"Sometimes, your Holiness. When they continue and are persistent..."
"I have had a presentiment which has been with me all my life—all my life as Pope, at all events. The blessed God who abases and lifts up has thought fit to raise my lowliness to the most sublime dignity that exists on earth, but I have always lived in the fear that some day I should be torn down from it, and the Church would suffer."
"God forbid, your Holiness!"
"That was why I refused every place and every honour. You know how I refused them, Father!"
"Yes, but God knew better, your Holiness, and He preserved you to be a blessing and a comfort to His people."
"His holy will be done! But the shadow which has been over me will not be lifted. Cause prayers to be said for me. Pray for me yourself, Father."
"Your Holiness is in low spirits. And to-day of all days! Ah, how happy is the Church which has seen the hand of God place in the chair of St. Peter a soul capable of comprehending the necessities of His children and a heart desirous of satisfying them!"
"I hardly know what is to come of this interview, Father, but I must leave myself in the hands of the Holy Spirit."
"There is no help for it now, your Holiness."
"Perhaps I should not have gone so far but for this wave of anarchy which is sweeping over the world.... You believe the man Rossi is secretly an anarchist?"