allowed to take possession of his prelacy.

"But what hath Venice to fear from a Pope who is paralyzed for the first
two months of his reign by a reading of a horoscope!" exclaimed one of
the company scornfully.

"Nay, then," said Donato, who had seen much of the world; "it is a petty
superstition of the age; it is not the fault of the man, who hath
sterling qualities. And by that same potency of credulity have his fears
been set at rest. It is a proof of weakness to undervalue the strength
of an adversary--for so at least he hath recently declared himself on
this question of temporal power, by his petty aggressions and triumphs
in Malta, Parma, Lucca, and Genoa."

"I crave pardon of the Cavaliere Donato," Antonio Querini responded
hotly. "May one call the action at Genoa _petty_?--the compulsion of the
entire vote of a free city, the placing of the election of the whole
body of governing officials in the power of the Society of Jesus?"

"And it was under threat of excommunication, which made resistance a
duty from the side of the government," Giustinian Giustiniani asserted
uncompromisingly.

"But impossible from the Church's point of view. It is the eternal
question," Leonardo Donato answered gravely.

"_The solution is only possible by precisely ascertaining the limits
within which each power is absolute_," the friar announced, with quiet
decision.

A momentary hush fell upon the company, for the words were weighty and a
surprise.

"It is well to know the qualities we have to fear," said Andrea
Morosini, "and we have listened in the Senate to letters from our
ambassador at Rome which bespeak his Holiness of a presence and a
dignity--save for over-quickness of temper--which befit a Pope; and that
he hath reserved himself from promises, to the displeasure and surprise
of some of those who created him."

"It was rumored in Rome," said the younger Giustinian, "that the learned
Bishop Baronious, in the last conclave, by his persistence found means
to save the Consistory from the election by 'adoration' of another
candidate whose life would bear no scrutiny and who never darkened the
doors of his own cathedral! By this election the Church hath verily been
spared a scandal."

"Therefore, let it be known," said Fra Paolo, with deep gravity, "lest
the nearness of such a scandal should breed confusion--and I speak from
knowledge, having been much in Rome--we have now a Pope blameless in
life; in duty to his Churc