Chapter XV.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5714, 6 November 1896, Page 1

Chapter XV.

—(Ccc tinned.)

The Cardinal's icelings so stirred him that he was unable to remain seated, and begnn to walk about the little room. And it was the whole reign, the whole policy of Leo XIII which he discussed and condemned. "Unity too," he continued, "that famous unity of the Christian Church which his Holiness talks of ' bringing about, and his desire for which people turn to his great glory, why, it is only the blind ambition of a conqueror enlarging his empire without asking himself if the new nations that he subjects will not disorganise, adulterate, and impregnate Ms old and hitherto faithful people with every error. What if all the schismatical nations on retiirning to the Catholic Church should so transform it as to kill it and make it a new church ? There is only one wise course, which is to be what one is, and that firmly. Again, isn't there both •shame and danger m that pretended alliance with the democracy which in itself gives the lie to the ancient spirit of the papacy ? The right of kings is divine, and to abandon the monarchical principle is to set oneself against God, to compound with, revolution, and harbour a - monstrous scheme of utilising the madness of men the better to establish one's power over them. All republics are forms of anarchy, and there can be no more criminal act, one which must for ever shake the principle of authority, order, and religion itself, than that of recognising a Republic as legitimate for the sole purpose of indulging in a dream of impossible conciliation. And observe how this bears on the question of the temporal power. He continues to claim it, he makes a point of no surrender on that question of the restoration of Borne • but in reality, has he not made the loss irreparable, has he not definitively renounced Borne, by admitting that nations have the right to drive away their kings and live like wild beasts in the depths of the forest?"

All at once the Cardinal stopped short and raised his arms to Heaven in a burst of holy anger. " ; Ah ! that man, ah ! that man who by his vanity and craving for success will have proved the ruin of the Church, that man who has never ceased corrupting everything, dissolving everything,: crumbling everything in order to reign over the world which he fancies he will reconquer by those means, why, Almighty God, why hast Thou not already called him to Thee?"

So sincere was the accent in which that appeal to Death was raised, to such, a point was hatred magnified, by a Teal desire to save the Deity imperilled here below, that a great shudder swept through Pierre also. He nowunderstoodhow Cardinalßoccanera, religiously and passionately hated Leo XIII; he saw him in the depths of his black palace, waiting and watching for the Pope's death, that death which as camerlingo he mußt officially ; certify. . ; How feverishly he must wait, bow patiently he must desire the advent of the hour, when with his little silver hammer he would deal the three symbolic taps on the stall of Leo XIII, whi.e the latter lay cold and rigid on his bed surrounded by his pontificial Court. { Ah ! to strike that wall of the brain, to make sure that nothing more would answer from within, that nothing beyond night and silence was left there. And the three calls would ring out : "Gioachino! Gioachino! Gioachino!" And, the corpse making no answer, the camerlingo after waiting for a few seconds would turn and say : " The Pope is dead !"

" Conciliation, however, is the weapon of the times," remarked Pierre, wishing to bring the Cardinal back to the present, ** and it is in order to make sure of conquering that the Holy Father yields in. matters of form."

"He will not conquer, he will be conquered," cried Boccanera. " Never has the Church been victorious save in stubbornly clinging to its integrality, the immutable eternity of its divine essence. And it would for a certainty fall on the day when it should allow a single stone of its edifice to "be touched. Bemember the terrible period through which it passed at the time of the Council of Trent. The had just deeply shaken it, laxity of discipline and morals was everywhere increasing, there was a rising tide of novelties, ideas suggested by the spirit of evil, unhealthy projects born of the pride of man, running riot in full license. And at the Council itself many members were distiirbed, poisoned, ready to- vote for the wildest changes, a fresh schism added to all the others. Well, if Catholicism wws saved at that critical period, tinder the threat of such great danger, it was because the majority, enlightened by God, maintained the old edifice intact ; it was because with divinely inspired obstinacy it kept itself within the narrow limits of dogma'; it was because it made no concession, none, ■whether in substance or in form! Nowadays the situation is certainly not worse than it was at the time of the Council of Trent. Let us suppose it to be much the same, and tell me if it is not nobler, braver, and safer for the Church to show the courage

which she showed before, and declare aloud what she is, what she hns been, and what she will be. There is no salvation for her otherwise than in her complete, indisputable sovereignty; and sinee -she has always conquered by non-stirrondev, all attempts to <•(>:.■•' : f-r. ].(.v <•,;; :.!:<• .-onlm-y ao tantc.^.:.— .".. ! ' —

' The Cardinal In •" ag-aih liep.ni to wa:l< to ,r\vl ?:v> with t' >.: o i/r"ul i-t-. ;•. "No, i: ■•," tiili. Lc, i; no tumpouiidii.^iio surrender, no weakness! Bather the wall of steel which bars the road, the block of granite which marks the limit of a world ! As I told you, my dear son, on the day of your arrival, to try to accommodate Catholicism to the new times is to hasten its end, if really it be threatened, as atheists pretend. And in that way it would die basely and shamefully instead of dying erect, proud and dignified in 'its old glorious royalty! Ah ! to die standing, denying nought .of the past, braving 'the fvitnre and confessing one's whole faith !"

Tta-b old man of seventy seemecl to fjrb-rr yet loftier as he spoke, free from all dread of final annihilation, and making the gesture: of a hero who defies futurity. Faith had given him serenity of peace ; he believed, he knew, he had neither doubt nor fear of the morrow of death. Still his voice was tinged with haughty sadness as he resumed, " God can do all, even destroy His own work should it seem evil in his eyes. Bnt though all should crumble to-morrow, though the Holy Church should disappear among the ruins, though the most venerated . sanctuaries should be crushed by the falling stars, it would still be necessary for us to bow and adore God, who after creating the world might thus annihilate it for His own glory. And I wait, submissive t6 His will, for nothing happens unless He wills it. If really the temples be shaken, if Catholicism be fated to fall to-morrow into dust, I shall be here to act as the minister of death, even as I have been the minister of life ! It is certain, I confess it, that there are hourß when terrible signs appear to me. Perhaps, indeed, the end of time is nigh, and we shall witness that fall of the old world with which others threaten us. The worthiest, the loftiest are struck down as if Heaven erred, and in them punished the crimes of the world. Have I not myself felt the blast from the abyss into which all must sink, since my house, for transgressions that I am ignorant of, has been stricken with that frightful bereavement which precipitates it into the gulf, casts it back into night everlasting ! "

He again evoked those two dead ones who were always present in his mind. Sobs were once more rising in his throat, his hands .trembled, his lofty figure quivered with the last revolt of grief. Yes, if God had stricken him so severely by ruppressing his race, if the greatest and most faithful were thus punished, it lmist ,be that the world was definitely condemned. Did not the end of his' house mean the approaching end of all? And in his sovereign pride as priest and as prince, he found a cry of supreme resignation, once more raising his hands on high : " Almighty God, Thy will be done! May all die, all fall, all return to the night of chaos !■ I shall remain standing in this ruined palace, waiting to bo buried beneath its fragments; And|.if Thy- will should summon me to bury Thy holy religion, be without fear, I shrill do nothing 1 unworthy to prolong its life for a few days ! I will maintain it erect, like myself, as proud, as Tracompromising as in the days of all its power. I will yield nothing, whether indiscipline, or in rite, or in dogma. And when the day shall come I will bury it with myself, carrying it whole into the grave rather than yielding aught of it, encompassing it with my cold arms to restore it to Thee, oven as Thou didst commit it to the keeping of Thy Church. 0 mighty God and Sovereign Master, dispose of me, make me if such be Thy good pleasure the pontiff of destruction, the pontiff of the I death of the world."

Pierre, who was thunderstruck, quivered with fear and admiration at the extraordinary vision thus evoked : the last of the popes interring Catholicism; He understood that Boccanera must at times have made that dream ; he could see him in the Vatican; in St Peter's which the thunderbolts had riven asunder; he could see him erect and alone in the spacious halls whence his terrified, cowardly pontifical Court had fled. Clad in his white cassock, thus wearing white mourning for the Church, he once more descended to.the sanctuary, there to wait for heaven to fall on the evening of Time's accomplishment and annihilate the earth. Thrice he raised the large crucifix, overthrown by the supreme convulsions of the soil. Then, when the final crack rent the steps apart, he caught it in his arms and 'was annihilated with it beneath the falling vaults. And nothing could be more instinct with fierce and kingly grandeur. . Voiceless, but without weakness, his lofty stature invincible and erect in spite of all' Cardinal Boccanera made a gesture dismissing Pierre, who yielding to his passion for truth and beauty found that he alono was great and right, and respectfully kissed his hand.

It was in the throne-room, with closed doors, at nightfall, after the visits had ceased, that the two bodies were laid in their coffin. The religious services had come to an fend, and in tho close silent atmosphere .there only lingered the dying

je: fume of the roses and the warm odour of the candles. As the latter's pale stars scarcely lighted the spacious room, some lamps had been brought, and servants held them in their hands like torches." According to custom, all the servants of the house were present to bid a last farewell to the departed.

There was a little delay. Morano, who had been giving himself no end of trouble ever since morning, was forced to- run off again as the triple coffin did not arrive. At last it came, some servants brought it up and then they were able to begin. The Cardinal and Donna Serafina stood side by side near the bed. Pierre also was present, as well as Don Vigilio. It was Victorino who sewed the lovers up in the white silk shroud, which seemed like a bridal robe, the gaypure robe of their union. Then two servants came, forward and helped Pierre and Don Vigilio to lay the bodies in> the first coffin; of pine- wood lined with pink satin. ' It was scarcely, broader than an ordinary coffin/ so young^ and slixa were the' lovers and so tightly were they clasped in their., test embrace; When they were stretched inside they there continued their eternal slumber, their heads half hidden by their odorous, mingling hair. And when this first coffin had been placed in the second one, a leaden shell.andthesecond had been enclosed in the third, of stout oak, and when the three lids had been soldered and screwed down, the lovers' faces could still be seen through the circular opening, covered'Avith thick glass, which in accordance with the Boman custom had been left in each of the coffins. And then, for ever parted from the living, alone together they still gazed at one another with their eyes obstinately open, having all eternity before them wherein to exhaust their infinite l6ve.

(To be continued.)