"I am afraid he is, your Holiness, and one of the worst enemies of the Church and the Holy Father."
"They say he was an orphan from his infancy, and never knew father, or mother, or home."
"I have heard that his public life is not without a certain perverted nobility, and that his private life is pure and good."
"His relation to the lady would seem to say so, your Holiness."
"But the Holy Father may be sorry for a wayward son, and yet be forced to condemn him for all that. He must cut himself off from all such men, lest his adversaries should say that, while preaching peace and the moral law, he is secretly encouraging the devilish agents of atheism, anarchy, and rebellion."
"Perhaps so, your Holiness."
"Father, do you think the care of temporal things is ever a danger and temptation?"
"Sometimes I think it is, your Holiness, and that the Holy Father would be better without lands or fleshly armies."
"How late they are!" said the Pope; but at the same moment the door opened, and a Noble Guard knelt on the threshold.