"And if I refused to exercise this mission of mercy?"

The Baron bowed gravely. "Your Holiness will not refuse," he said.

"But if I do--what then?"

"Then ... your Holiness.... I was about to say something."

"I am listening."

"The man we speak of is the bitterest enemy of the Church. Whatever his

hypocrisies, he is at once an atheist and a freemason, sworn to allow no

private interests or feelings, no bonds of patriotism or blood, to turn

him aside from his purpose, which is to overthrow Society and the

Church."

"Well?"

"He is also a bitter personal enemy of the Holy Father, and knows no

object so dear as that of tearing him from his place and shaking the

throne of St. Peter."

"Well, sir?"

"The police and the army of the Government are the only forces by which

the Holy Father can be protected, and without them the bad elements

which lurk in every community would break out, the Holy Father would be

driven from Rome, and his priests assaulted in the streets."

"But what will happen if I refuse to outrage the sanctity of an immortal

soul in spite of all this danger?"

"Your Holiness asks me what will happen if you refuse to obtain the

denunciation of a man whom your Holiness knows to be conspiring against

public order?"

"I do."

"What will happen will be ... your Holiness, I am speaking...."

"Go on."

"That, if the crime is committed and the King is killed, I, the Minister

of his Majesty, will be in a position to say--and to call upon this

friar to witness--that the Pope knew of it beforehand, and under the

most noble sentiments about the sanctity of an immortal soul gave a

supreme encouragement of regicide."

"And then, sir?"

"The world draws no nice distinctions, your Holiness, and the Vatican is

now at war with nearly all the powers and peoples of Europe. In the

presence of a monstrous crime against the most innocent and the most

highly placed, the world would say that what the Pope did not prevent

the Pope desired, what the Pope desired the Pope designed, and that the

Vicar of the Prince of Peace attempted to rebuild his temporal power by

means of the plots of conspirators and the daggers of assassins."

The sandals of the Capuchin were scraping the floor again, and once more

the Pope put up his hand.




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