Part 47 (2/2)
”The marriage should never take place!” echoed Gherardi, ”How could you prevent it?”
”The Pope himself should intervene!” said Moretti, with increasing fury, losing a little of his self-control, ”Gran Dio! Conceive for a moment the wealth of the Hermensteins being used to promulgate the reformer Leigh's threadbare theories, and feed his rascal poor! Do you know what Sylvie Hermenstein's fortune is? No, I suppose you do not!
But I do! She tries to keep it a secret, but I have made it my business to find out! It is enormous!--and it is ever increasing. With all the fanciful creature's clothes and jewels and unthinking way of living her life, she spends not a quarter, nor half a quarter of her income,--and yet you actually venture to suggest that her power is so slight over the man who is now her promised husband, that she would voluntarily allow him to use all that huge amount of money as he pleased, OUTSIDE the Church?”
Moretti spoke with such pa.s.sionate insistence that Gherardi thought it prudent not to irritate him further by argument. So he merely said,
”You expect her to persuade him to embrace our faith?”
”Naturally!” answered Moretti, ”And she can, and will do so. If she cannot or will not, she must be MADE to do so!”
He bent over his papers again and rustled them impatiently, but his hand trembled. The pale December sunlight glittered through a stained-gla.s.s window above him, and cast deep violet rays about his chair,--Gherardi stood where the same luminance touched his pale face with a crimson glow as of fire.
”This is a busy morning with us,” said Moretti, without looking up, ”The excommunication of Denis Vergniaud will be p.r.o.nounced to-day,--and, what is even more important,--Cardinal Bonpre is summoned by His Holiness's command to wait upon him this afternoon, bringing the boy,--that boy who is always with him--”
”Ah, there is a history there!” interrupted Gherardi, ”It should be remembered that this boy was a witness of the miracle in Rouen, and he was also present at the Vergniaud scandal in Paris--he should have been sent for ere now. He, more than anyone, must surely know how the miracle was accomplished,--for the worthy Felix tells me he is 'wise beyond his years'!”
”So! His wisdom will be put to the test to-day!” said Moretti coldly, ”Do you not think it strange”--here he raised his eyes from his papers, ”and somewhat incriminating too--always supposing the miracle is a case of conspiracy--that no trace has been discovered of the man Claude Cazeau?”
Gherardi had moved to a book-case, and was standing close to it, turning over a vellum-bound ma.n.u.script.
”Yes--the whole business looks as black as murder!” he said.
Moretti looked at him sharply.
”Murder? You suppose--”
”That Claude Cazeau has been murdered? Certainly I suppose it! It is more than a week now since we heard that he had mysteriously disappeared, and still there is no news. What can it be but murder? But I do not for a moment suppose that our good Saint Felix is concerned in it!”
And he smiled, turning over the vellum volume carelessly.
Moretti knitted his dark brows.
”No--no!” he said musingly, ”That would not be possible! Cardinal Bonpre is not that kind of man--he would rather bear the heaviest weight of punishment for himself than allow another to suffer. That I KNOW of him;--and though I do not admire his extreme views on this point, and do not think them politic, I give him full credit for this particular and uncommon form of--eccentricity!”
”Or Christianity!” said Gherardi, still smiling.
Moretti pushed aside his papers, and leaning his head on one hand frowned meditatively at the amethyst light which streamed radiantly through the jewel-like window above him. ”Yes--or Christianity, if you like!” he said, ”For Christianity pur et simple, WOULD be eccentricity.
In its primitive simplicity it is an impossible creed. Founded by the Divine it needs divine beings to comprehend and follow it,--beings not of this world nor addicted to the things of this world. And to exist in the world, made of the world's clay, and the world's inherited a.s.sociations, and yet not be of it, is to be judged crazed! True, there have been saints and martyrs,--there are saints and martyrs now, unknown and unheard of, but nevertheless consumed by flames more cruel perhaps than those which physically burn the flesh;--idealists, thinkers, dreamers, heralds of future progress,--and how are they estimated? As madmen all! To be human, and yet above humanity, is the supreme sin! For that very affront the mult.i.tude cried out, 'Not this man, but Barabbas!' And to this day we all prefer Barabbas to Christ.
Hence the power of the Church!”
Gherardi put back the volume he had been glancing at, on its shelf, and looked at his confrere with a certain amount of admiring respect. He had been long an interested student of the various psychological workings of Moretti's mind,--and he knew that Moretti's scheming brain was ever hard at work designing bold and almost martial plans for securing such conversions to the Church as would seriously trouble the peace of two or three great nations. Moretti was in close personal touch with every crowned head in Europe; he was acquainted more closely than anyone alive with the timidities, the nervous horrors, the sudden scruples, the sickening qualms of conscience, and the overwhelming fears of death which troubled the minds of certain powerful personages apparently presenting a brave front to the world,--and he held such personages in awe by the very secrets which they had, in weak moments, entrusted to him. Gherardi even was not without his own fears,--he instinctively felt that Moretti knew more about himself than was either safe or convenient.
”We all live for Barabbas,” pursued Moretti, an ironical smile playing on his thin lips, ”Not for Christ! Barabbas, in the shape of the unscrupulous millionaire, robs the world!--and we share the spoils, pardon his robberies, and set him free. But whosoever lives outside Dogma, serving G.o.d purely and preaching truth,--him we crucify!--but our Robber,--our murderer of Truth, we set at liberty! Hence, as I said before, the power of the Church!”
<script>