Chapter XIV.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5699, 19 October 1896, Page 1

Chapter XIV.

— (Continued.)

Pierre listened thunderstruck, overcome. He forgot himself to think of the apostle of kindliness and tolerance wpon whose head he had drawn this all-powerful anger. So Don Vigilio had spoken the truth: over andabovehis— Pierre's — head the denunciations of the Bishops of Evreux and P6itiere were about to fall on the man who opposed their Ultramontane policy, that worthy and gentle Cardinal Bergerot, whose heart was open to all the woes of the lowly and the j>oor. This filled the young priest with he could accept the denunciation pi th\ Bishop ofcTarbes acting on behalf of the" Fathers bi tne'd&rottoj- for 'that only fell on "himself;" as a •reprisal for what he had written abontLourdes ; but the underhand warfare of the others exasperated him, filled him with dolorous indignation. And from that puny old man before him with tie slender, scraggy neck of an aged bird, he had suddenly" seen such a wrathful, formidable Master arise that he trembled. How could he have allowed himself to be deceived by appearances on entering ? How could he have imagined that lie was simply in presence of a poor old man, worn out by age, desirous of peace, and ready for every concession? A blast had swept through that sleepy chamber, and all his doubts and his anguish awoke once more. Ah ! that Pope, how thoroughly he answered to all the accounts that he, Pierre, had heard but had refused to believe ; so many people had told him in Rome that ho would find Leo XIII a man of intellect rather than of sentiment, a man, of the most unbounded jjride, who from his very youth had nourished the supreme ambition, to such a point indeed that he had promised eventual trhunph to his relatives in order that they might make the necessary sacrifices for him, while Bince he had occupied the pontifical throne his one will and determination had been to reign, to reign in spite of all, to be the sole absolute and omnipotent master oi the world! And now here was reality arising with irresistible force and confirming everything. And yet Pierre struggled, stubbornly clutching at his dream once more. "Oh! Holy Father," said he, "I should be grieved indeed if his Eminence shoidd have a moment's worry on account of my unfortunate book. If I be . guilty I "car answer for my error, but liis Eminence only obeyed the dictates.of his heart and can only have transgressed by excess oi love for the disinherited of the world!" Leo XIII. made no reply. He had again raised his superb eyes, those eyes of ardeni life, set, as it were, in the motionless countenance of an alabaster idol ; and once more he was fixedly gazing at the young priest. . And Pierre, amidst his returning feverishness, seemed to behold him growing in power and splendour, whilst behind him arose a vision of the ages, a vision of that long line of Popes whom the young, priest had previously evoked, the saintly and the proud ones, the warriors and the ascetics, the theologians and the diplomatists, those who had worn armour, those who had conquered by the Cross, those who had disposed of empires as of mere provinces ■which God had committed to their charge. And in particular Pierre beheld the great Gregory, the conqueror and founder, and Sixtus V., the negotiator and politician, who had first foreseen the eventual victory of the papacy over all the vanquished monarchies. Ah ! what a throng, of magnificent princes, of sovereign masters with powerful brains and arms, there was behind that pale, motionless, old man ! "What au accumulation of inexhaustible determination, stubborn genius, and boundless domination ! The whole history of humai ambition, the whole effort of the ages tc subject the nations to the pride of one man, the greatest force that has ever conquered, exploited and fashioned mankinc in the name of its happiness ! And evei now, when territorial sovereignty had conif to an end, how great was the spiritua; sovereignty of that pale and slender ole man, in whose presence women fainted, as if overcome by the divine splendour radiating from his person. Not only did al] the resounding glories, the masterfu triumphs oi history spread out • behinc him, but Heaven opened, the very spheres beyond life shone out in their dazzling mystery. He — the Pope — stood at th( portals of Heaven, holding the keys anc opening those portals to human souls ; al the ancient symbolism was revived, freec at last from the stains of royalty her( below. "Oh! I beg of you, Holy Father/ resumed Pierre, "if an example be neede< strike none other than myself. I havi come, and am here ; decide my fate, bn do not aggravate my punishment bj filling me with remorse at having trough condemnation on the innocent." Leo XIII still refrained from replying though he continued to look at the youn< priest with burning eyes. And he., Pierre no longer beheld Leo XIII, the last of i long line of the Popes, v the Vicar of Jesu Christ, the Successor of the Prince of th Apostles, the Supreme Pontiff of th "Universal Church, Patriarch of the Easi Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metre politan of the Roman Province, Sovereig:

of the Temporal Domains of the HolyChurch ; he saw the Leo XIII that he had dreamt of, the awaited saviour who would dispel the frightful cataclysm in which rotten society was sinking. He beheld him with his supple, lofty intelligence and fraternal, conciliatory tactics, avoiding friction, and labouring to bring about unity with his heart overflowing with love he went straight to the hearts of the multitude, again giving the best of his blood in sign of the new alliance. Ho raised him aloft as the sole remaining inoial authority, the sole possible bond of charity and peace — as the Father, in fact, who alone could stamp out injustice among his children, destroy misery, and reestablish the liberating Law of "Work by bringing the nations back to the faith of the primitive Church, the gentleness and wisdom of the true Christian community. And in the deep silence of that 'room the great figure which he thus set up assumed iayincible^'aJl-powerfulnessj extraordinary majesty. >■_ "Oh, I-beseeeh ; you, Holy Father, listen to me," he said. "Do not even strike me, strike no one, neither a being nor a thing, nor anything that can suffer under the sun. Show kindness and indulgence to all, show all the kindness and indulgence which the sight of the world's sufferings must have set in you !". . And then, seeing that Leo XIII still remained silent, and still left him standing there, he sank down upon his knees as if felled :by the growing emotion which rendered his heart so heavy. And within him there was a sort of debacle ; all his doubts, all his anguish and sadness burst forth in an irresistible stream. There was the memory of the frightful day that he had just spent, the tragic death of Dario and Benedetta, "which weighed on him like lead; there were all the sufferings that he had experienced since his arrival in Eome, the destruction of his illusions, the wounds dealt to his delicacy, the buffets with which men and things had responded to his young enthusiasm; and, lying yet more deeply withiri his heart, there was the sum total of human wretchedness, the thought of famished ones howling for food, of mothers whose breasts were drained and who sobbed whilst kissing their hungry babes, of fathers without work, who clenched their fists and revolted — indeed, the whole of that hateful misery which is as old as mankind itself, which has preyed upon mankind since its earliest hour, and which he now had everywhere found increasing in horror and havoc, without a gleam of hope that it would ever be healed. And withal, yet more immense and more incurable, he felt within him a nameless sorrow to which he could assign no precise cause or name— a universal, an illimitable sorrow .with; which he melted despairingly, andwliich was; perhaps the very sorrow of life. ." 0 Holy Father!" he exclaimed, "I myself have no existence and my book lias no existence. I desired, passionately desired to see your Holiness that I might explain and defend myself. But Ino longer know, I can no longer recall a single one of the things that I wished to say, I can only weep, weep the tears which are stifling me. Tes, I am but a poor man, and the only need I feel! is to speak to you of the poor. Oh! the poor ones, oh! the lowly ones, whom for two years past I have seen in our faubourgs of Paris, so wretched and so full of pain ; the poor little children that I have picked out of the snow; the poor little angels who had eaten nothing for two days ; the women ,too, consumed by consumption, without bread or fire, shivering in filthy hovels ; and the men thrown on the streets by slackness of trade, weary of begging for work as one begs for alms, sinking back into night, drunken with rage and harbouring the sole avenging thought of setting the whole city afire ! And that night too, that terrible night, when in a room of horror, I beheld a mother who had just killed herself and her five little ones, she lying on a palliasse suckling her last-born, ar.d two little girls, two pretty little blondes, sleeping tho last sleep beside her, while the two boys had succumbed farther away, one of them crouching against a wall and the other lying upon the floor, distorted as though by a last effort to avoid death ! * * * O Holy Father ! lam but an ambassador, the messenger of those who suffer and sob, the humble delegate of the humble ones- who die of want beneath the hateful harshness, the frightful injustice of our present day social system ! And I bring your Holiness their tears, and -I lay their tortures at your Holiness's feet, 1 raise their cry cjf woe, like a cry from the abyss, that cry which demands justice unless indeed the very Heavens are to fall ! Oh ! show your loving kindness, Holy Father, show compassion I" The young man had stretched out his arm and implored Leo XIII with a gesture as of supreme appeal to the : divine compassion. Then, he continued : " And here, Holy Father, in this splendid and eternal Rome, is not the want and misery as frightful ! During the weeks that J have roamed Cither and thither, among the dust of fflanons^ruins I have never ceased to come in contact with evils which, demand cure. Ah ! to think' of all that is crumbling, all that is expiring, the agony of so much glory, the fearful sadness of a world which is dying of exhaustion and hunger ! Yonder, under your Holiness's windows, have I not «een a district of horrors, a district of unfinishedpalacesstrickenlikerickety children who cannot attain to full growth, palaces which are already in ruins, and have become places of refuge for all the woeful misery of Rome H And hero, as in Paris, what a suf-

fering multitude, what a shameless exhibition too, of the social sore, the devouring cancer openly tolerated and displayed in utter heedlessness ! There are whole families leading idle and hungry lives in the splendid sunlight ; fathers waiting' for work to fall to them from heaven ; sans listlessly spending their days asleep on the dry grass ; mothers and daughters, withered before their time, shuffling about in loquacious idleness* 0 Holy Father, already tomorrow at dawn may your Holiness open that window yonder, and with your benediction awaken that great childish people, which still slumbers in ignorance and poverty ! May your Holiness give it the soul it lacks, a soul with the consciousness of human dignity, of tho necessary law of work, of free, and fraternal life regulated by justice only! Yes, may your Holiness make a people out of that heap of wretches, whose excuse lies in all their bodily suffering and mental night, who live like the beasts that go by and die, never knowingnor understanding 1 , . yefc ever, lashed/ onward with the whip/ '■-'':> Pierre's sobs were gradually choking him, and it was only the impulse of his passion which still enabled him to speak. "And Holy Father," he continued, "is it not to you that I ought to address myself in the name of all these wretched ones ? Are you not the Father, and is it not before the Father that the messenger of the poor and the lowly should kneel as I am kneeling now ? And is it not to the Father that he should bring the huge burden of their and ask for pity and help and justice ? Yes, particularly for justice ! And since you are the Father, throw the doors wide' open so that all may enter, even the humblest of your children, the faithful, the chance passers, even the rebellious ones and those who have gone astray, but who will perhaps enter and whom you will save from the errors of abandonment ! Be as the house of refuge on the dangerous road, the loving greeter of the wayfarer, the lamp of hospitality which ever burns, and is seen afar off and saves one in the storm! And since, O. Father, yon are power, bo salvation also ! You can do all ; you have centuries of domination behind you ; you have now-a-days risen to a moral authority which has rendered you the arbiter of the world ; you are there before me like the very majesty of the sun which illumines and fructifies ! Oh ! be the star of kindness and charit}', be the redeemer j take in hand once more the purpose of Jesus, which has been perverted by being left in the hands of the rich and the powerful who have ended by transforming the work of the Gospel into the most hateful of all monuments of pride and tyranny ! And since the work has been spoilt, take it in hand,- begiojit-afresh,. place yourself on the. side of the little ones, the lowly ones, the poor ones;. arid bring.them back^to the peace, the . fraternity, and the justice of the original Christian communion. And say, 0 Father, that I have understood you, that I have sincerely expressed in this respect your most cherished ideas, the sole living desire of your reign ! The rest, oh ! the rest, my book, myself, what matter they ! Ido not defend myself, I only seek your glory and the happiness of mankind. Say that from the depths of this Vatican you have heard the rending of our corrupt modern societies! Say that you have quivered with loving pity, say that you desire to prevent the awful impending catastrophe by recalling the Gospel to the hearts of your children who are stricken with madness, and by bringing them back to the age of simplicity and purity, when the first Christians lived together in innocent brotherhood ! Yes, it is for that reason, is it not, that you have placed yourself, Fatter, on the side of the poor, and for that reason I am here and entreat you for pity and kindness and justice with my whole soul !" Then the young man gave way beneath his emotion, and fell all of a heap upon the floor amidst a rush of sobs — loud, endless sobs, which flowed forth in billows, coming" as it were not only from himself but from all the wretched, from the whole world in whose veins sorrqw coursed mingled with the rery blood of life. He was there as the ambassador of suffering, as he had said. And, indeed, at the foot of/that mute and motionless Pope, he was like the personification of the whole of human woe, > Leo XIII, who was extremely fond of talking, and could only listen to others with an effort, had twice raised one of his pallid hands to interrupt the young priest. Then, gradually overcome by astonishment, touched by emotion himself, he had allowed him to continue, to go on to the end of his outburst. A little blood even had suffused the snowy whiteness of the Pontiff's face, whilst his eyes shone out yet more brilliantly. And as soon as he saw the young man speechless at his feet, shaken by those sobs which seemed to be wrenching away his heart, he became anxious and leant forward : " Calm yourself, my . son, raise, yourself," he said. But the sobs still continued, still flowed forth, all reason and respect being swept away amidst -that distracted plaint of a wounded soul, that moan • of suffering, dying flesh. "Raise yourself my son, it is not proper," repeated Leo XIII. " There, take that chair." And with a gesture of authority he at last invited the young man to sit down. Pierre rose with pain, and at once seated himself in order that he might not fall. He brushed his hair back from his forehead, and wiped his scalding tears away with his hands, unable to understand what had just happened, but ■triving to regain his self-possession. " You appeal to the Holy Father," said Leo XIII. "Ah ! rest assured that his heart is full of pity and affection for those who are unfortunate. But that is not the point, it is our holy religion which is in question. I have read your book, a bad book I tell you so at once, the most dangerous and cnlpable of books, precisely on account of its qualities, the pages in which I myself felt interested. Yes, I was often fascinated, I should not have continned my perusal had I not felt carried away, transported by the ardent breath of your faith and,, enthusiasm. The subject ' New Rome ' is such a beautiful one and impassions me so much/and certainly there is a book to be written under that title btit in a very different spirit to yours. You think that you have understood me, my son, that you Have so penetrated yourself with my writings and actions that you simply express my most cherished ideas. But no, no, you have not understood me, and that is why I desired to see you, 'explain things to you and convince you." (To be continued.)