Part 26 (1/2)

”It were fitter to my mood, most Reverend Father, wert thou to scatter penitential ashes before a desecrated altar which may send no incense of praise to heaven.”

”Nay, my daughter; love and faith may still minister, and G.o.d, the Unchangeable, accept that service from every altar in Venice! 'The sacrifice of G.o.d is a troubled spirit,' it is written in the Holy Book which G.o.d hath granted for the comfort of His people. May peace indeed bring thee its benediction--the more that thy need is great.”

Was there some strange power of resistance in that fragile, drooping figure which made it difficult to rehea.r.s.e the argument for Venice with his accustomed mastery?

She listened silently while the learned Counsellor patiently explained that the sentence of Rome was unjust, therefore not incurred and not to be observed by priests nor people; wherefore it was the duty of the Prince to prevent its execution--of the Prince who, more than any private citizen, is bound to fear G.o.d, to be zealous in the faith and reverent toward the priests who are permitted to stand in the place of Christ for the enforcement of his teaching only; but it is also the more the duty of the Prince to eschew hypocrisy and superst.i.tion, to preserve his own dignity, and maintain his state in the exercise of the true religion.

But there was no acquiescence in her eyes.

”I thank thee, most Reverend Father, for thy patient teaching,” she said; ”but I lack the learning to make it helpful. Fra Francesco was more simple, and he hath taught me by no arguments; but he, for the exercise of the true religion, hath found it needful to quit Venice, and doth make his pilgrimage to Rome, barefooted, that he may pray the Holy Father, of his grace, to lift this curse from our people.”

”There is that in her face which maketh argument useless,” Fra Paolo said low to his friend Santorio, for he was himself no mean physician, having contributed discoveries of utmost importance to the medical science, ”and there is a physical weakness combined with this mental a.s.sertiveness which doth make it a danger to oppose her beliefs. Yet I would I might comfort her, for her soul is tortured.”

”It must be that thou shalt convince her!” Santorio pleaded with him.

Thus urged, Fra Paolo spoke again, in a tone that pity rendered strangely near to tenderness. ”I would not weary thee, my daughter, having spoken the truth which I would fain have thee embrace for thine own healing. Only this would I remind thee--that none may be excluded from the Holy Catholic Church if he be not first excluded by his own demerits from Divine Grace.”

She answered nothing, but there was an unspoken argument in her face.

”See'st thou not that those terrors which thou dost fear shall not come upon Venice, since she hath not sinned? It is this which, for thy peace, we would have thee comprehend.”

”My Father, there is but one whose teaching fitteth my reasoning,” she answered resolutely, ”and he hath fled from Venice that he may be free to believe and to practise his religion as our Holy Church doth require, and to plead against our doom, where prayer may be heard, unhindered by the cloud which keepeth us in Venice from G.o.d's favor. He, being a holy man, hath taught me that the law of obedience to the Supreme Head of the Church may not be transgressed--that our doom cometh not undeserved--and my whole heart is sick with fear!”

”There is but One to whom is owed this supreme and inalterable obedience, my daughter; we do not differ in our beliefs; yield it always to him, most reverently and unreservedly,” Fra Paolo answered solemnly.

”But upon this earth, it hath been taught us by our Lord himself, 'there is none good--nay, not one.' The Head of the Church of G.o.d is G.o.d himself, the only infallible and just. Thinkest thou that He would have us obey a command conceived in error, with intention to exclude from every benefit of our Holy Church, in the hour when they most need divine comfort and protection, those who would faithfully do him service? Thus read we not the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father!”

”Most Reverend Father,” she cried, clasping her hands in extremity.

”How shall a weak, untaught woman reason with the Counsellor of Venice!

I know not where the words are written--but, somewhere, Fra Francesco hath taught me, yet his soul is loving--there is a thought of the vengeance of G.o.d, and it is terrible! Day and night there is no other vision in my soul but this--of the _vengeance of G.o.d_, poured out upon the disobedient. For this the blessed Mater Dolorosa of San Donato weepeth ceaselessly. Love is for those who serve him; but vengeance--here and hereafter--for those who disobey. Oh, my Father! for every human soul in Venice--the helpless women, who have no power but prayer, which is but insult while G.o.d's face is hidden--the little children who have done no harm--Madre Beatissima, how can we bear it!”

”Nay, nay, my daughter, for our Father is righteous and merciful.

'Vengeance is mine,' he saith; '_I_ will repay.' He giveth no man charge to bring his wrath upon us. He hath invested no human power with a supremacy beyond that which abideth in every loving and faithful soul, as to the things of the conscience. Thou, with thy love and faith and pain, art at this moment very near to Him; be comforted, and cease not to believe that He counteth all thy tears, and that thy prayers are dear to Him.”

”My Father,” she confessed sadly, ”it is a part of the shadow that it hides my faith; night and day, with fast and penance, have I not ceased to pray for Venice--and the answer hath been denied me. I could seek for death, but for the horror that cometh after, at the Madonna dell'

Orto--the Tintoret--and that which the Michelangelo hath seen in vision--Oh, my G.o.d!”

”My child, it is not G.o.d who faileth thee in answer to thy prayer; and love and faith are yet strong and beautiful within thy soul; only a human weakness is upon thee which cloudeth thy human reason, and for this thy soul is dark. For reason, also, is of G.o.d's gift--lower than faith and love, yet a very needful part of man while G.o.d leaveth him in his human habitation. There hath come an answer to the prayer, though thou see'st it not.”

”Is it written, my father, in the cruel words of the interdict?” she gasped.

”She is tortured out of reverence,” Santorio exclaimed apart, and would have hushed her.

But Fra Paolo, overhearing, said gently:

”For this I came, to hearken all thy trouble, if perchance I might give thee rest. The answer to thy prayer is not written in those unjust words. For they--mark well, it is here that thy reason faileth thee--for they were uttered by a human will, striving to coerce obedience in a matter beyond its province. The power which G.o.d hath given to priests and princes is not arbitrary, but to be regulated by the law of G.o.d; neither is obedience toward those in authority to be stolid and blind, but yielded only when the command is within this divine law. The Holy Father hath no power to command disobedience to the Prince in his rightful realm,--which thus he seeketh to do.”

She spread out her hands before her and half-turned away her head, as if in deprecation of some sacrilege, growing very white.