"I have heard of it, but not seen it," said No. 3.
A pause.
"What is it about?" asked Reding.
"The late Pope Sixtus the Sixteenth," said No. 3; "he seems to have died a believer."
A sensation. Charles looked as if he wished to know more.
"The Journal gives it on excellent authority," said No. 2; "Mr. O'Niggins, the agent for the Roman Priest Conversion Branch Tract Society, was in Rome during his last illness. He solicited an audience with the Pope, which was granted to him. He at once began to address him on the necessity of a change of heart, belief in the one Hope of sinners, and abandonment of all creature mediators. He announced to him the glad tidings, and assured him there was pardon for all. He warned him against the figment of baptismal regeneration; and then, proceeding to apply the word, he urged him, though in the eleventh hour, to receive the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. The Pope listened with marked attention, and displayed considerable emotion. When it was ended, he answered Mr. O'Niggins that it was his fervent hope that they two would not die without finding themselves in one communion, or something of the sort. He declared moreover, what was astonishing, that he put his sole trust in Christ, 'the source of all merit,' as he expressed it—a remarkable phrase."
"In what language was the conversation carried on?" asked Reding.
"It is not stated," answered No. 2; "but I am pretty sure Mr. O'Niggins is a good French scholar."
"It does not seem to me," said Charles, "that the Pope's admissions are greater than those made continually by certain members of our own Church, who are nevertheless accused of Popery."
"But they are extorted from such persons," said Freeborn, "while the Pope's were voluntary."