"No."
"Am I, then, to understand that the information with which his Holiness honours me came to him secretly?"
"Yes, sir, secretly, and it is, therefore, not open to further explanation."
"So it reached him by the medium of the confessional?"
The Monsignor rose from his seat. "Your Excellency cannot be in earnest."
"You mean that it did not reach him by the medium of the confessional?"
"Certainly not."
"Then he is able to tell me everything, if he will?"
The Monsignor became agitated. "The Holy Father's information came through a channel that is assimilated to the confessional, and is almost as sacred and inviolate."
"But obedience to the Pope obliterates from all other responsibility. His Holiness has only to say 'Speak,' and his faithful child must obey."