Not a sound, not a breath disturbed the
heavy silence which seemed to have grown deeper than before. And
Manuel, looking eagerly again and closely into the Pope's face, went
on with increasing ardour and passion.
"Come out with me!" he said, "Or if you will not come,--then beware
of the evil days which are at hand! The people are wandering to and
fro, crossing all lands, struggling one against the other, hoarding
up useless gold, and fighting for supremacy!--but 'the day of the
Lord shall come like a thief in the night, and blessed is he who
shall be found watching!' Watch! The hour is growing dark and full
of menace!--the nations are as frightened children, losing faith,
losing hope, losing strength! Put away,--put away from you the toys
of time!--quench in your soul the thirst for gold, for of this shall
come nothing but corruption! Why trifle with the Spirit of holy
things? Why let your servants use the Name of the Most High to cover
hypocrisy? Why crave for the power of temporal things which passes
away in the dust of destroyed kingdoms? For the Power of the Spirit
is greater than all! And so it shall be proved! The Spirit shall
work in ways where it has never been found before!--it shall depart
from the Churches which are unworthy of its Divine inspiration!--it
shall invest the oaths of Science!--it shall open the doors of the
locked stars! It shall display the worlds invisible;--the secrets of
men's hearts, and of closed graves!--there will be terror and loss
and confusion and shame to mankind,--and this world shall keep
nothing of all its treasures but the Cross of Christ! Rome, like
Babylon, shall fall!--and the Powers of the Church shall be judged
as the Powers of Darkness rather than of Light, because they have
rejected the Word of their Master, and 'teach for doctrine the
commandments of men!' Disaster shall follow swift upon disaster, and
the cup of trembling shall be drained again to its last dregs, as in
the olden days, unless,--unless perchance--you will come out with
me!"
With the last words a sort of galvanic shock seemed to be imparted
to the rigid figure in the chair.
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