Did ever our Lord do a good or a
kind deed without being calumniated for it? Did not all those men-
fools in Jerusalem go about 'secretly seeking how they might betray
him'? That is a lesson for us all,--and never forget, petite, that
for showing them the straight way to Heaven He was crucified!"
The next day a telegram was despatched from the Archbishop of Rouen
to Monsignor Moretti at the Vatican:--
"Claude Cazeau visited Hotel Poitiers last night, but has since
mysteriously disappeared. Every search and enquiry being made.
Strongly suspect foul play."
XXVI.
November was now drawing to a close, and St. Cecilia's Day dawned in
a misty sunrise, half cloud, half light, like smoke and flame
intermingled. Aubrey Leigh, on waking that morning, had almost
decided to leave Rome before the end of the month. He had learned
all that was necessary for him to know;--he had not come to study
the antiquities, or the dark memories of dead empires, for he would
have needed to live at least ten years in the city to gain even a
surface knowledge of all the Romes, built one upon another, in the
Rome of to-day. His main object had been to discover whether the
Holy See existed as a grand and pure institution for the uplifting
and the saving of the souls of men; or whether it had degenerated
into an unscrupulous scheme for drawing the money out of their
pockets.
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