The Leper drew back some steps with a kind of terror, and, raising his eyes and hands towards heaven, he cried: “O God of goodness! pour down thy blessings on this compassionate man!”
“Grant me another favor, then,” resumed the traveller. “I am going away. We may not see each other again for a long time. Can we not write one another sometimes, with the necessary precautions? Such a correspondence might divert you, and it would afford me great pleasure.”
The Leper reflected for some time. At length he said, “Why should I cherish any delusion? I ought to have no other society but myself, no friend but God. We shall meet in his presence. Farewell, kind stranger, may you be happy! Farewell for ever!” The traveller went out—the Leper closed the door and drew the bolts.
ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HOLY FATHER.
FROM LA CIVILTA CATTOLICA.
Some fourteen months ago, a breach was made in the Porta Pia, and an entry effected into Rome in the name of Italy.
The machinations of those who effected that entry in order to subvert the authority of the Pope are still at work, and most assiduously, in endeavoring to convey the impression that this act of theirs now stands before the world simply as an accomplished fact, and as such is, if not approved, at least tolerated by those most interested in contesting it. Thus they endeavor to delude the world and lull to sleep the misgivings of Catholics; for in order to confirm and strengthen this impression there is scarcely a stratagem or subterfuge to which the government (itself the author of the fact) does not resort, through the journalism notoriously in its pay, not only throughout the Peninsula, but elsewhere.
This government, which sprang from accomplished facts and falsehoods, hopes by means of these same accomplished facts and falsehoods to place on a firm foundation its sway in the Campidoglio, which now rests on a very insecure footing; therefore it endeavors to persuade the world, and especially Catholics, that the Supreme Pontiff, while in its hands and under the law of its Guarantees, is
actually more at liberty, more independent in action, and more useful to the church, than he was when he reigned as a sovereign prince and was bona-fide ruler in his own state.