Part 34 (2/2)
He rose up again from his chair and stood full height,--a grand and beautiful figure of n.o.ble old age, transfigured by the light of some never-aging thought, some glorious inspiration. And Angela, who had been startled and alarmed by his sudden fainting fit, was even more overcome by the sight of him thus radiant and selfpossessed, and dropping on her knees she caught his hand and kissed it, her tears falling fast. He stooped and raised her.
”Child, why are you weeping?” he said tenderly, ”Nay, I am not so ill as you think me! I am well--strong!--ready for the doing of many things in my Master's service! Pietro, take this dear girl and comfort her!”
and he put her gently into her father's arms,--”For myself, I have work to do--work to do!--” he repeated musingly,--”I see trouble ahead!--but I shall face it--and if G.o.d please--overcome it!” His, eyes flashed, and after a moment he resumed, ”I will write to Gherardi now--and to-morrow--to-morrow I will speak!”
”Can I help you, brother?” asked the Prince, taken out of himself by the air of splendour and sovereignty which seemed to surround the Cardinal as with a divine halo, ”You are fatigued with your journey,--let me write for you!”
”No, Pietro! I must do this myself, and think well of all I should say.” He paused, then added, ”They tell me Claude Cazeau, secretary to the Archbishop of Rouen brought the news of this so-called miracle to Rome. I should have liked to have seen that man to-night.”
”You will see him at the Vatican,” said Sovrani. with a touch of irony, ”That will be time enough! Oh, innocent Felix! Do you not see you will be confronted with Cazeau? And that Gherardi and his set will be there to note your every look and gesture, and privately judge as to whether you and the Archbishop of Rouen concocted the miracle between you! And that if you were to see this Cazeau to-night, that very meeting would be taken as a sign of conspiracy!”
Over the pale features of the Cardinal rushed a warm glow of indignation, but it died away as rapidly as it had come.
”True!” he said simply, ”I forgot! If a good deed is done in the world by the force of the undefined Spirit of Christ, it is judged as trickery,--and we must never forget that even the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord from the dead is believed by some to be a mere matter of conspiracy among His disciples. True--I forgot the blindness,--the melancholy blindness of the world! But we must always say, 'Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!' I will write to Gherardi,--and,--if you will permit me, I will remain in my own rooms tonight for I must think and pray,--I must be alone . . .”
”Without me, my lord Cardinal?” asked Manuel softly.
”No, not without you!” and Bonpre looked at him with a smile, ”Not without you! I have no wish to be so much alone as your absence would make me. Come!”
And lifting the heavy velvet portiere at the door, he held it back for his ”foundling” to pa.s.s,--and then slowly followed.
XX.
On the first floor of an ancient mansion, in a street which slopes down towards the Tiber, there is a suite of dreary old rooms which must evidently have once belonged to some great ”Prince of the Church”, (to use the term which Cardinal Bonpre held so much in aversion,) if one may form any opinion from the ecclesiastical designs on the faded green hangings, which cling like moss to the damp walls, and give an additional melancholy to the general gloom The ”salon” or audience-chamber is perhaps the best in repair, and possesses a gorgeous, painted ceiling, bordered by a frieze of red and gold, together with one or two large pictures, which perhaps if cleaned might show the touch of some great Master, but which in their sad condition of long neglect, present nothing to the view but a dark blur of indistinct outlines. The rooms in their entirety composed the business, or town dwelling of Monsignor Gherardi, one of the cleverest, most astute, and most unscrupulous of men, to whom Religion was nothing more than a means of making money and gaining power. There was scarcely a Roman Catholic ”community” in the world, in which Gherardi had not a share,--and he was particularly concerned in ”miraculous shrines”, which were to him exactly in the same category as ”companies” are to the speculator on the Stock Exchange. He had been cautious, prudent, and calculating from his earliest years,--from the time when, as the last male scion of the house of Gherardi he had been educated for the Ecclesiastical career at the ”College of n.o.bles”. He had read widely, and no religious or social movement took place anywhere without his knowing of it and admitting it into his calculations as a sort of new figure in his barking sum. He was an extensive shareholder in the ”Lourdes” business; and a careful speculator in all the religious frenzies of the uneducated and superst.i.tious. His career had been very successful so far. He had ama.s.sed a considerable fortune; and away out towards Frascati he had a superb Villa, furnished with every modern luxury and convenience, (not rented in his own name, but in that of a man whom he paid heavily to serve him as his tool and menial,)--where a beautiful Neapolitan danseuse condescended to live as his mistress;--he was a diplomat for himself if not for his country, and kept his finger on the pulse of European politics as well as on the fluctuating fevers of new creeds. But he never troubled himself seriously as to the possible growth of any ”movement”, or ”society”, or ”crusade”; as experience had taught him that no matter how ardently thinkers may propound theories, and enthusiasts support them, there is always a dense and steady wave of opposition surging against everything new,--and that few can be found whose patience will hold out sufficiently long to enable them to meet and ride over that wet wall of dull resistance.
Monsignor Gherardi was a most useful man at the Vatican, as he never failed to comfort the Pope whenever that Holy Personage was cast down or afraid of brooding disasters. When the Representative of the ever-merciful Christ ventured to give it out as his Christian opinion that the unhappy and maltreated Dreyfus would be found guilty Monsignor Gherardi smilingly agreed with him. When His Holiness denounced Freemasonry as a wicked a.s.sociation, formed for atheistical and revolutionary purposes, Gherardi, though he knew well enough that it was a fraternity formed for the mutual help and sustainment of its members, denounced it too;--in the gardens of the Vatican, but not elsewhere. There was nothing really either in the way of Freemasonry or other sort of ”society”, that he was afraid of;--no anxiety whatever troubled his mind, except the possibility of losing money by some incautious speculation. In appearance he was an exceedingly handsome man,--tall, with a fine figure and commanding features,--physical advantages which greatly helped him to enforce his spiritual authority.
As he sat in his high-backed, gilded chair, turning over papers on his desk, docketing this and marking that for reference, his dark eyes sparkling with avidity as he counted up certain dividends obtained from mysterious shares in ”miracle” health resorts, and a smile of satisfaction playing on the firm, well-shaped curve of his intellectual but hard mouth, he looked an imposing personage enough, of the very type to awe the weak and timorous. He was much entertained on this particular morning,--one might almost say he was greatly amused. Quite a humorous little comedy was being played at the Vatican,--a mock-solemn farce, which had the possibility of ending in serious disaster to the innocent,--and he, as a student of the wily and treacherous side of human nature, was rather interested in its development. Cardinal Felix Bonpre, a man living far away in an obscure cathedral-town of France, where he had become renowned for good works and saintly living, had now, after many years, come out of his long voluntary retirement, and had performed a miracle!
”And very well done too!” murmured Monsignor Gherardi, smiling to himself, ”Well prepared, well thought out, and successfully accomplished! Our good Felix is much cleverer than I gave him credit for. First, he wins a renown for good works,--then he starts travelling toward Rome, the Mother of our Faith,--and on his way to the sacred city performs a miraculous cure! An excellent move! I see a possibility of making the Cathedral of Rouen a popular shrine for healing. Yes, much can be done there! Only I am sorry that Felix has made a little mistake in Paris--just a little mistake!--in that matter of Vergniaud.
And it is exceedingly unfortunate that the son should turn out to be Gys Grandit. No wonder the Holy Father is troubled;--no wonder! It is a little drama of the age, and will no doubt prove complex in its movement, and worth watching.” Here his smile broadened,--and his eyes glittered more keenly than ever ”Yes!--it will be an excitement; and one wants a little excitement now and then in the general monotony.
Since Agostino preached,--” here he paused, and a dark contraction knitted his brows,--”Let me see!--this morning, yes!--this morning I receive the English socialist Aubrey Leigh.”
He turned in his chair, and glanced at the dial of a huge ticking clock behind him, and saw that the hands were close on the appointed hour of eleven. His smile slowly disappeared, and vanished altogether in a heavy frown. ”A dangerous man! I do not like his book--it is written in melodramatic style, with heat and with enthusiasm, and will attract the vulgar. He must be suppressed--but how?”
He rose and paced the room slowly, his long white hands clasped behind his back, and the frown on his brows deepened;--how suppress a man who had announced himself as free of every Church and Creed, and who was resolved to stand by the moral ethics of Christ only? A man who desired nothing for himself, not even money;--”But stop!” thought Gherardi,--”that is absurd! Every man wants money! Every man must have it, and the more he has, the more he seeks. There is no one in the world who cannot be bought or bribed!”
At that moment the green hangings of the door were lifted, and the Italian man-servant announced,--
”Il Signor Aubri Lee!”
Gherardi, who in his pacing to and fro had reached the window, wheeled round abruptly and faced his entering visitor. The light fell aslant upon his stately figure as he drew himself up to his full height, and greeted Leigh with a suavely condescending bow and smile, while Aubrey in turn glanced him up and down with a pleasurable consciousness of his intellectual appearance, and evident combative temperament.
”You are welcome, Mr. Leigh,” said Gherardi, speaking English with a fluency of which he was pardonably proud, ”Your letter from Florence received my instant attention, and as you see, I have made it a point to receive you at once--in spite of pressing business. Yes,--in spite of pressing business! I confess I have been curious to see the writer who has made himself so obnoxious to our dear friends and brothers, the English clergy!”
A smile that was brilliant, but which conveyed no meaning whatever, illumined his features; but for all reply to these words Aubrey simply bowed and remained silent. Gherardi glanced at him sharply. Was he intimidated already?--overawed at being in the presence of one who was known to be a friend and confidant of the Pope? No--there was nothing of fear or embarra.s.sment in the composed att.i.tude, proud manner, and reserved expression of this slim, muscular man, with the bright hair and keen eyes,--and Gherardi dropped his tone of patronage for one of courtesy.
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