"'When I come back, it will be with such a force behind me as will make
the prisons open their doors and the thrones of tyrants tremble.' That's
what he said, your Holiness. The movement will come soon, too, I am sure
it will, and then your Holiness will see that, instead of being
irreligious men, the leaders of the people...."
The Pope held up his hand. "Stop!" he cried. "Say no more, my child. God
knows what I must do with what you have said already."
Then Roma saw what she had done in the wild gust of her emotion, and in
her terror she tried to take it back.
"Holy Father, you must not think from what I say that David Rossi is for
revolution and regicide...."
"Don't speak, my child. You cannot know what an earthquake you have
opened at my feet. Let me think!"
There was silence for a moment, and then Roma gulped down the great
lumps in her throat and said: "I am only an ignorant woman, Holy Father,
and perhaps I have said too much, and do not understand. But what I have
told your Holiness was told me in love and confidence. And the Holy
Father is wise and good, and whatever he does will be for the best."
The Pope returned to his chair with a bewildered look, and did not seem
to hear. Roma sank to her knees by his side and said in a low, pleading
tone: "My husband's faith in me is so beautiful, your Holiness. Oh, so
beautiful. I am the only one in the world to whom he has told all his
secrets, and if any of them should ever come back to him...."
"Don't be afraid, my daughter. What you said in simple confidence shall
be as sacred as if it had been spoken under the seal of the
confessional."
"If I could tell your Holiness more about him--who he is and where he
comes from--a place so lowly and humble, your Holiness...."
"Tell me no more, my child. It is better I should not know. Pity ought
to have no place in what duty tells me to do. But I can love David Rossi
for all that. I do love him. I love him as a lost and wayward son, whose
hand is raised against his Father, though he knows it not."
There was a bell button on the Pope's chair. He pressed it, and the
Participante returned to the room without knocking. The Pope rose and
took Roma's hand.