplary Protestant
clergyman, and to hold him up to the world as a ca-
lumniator. The pretended autobiography of Marie
was, it appears, fairly copied out from her rough
draft by Mrs. L. Now Marie, after it had been
so copied out, was exceedingly anxious to regain pos-
session of her original MS., and at the same time was
importunately urging the publication of the autobio-
graphy. The autobiography was no doubt so care-
fully compiled as to admit of the production of direct
and indisputable evidence in contradiction to every
essential particular. had the Rev. S. L., therefore,
acceded to Marie's desire on this point, there cannot
be a doubt that immediately after the pub-
lication Marie and her MSS. would have
disappeared, a cloud of witnesses from all quarters
would have borne testimony to the falsehood of the
statements contained in the autobiography, the Rev.
S. L. would have been challenged to produce the
original MSS., and on his confession of his inability
to do so, the Holy Fathers would at once have de-
nounced him as an unprincipled fabricator of calum-
nious falsF hoods, and John of Tuam would have pro-
bably held him up as a pattern specimen of Protes-
tant " vermin." Fortunately, this cunningly-devised
scheme has been rendered abortive by the straight-
forward truthfulness of the different members of the
family, and by the plain, good common sense of
Mrs. L. It, however, by no means follows that such
will always be the result of these attempts, and it is
a duty the Rev. S. L. owes to society to give the names
and addresses of all the parties concerned at full length;
and, above all, to unkennel the Liverpool priest, whose
evidence would probably lead to a discovery of the
real culprits.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, WEDNESDAY.

The Queen, with her Royal Highness the Princess
Royal, drove out this morning. in a pony phaeton in
Windsor Park, Colonel Buckley attending on hone-
back.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert rode out this morn-
ing on horseback, attended by Licut.-Colonel Alexander
Gordon. . .

The Royal Family took walking and pony exercise in
the Slopes and Windsor-park.
The Royal dinner party this mining will include her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Lady Fanny
Howard, the Baroness de Speth, and Lieut.-Colonel F.
H. and Lady Emily Seymour. The band of the Grena-
dier Guards will attend and play during dinner, and her
Majesty's private band will afterwards perform.
The Countess of Charlemont has succeeded the Mar-
chioness of Douro in her duties as Lady in Waiting to
her Majesty.

Lady John Russell has issued invitations for two
grand assemblies on the 14th of May and 4th of June.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.
OXFORD, APRU. 22.

ELDON LAW SCHOLARSHIP.

The eighth election of an Eldon Scholar will take
place on Wednesday, the 4th of June next, at the resi-
dence of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, 51, Portland-
place, London. All applications must be left at the
office of the Honorary Secretary (Mr. T. Metcalfe, 5,
New-square, Lincolu's-inn) sealed up and endorsed
" Eldon Scholarship—candidate's application," and with
the candidate's name also endorsed. The forms of cer-
tificates and declarations required, together with the
rules and regulations relative to such election, are depo-
sited with the senior tutor of each college and hall, and
with the Registrar of the University.
The annual value of the scholarship is 2001. for three
years.
TRINITY COLLEGE.

The Rev. Joseph Smith, 8.D., Senior Bursar of
Trinity College, succeeds to the living of Rotherfield
Greys, near Henley, vacant by the death of the Rev. VT.
M, Kinsey, B.D. Patrons—the President and Fellows
of Trinity College.