And Bonpre listened patiently;-
-and to all that was said, merely reiterated that if the child WERE
so cured, then it was by the special intervention of God, as he
personally had done no more than pray for his restoration. But to
his infinite amazement and distress he saw plainly that the Holy
Father did not believe him. He saw that he was suspected of playing
a trick,--a trick, which if he had admitted, would have been
condoned, but which if he denied, would cause him to be looked upon
with distrust by all the Vatican party. He saw that even the man
Cazeau suspected him. And then,--when the public confession of the
Abbe Vergniaud came under discussion,--the Pope had gathered
together all the visible remains of physical force his attenuated
frame could muster, and had hurled himself impotently against the
wall of opposing fact with such frail fury as almost to suggest the
celebrated simile of "a reed shaken with the wind". In vain had the
Cardinal pleaded for Vergniaud's pardon; in vain had he urged that
after all, the sinner had branded himself as such in the sight of
all men; what further need to add the ban of the Church's
excommunication against one who was known to be within touch of
death? Would not Christ have said, "Go, and sin no more"? But this
simple quotation from the Gospels seemed to enrage the
representative of St.
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