"Princess, I have returned, as you see, from the Vatican, the bearer of a missive from his Holiness, Pope Pius."
He presented a massive envelope, its seal stamped with the papal keys. But Barbara waved it aside. She had received many such epistles of late, and the novelty was wearing off.
"You know its contents, I presume. Read it for me. What says his Holiness?"
Ravenna broke the seal and unfolded the letter which was a somewhat lengthy one, and written in the choicest Latinity.
"The Holy Father greets you as his dear daughter in Christo, and, as you are now firmly established upon the throne"—Barbara could not repress a smile in view of the recent menace of the Czar—"he deems that the time is ripe for the public avowal of your faith."
"At last the Pope and I are at one. This night shall Radzivil make known my faith to the Diet. I ever loathed this garb of secrecy and hypocrisy."
"Its assumption was necessary. The saints themselves must bow in the house of Rimmon at times."
"Would that I could drop the other deception and reign in my own name!" murmured Barbara to herself.
"His Holiness," proceeded the cardinal, glancing at the papal missive, "anticipates the happy day when Czernova shall be purified from the malaria of heresy that now taints it."
"And in what way does he suggest that the purificatory process shall begin?" said the princess with a slight frown.