rong...."

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, "when you asked the lady to denounce
David Rossi you thought of him only as an enemy of the Church and of its
head, trying to pull down both and destroy civil society--isn't that
so?"

The Pope bent his head.

"Holy Father, if ... if you had known that he was something more than
that ... something nearer ... if, for example, you had been told
that ... that he was the relative of a priest, would you have asked for his
denunciation just the same?"

The old Capuchin had stammered, but the Pope answered in a firm voice,
"That would have made no difference, my son. The blessed Scriptures do
not conceal the sin of Judas, and shall we conceal the offences of those
who come within the circle of our own families?"

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, "if you had been told that he was
related to a prelate of your domestic household...."

He stopped, and the Pope answered in a voice that trembled slightly,
"Still it would have made no difference. The enemies of the Almighty are
watching day and night, and shall His holy Church be imperilled and
abased by the weakness of His servant?"

"Holy Father, if ... if you had been told that ... that he was the
kinsman of a Cardinal?"

The Pope was struggling to control himself. "Even then it would have
made no difference. I am old and weak, but God would have supported me,
and though I had been called upon to cut off my right hand, or give my
body to be burned, still...."

His voice quivered and died in his throat, and there was a moment's
pause.

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, turning his eyes away, "if you had
been told that he was the nearest of kin to the Pope himself...."

The Pope dropped the crucifix which was trembling in his hand, and half
rose from his chair. "Then ... even then ... it would have ... but the
will of God be done," he said, and he could not utter another word.

At that moment the Easter bells began to ring. The deep-toned bells of
St. Peter's came first with its joyful peal, and then the bells of the
other churches of the city took up the rapturous melody. In the Basilica
the veil before the altar had been rent with a loud crash, and the
Gloria in Excelsis was being sung.

At the same moment a prelate vested in a white tunic entered the Pope's
room, and kneeling in the middle of the floor, he said, "Holy Father, I
announce to you a great joy. Hallelujah! The Lord is risen again."

The Pope tried to rise