the
vengeance of God, and it is terrible! Day and night there is no other
vision in my soul but this--of the _vengeance of God_, poured out upon
the disobedient. For this the blessed Mater Dolorosa of San Donato
weepeth ceaselessly. Love is for those who serve him; but
vengeance--here and hereafter--for those who disobey. Oh, my Father! for
every human soul in Venice--the helpless women, who have no power but
prayer, which is but insult while God's face is hidden--the little
children who have done no harm--Madre Beatissima, how can we bear it!"

"Nay, nay, my daughter, for our Father is righteous and merciful.
'Vengeance is mine,' he saith; '_I_ will repay.' He giveth no man charge
to bring his wrath upon us. He hath invested no human power with a
supremacy beyond that which abideth in every loving and faithful soul,
as to the things of the conscience. Thou, with thy love and faith and
pain, art at this moment very near to Him; be comforted, and cease not
to believe that He counteth all thy tears, and that thy prayers are dear
to Him."

"My Father," she confessed sadly, "it is a part of the shadow that it
hides my faith; night and day, with fast and penance, have I not ceased
to pray for Venice--and the answer hath been denied me. I could seek for
death, but for the horror that cometh after, at the Madonna dell'
Orto--the Tintoret--and that which the Michelangelo hath seen in
vision--Oh, my God!"

"My child, it is not God who faileth thee in answer to thy prayer; and
love and faith are yet strong and beautiful within thy soul; only a
human weakness is upon thee which cloudeth thy human reason, and for
this thy soul is dark. For reason, also, is of God's gift--lower than
faith and love, yet a very needful part of man while God leaveth him in
his human habitation. There hath come an answer to the prayer, though
thou see'st it not."

"Is it written, my father, in the cruel words of the interdict?" she
gasped.

"She is tortured out of reverence," Santorio exclaimed apart, and would
have hushed her.

But Fra Paolo, overhearing, said gently:

"For this I came, to hearken all thy trouble, if perchance I might give
thee rest. The answer to thy prayer is not written in those unjust
words. For they--mark well, it is here that thy reason faileth thee--for
they were uttered by a human will, striving to coerce obedience in a
matter beyond its province. The power which God hath given to priests
and princes is not arbitrary