So with a benevolent and regretful air, he
said,
"Yes!--no doubt things appear to you as they do not appear to us.
The spirit of faith enables us to see through all unsatisfactory
outward forms and ceremonies, to the actual divine mysteries which
they symbolise;--and heretics perceive incongruities, where we, by
the grace of God, see nothing but harmony! And though you, Mr.
Leigh, receive the information with incredulity and a somewhat
blameable indifference, it is a matter of rejoicing to us that
Cardinal Bonpre has performed this miracle of healing at Rouen. It
would have raised him to a very high place indeed in the Holy
Father's estimation, had it not been for the strange mistake he has
unfortunately made with respect to the Abbe Vergniaud."
"One may cure a sick person then, but one must not pardon a sinner?"
suggested Aubrey, "'For whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be
forgiven thee;' or 'Arise and walk?' The one is considered a
miracle;--the other a mistake!"
Gherardi's cold eyes glittered.
"We will not go into the technicalities of the question," he said
frigidly, "We will return to the point from whence we diverged. Your
wish expressed in this letter," and he drew one from a packet on the
table and glanced it over in a business-like way, "was to obtain a
private audience from the Pope.
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