Part 50 (1/2)

Another heavy pause ensued. An invisible something was in the air,--a sense of that vast supernatural which is deeply centered at the core of the natural universe,--a grave mystery which seemed to envelop all visible things with a sudden shadow of premonitory fear. The silence prevailing was painful--almost terrible. A great ormolu clock in the room, one of the Holy Father's ”Jubilee” gifts, ticked the minutes slowly away with a jewel-studded pendulum, which in its regular movements to and fro sounded insolently obtrusive in such a stillness.

Gherardi abstractedly raised his eyes to a great ivory crucifix which was displayed upon the wall against a background of rich purple velvet,--Manuel was standing immediately in front of it, and the tortured head of the carven Christ drooped over him as though in a sorrow-stricken benediction. A dull anger began to irritate Gherardi's usually well-tempered nerves, and he was searching in his mind for some scathing sentence wherewith to overwhelm and reprove the confident ease of the boy, when the door leading to the Pope's apartments was slowly pushed open to admit the entrance of Monsignor Moretti. Cardinal Bonpre had not seen him since the day of the Vergniaud scandal in Paris,--and a faint colour came into his pale cheeks as he noted the air of overbearing condescension and authority with which Moretti, here on his own ground, as one of the favorites of the Pope, greeted him.

”The Holy Father is ready to receive you,” he said, ”But I regret to inform your Eminence that His Holiness can see no way to excuse or condone the grave offence of the Abbe Vergniaud,--moreover, the fact of the sin-begotten son being known to the world as Gys Grandit, makes it more than ever necessary that the ban of excommunication should be pa.s.sed upon him. Especially, as those uninstructed in the Faith, are under the delusion that the penalty of excommunication has become more or less obsolete, and we have now an opportunity for making publicly known the truth that it still exists, and may be used by the Church in extreme situations, when judged politic and fitting.”

”Then in this case the Church must excommunicate the dead!” said the Cardinal quietly.

Moretti's face turned livid.

”Dead?” he exclaimed, ”I do not believe it!”

Silently Bonpre handed him the telegram received that morning. Moretti read it, his eyes sparkling with rage.

”How do I know this is not a trick?” he said, ”The accursed atheist of a son may have telegraphed a lie!”

”I hardly think he would condescend to that!” returned the Cardinal calmly, ”It would not be worth his while. You must remember, that to one of his particular views, Church excommunication, either for his father or himself, would mean nothing. He makes himself responsible for his conduct to G.o.d only. And whatever his faults he certainly believes in G.o.d!”

Moretti read through the telegram again.

”We must place this before His Holiness,” he said, ”And it will very seriously annoy him! I fear your Eminence,” here he gave a quick meaning look at Bonpre, ”will be all the more severely censured for having pardoned the Abbe's sins.”

”Is it wrong to forgive sinners?” asked Manuel, his clear young voice breaking through the air like a silver bell rung suddenly,--”And when one cannot reach the guilty, should one punish the innocent?”

Moretti scowled fiercely at the fair candid face turned enquiringly near his own.

”You are too young to ask questions!” he said roughly--”Wait to be questioned yourself--and think twice--aye three times before you answer!”

The bright expression of the boy's countenance seemed to become intensified as he heard.

”'Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak!'” he said softly--”'For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you!'”

Moretti flushed angrily, and his hand involuntarily clenched.

”Those words were addressed by our Lord to His Apostles,” he retorted--”Apostles, of whom our Holy Father the Pope is the one infallible representative. They were not spoken to an ignorant lad who barely knows his catechism!”

”Yet were not the Apostles themselves told,” went on Manuel steadily, ”to be humble as ignorant children if they would enter the Kingdom of Heaven? And did not Christ say, 'Whoso offendeth one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea!' I am sure there are many such little ones who believe in Christ,--perhaps too, without knowing any catechism,--and even Apostles must beware of offending them!”

”Does this boy follow your teaching in the quoting of Scripture with so glib a tongue?” asked Moretti, turning sharply round upon the Cardinal.

Bonpre returned his angry look with one of undisturbed serenity.

”My son, I have taught him nothing!” he replied, ”I have no time as yet--and I may add--no inclination, to become his instructor. He speaks from his own nature.”

”It is a nature that needs training!” said Gherardi, smiling blandly, and silencing by a gesture Moretti's threatening outburst of wrath, ”To quote Scripture rashly, without due consideration for the purpose to which it is to be applied, does not actually const.i.tute an offence, but it displays a reprehensible disregard and ignorance of theology.

However, theology,” here he smiled still more broadly, ”is a hard word for the comprehension of the young! This poor little lad cannot be expected to grasp its meaning.”

Manuel raised his bright eyes and fixed them steadily on the priest's countenance.

”Oh, yes!” he said quietly, ”I understand it perfectly! Originally it meant the Word or Discourse of G.o.d,--it has now come to mean the words or discourses, or quarrels and differences of men on the things of G.o.d!

But G.o.d's Word remains G.o.d's Word--eternally, invincibly! No man can alter it, and Christ preached it so plainly that the most simple child cannot fail to understand it!”