articular: the thing was as
he said, since it was bound to be so. "No, no, it was not Prada," he
exclaimed, addressing Benedetta. "That man can bear me no personal
grudge, and I alone was aimed at, it was to me that those figs were
given. Come, think it out! Only an unforeseen indisposition prevented me
from eating the greater part of the fruit, for it is known that I am very
fond of figs, and while my poor Dario was tasting them, I jested and told
him to leave the finer ones for me to-morrow. Yes, the abominable blow
was meant for me, and it is on him that it has fallen by the most
atrocious of chances, the most monstrous of the follies of fate. Ah! Lord
God, Lord God, have you then forsaken us!"

Tears came into the old man's eyes, whilst she still quivered and seemed
unconvinced: "But you have no enemies, uncle," she said. "Why should that
Santobono try to take your life?"

For a moment he found no fitting reply. With supreme grandeur he had
already resolved to keep the truth secret. Then a recollection came to
him, and he resigned himself to the telling of a lie: "Santobono's mind
has always been somewhat unhinged," said he, "and I know that he has
hated me ever since I refused to help him to get a brother of his, one of
our former gardeners, out of prison. Deadly spite often has no more
serious cause. He must have thought that he had reason to be revenged on
me."

Thereupon Benedetta, exhausted, unable to argue any further, sank upon a
chair with a despairing gesture: "Ah! God, God! I no longer know--and
what matters it now that my Dario is in such danger? There's only one
thing to be done, he must be saved. How long they are over what they are
doing in that room--why does not Victorine come for us!"

The silence again fell, full of terror. Without speaking the Cardinal
took the basket of figs from the table and carried it to a cupboard in
which he locked it. Then he put the key in his pocket. No doubt, when
night had fallen, he himself would throw the proofs of the crime into the
Tiber. However, on coming back from the cupboard he noticed the two
priests, who naturally had watched him; and with mingled grandeur and
simplicity he said to them: "Gentlemen, I need not ask you to be
discreet. There are scandals which we must spare the Church, which is
not, cannot be guilty. To deliver one of ourselves, even when he is a
criminal, to the civil tribunals, often means a blow for the whole
Church, for men of evil mind