"The Ways of Scrutiny and Access were tried seven times."
"And then?"
"And then came a deadlock. None of the candidates obtained a sufficiency of suffrages: and none of the electors were willing to change their opinion."
"And then?"
"The Way of Compromise was tried."
"And, through Your Eminency's means, the compromissaries were induced to impose Us on the Sacred College?"
"Yes, Holiness."
"Eminency, at the time when the Conclave first was immured, We hardly can have been in Your mind. It is improbable that you could have thought of Us then in this connection. At what point did We come into your calculations?"
"I ought perhaps to say that Your name had been brought before me some weeks before the demise of Holiness's predecessor."