And you, Cardinal Bonpre, must receive from
us a necessary measure of correction, for having pardoned one who in
his last discourse to humanity attacked the Church and slandered it.
To one of your eminence and reputation, the lesson may seem hard,
but a chastening reproof can but purify the spirit, and free it from
that pride which apes humility!"
The Cardinal bent his head patiently and remained silent.
Monsignor Moretti advanced a step towards the Papal throne.
"The boy"--he began.
A slight animation warmed the chill lifelessness of the Pope's
features. "True! I had almost forgotten!" he said. Then to the
Cardinal, "Where is the boy you rescued from the streets, who lives
with you, and who witnessed the miracle at Rouen?"
Manuel had till now stood aside, half hidden in the shadow of the
crimson damask which, falling from ceiling to floor in rich
luxurious folds, draped the corners of the room, but at these words
he advanced at once.
"I am here!" he said.
Fronting the Pope, with his fair head thrown back, and his blue eyes
flashing with all the soul-light of a swift, unwarped intelligence,
he stood,--and the white shrunken figure of the old man in the
gilded chair raised itself as if by some interior electric force,
slowly, slowly--higher and higher--the deep-set old eyes staring
into the brilliant youthful ones--staring--staring till they seemed
to protrude and tremble under their shelving brows, like the last
sparks of a flame about to fall into extinction.
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