In no way can I admit
that my conduct has been of a nature to give offence to you or to
the Holy See, for I have only in all things sought to obey the
teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whose memory our faith is
founded. Your Holiness desires me, first, to cease every
communication with the only relatives left to me on earth,--my
brother-in-law Pietro Sovrani and his daughter, the daughter of my
dead sister, my niece Angela. You demand the severance of these
bonds of nature, because my niece has produced a work of art, for
which she alone is responsible. I venture most humbly to submit to
Your Holiness that this can scarcely be called true Christian
justice to me,--for, whereas on the one side I cannot be made
answerable for the thoughts or the work of a separately responsible
individual, on the other hand I should surely not be prohibited from
exercising my influence, if necessary, on the future career of those
related to me by blood as well as endeared to me by duty and
affection. My niece has suffered more cruelly than most women; and
it is entirely owing to her refusal to speak, that the memory of
Florian Varillo, her late affianced husband, is not openly branded
as that of a criminal, instead of being as now, merely under the
shadow of suspicion.
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