"Holy Father," she said in a choking voice, "that is what his enemies have been asking me to do all this time, and because I have refused they have persecuted me with poverty and shame. And now that I come to you for refuge and shelter, thinking your fatherly arms will protect me, you ... even you...."
She broke off as by a sudden thought, and said: "But it is impossible. He is my husband, therefore I cannot witness against him."
"My heart bleeds for you, my child, and I am ashamed to gainsay you. But an oath is not necessary to a denunciation, and if it were so the law of this unchristian country would not recognise you as Rossi's wife."
"But he will know who has denounced him. I am the only one in the world to whom he has told his secrets, and he will hate me and part from me."
"You will have saved his life, my daughter."
"What is it to me to have saved his life if he is lost to me for ever?"
"Is it you that say that, my child—you that have sacrificed so much already? Doesn't the highest love remember first the welfare of the loved one and think of itself the last?"
"Yes, yes; I didn't know what I was saying. But he will curse me for destroying his cause."
"His cause will be destroyed in any case. It is doomed already. And when his visionary schemes are in the dust, and all is lost and vain, and your tears are powerless to bring back the past...."
"But he will be banished, and I shall never see him again."