enice, so
now, in her hallucination,--since the Madonna had brought her to
Rome,--her faith and power of speech suddenly returned, and she rallied
all her strength to fulfil her mission.

In that great and sumptuous Hall, flaunting and gay with banners which
chronicled the victories and the power of the Republic--in the
impregnable stronghold of the realm, under the astonished gaze of the
entire Venetian court and the brilliant throng of the households of
nobles and ambassadors who looked down from the circling galleries,
expectant and awestruck under the spell of so strange a vision--this
pale, slight champion of a desperate spiritual struggle, with no host to
help her save her prayers and faith, with no standard but the cross
clasped to her breast, knelt at the feet of the Patriarch, while the
sunset light through the broad western window made a radiance where she
knelt--as if Heaven at last had smiled upon her.

"Oh, Holy Father!" she implored, "have mercy upon Venice! Forgive her
unfaithfulness, because she hath meant no sin!

"The Madonna hath granted me to reach Rome at last, because she hath
laid her command upon me in a vision and it could not fail. But all
those, my loved ones, have I lost by the weary way; and save for her
mercy I could not have reached thee.

"With prayers and penance have I striven--and ceased not--since the
anguish of thy displeasure came upon Venice. Oh, Holy Father! for all
the mothers who understand and grieve, and for our innocent little ones,
and for all those, our beloved, who are good and noble--and yet know not
the hard way of submission, because the Lord hath taught them some other
way--lift thy wrath from Venice, that our Heavenly Father hide not his
face in clouds too heavy for our prayers to reach him!

"It is the will of the Madonna San Donato--thou canst not refuse to lift
the doom!"

The words leaped over each other like a torrent--impetuous, passionate,
as if the moments for speech were few.

"These do I bring--and these, for an offering!" she cried, feverishly
unclasping the lustrous pearls from her throat and girdle and laying
them at the feet of the Patriarch. "And all the dear happiness of my
life have I given, that I might reach thee with this prayer for Venice!
Oh, Holy Father, accept my sacrifice!"

She reverently pressed the hem of the priestly robe to her lips, and
those who knew of her flight from Venice understood that she fancied she
had reached the Rom