The Daughter of an Empress

"See you not," said Lorenzo, with forced cheerfulness, "that since you

are here you have, against your will, again become brother Clement, and

inveigh against God's vicegerent who holds his splendid court in the

Vatican and Quirinal! Yes, yes that was what brother Clement used to do

in the Franciscan convent; he was always scolding about the pope."

"And yet he let men befool him and make a pope of him," said Ganganelli.

"Ah, Lorenzo, they were indeed good purposes that decided me, and good

and holy resolutions were in me when I bore this crown of St. Peter for

the first time. Ah, I was then so young, not in years, but in hopes and

illusions. I was so enthusiastic for the good and noble, and I wished to

serve it, to honor and glorify it in the name of God!"

"And in the end you have done so!" solemnly responded Lorenzo.

"I have wished to do so!" sighed Ganganelli, "but there it has ended.

I have been hemmed in everywhere; wherever I wished to press through,

I have always found a wall before me--a wall of prejudices, of ancient

customs, once received as indifferent, and at this wall my cardinals and

officials held watch, taking care that my will should be broken against

it, and not be able to speak through, in order to let in a little

freedom, a little fresh air, into our walled realm! They have curbed and

weakened my will, until nothing more of it subsists, and of my holiest

resolutions they have made a scarecrow before which foreign kings and

princes cry murder, and prophesy the downfall of their kingdoms if I

adhere to my innovations. Ah, the princes, the princes! I tell you,

Lorenzo, it is the princes who have undermined the happiness of the

world with their ideas of absolute power; they are the robbers of all

mankind; for freedom, which is the common property of all men, that

have they, like regular lawless highwaymen, appropriated for themselves

alone. They plundered the luck-pennies of all mankind, and coined them

into money adorned with their likenesses, and now all mankind run after

this money, thinking: 'If I gain that, then shall I have recovered my

part of human happiness which once belonged to all in common!' It has

come to this, Lorenzo, through the rapacity of princes, and yet they

still tremble upon their thrones, and fear that the people may one day

awake from their stupid slumber, all rising as one man, and cry in

the paling faces of their robbers: 'Give back what you have taken from

us--we will have what is ours; we require freedom and human right; we

will no longer remain slaves to tremble before a bugbear; we will be

free children of God, and have no one to fear but the God above us and

the consciences within our own breasts!' Come down, therefore, from your

usurped thrones, become once more human--labor, enjoy, complain, and

rejoice, as other men do; live not upon the sweat of your subjects, but

nourish yourselves by your own efforts, that justice may prevail in the

world, and humanity regain its rights!"