XVIII
After recitation of the Rosary, the Pope, who had kept his religious retreat throughout the day, announced, to the astonishment of his chamberlains, his desire to walk in the garden at night. With Father Pifferi carrying a long Etruscan lamp he walked down the dark corridors with their surprised palfrenieri, and across the open courtyards with their startled sentinels, to where the arches of the Vatican opened upon the soft spring sky.
The night was warm and quiet, and the moon, which had just risen and was near the full, shone with steady brilliance.
The venerable old men walked without speaking, and only the beating of their sticks on the gravel seemed to break the empty air. At length the Pope stopped and said:
"How strange it all was, Father Pifferi!"
"Very strange, your Holiness," said the Capuchin.
"Rossi is not his name, it seems."
"'Not really his name' was what she said."
"His mother was deceived by every one, and she drowned herself in the Tiber."
"That was so, your Holiness."