Oh, I
suffer the tortures of the damned!"

"What! already" thought the Roman, with a smile of sarcastic malice;
then he said aloud: "Let me persuade you, my very dear father--make an
effort to listen to me; you will not regret it."

Still stretched upon the bed, Rodin lifted his hands clasped upon his
cotton handkerchief with a gesture of despair, and then let them fall
again by his side.

The cardinal slightly shrugged his shoulders, and laid great stress
on what follows, so that Rodin might not lose a word of it: "My dear
father, it has pleased Providence that, during your fit of raving, you
have made, without knowing it, the most important revelations."

The prelate waited with anxious curiosity for the effect of the pious
trap he had laid for the Jesuit's weakened faculties. But the latter,
still turned towards the wall, did not appear to have heard him and
remained silent.

"You are, no doubt, reflecting on my words, my dear father," resumed
the cardinal; "you are right, for it concerns a very serious affair. I
repeat to you that Providence has allowed you, during your delirium, to
betray your most secret thoughts--happily, to me alone. They are such
as would compromise you in the highest degree. In short, during your
delirium of last night, which lasted nearly two hours, you unveiled the
secret objects of your intrigues at Rome with many of the members of the
Sacred College."

The cardinal, rising softly, stooped over the bed to watch the
expression of Rodin's countenance. But the latter did not give him time.
As a galvanized corpse starts into strange and sudden motion, Rodin
sprang into a sitting posture at the last words of the prelate.

"He has betrayed himself," said the cardinal, in a low voice, in
Italian. Then, resuming his seat, he fixed on the Jesuit his eyes, that
sparkled with triumphant joy.

Though he did not hear the exclamation of Malipieri, nor remark the
expression of his countenance, Rodin, notwithstanding his state of
weakness, instantly felt the imprudence of his start. He pressed his
hand to his forehead, as though he had been seized with a giddiness;
then, looking wildly round him, he pressed to his trembling lips his old
cotton handkerchief, and gnawed it mechanically for some seconds.

"Your emotion and alarm confirm the sad discoveries I have made,"
resumed the cardinal, still more rejoicing at the success of his trick;
"and now, my dear father," added he, "you will understand