(I)
He awoke suddenly, at some movement, and for an instant did not
remember where he was.
For nearly a week they had stayed on at Versailles; and each day
that had passed had done its share in making this fairyland seem
more like a reality. But that strange subconscious self of his,
for which even now there seemed no accounting, was still
obstinate; it still assured him that the world ought not to be
like this, that religion ought not to be so concrete and
effective--that he would awake soon and find himself in some
desolate state of affairs where Faith, hemmed in by enemies,
still fought for very life against irresistible odds. It was at
night and at morning that the mood came on him most forcibly;
when instinct, free from facts, and ranging clear of the will's
dominion, asserted itself most strongly, and as he awoke this
night it was on him again.
He looked round the dark little room with bewildered eyes; then
he fumbled with a button, and all was flooded with light.
He was lying in a little spring-bed, set within two padded sides,
like a berth in a steamship. And beside him was the closed bureau
which he perceived to be washing arrangements in disguise;
overhead protruded a broad shelf; on the wall, above a little
couch, hung silk curtains over a window; and, as they swayed
slightly with some movement he caught sight of glass beyond. On
the door, at the foot of his bed, hung his cassock, and the
purple cincture that lay across it recalled him to at least a
part of the facts. The cabin was upholstered and painted in clean
white, and an electric globe emerged from the ceiling.
He was next conscious of cold, and instinctively leaned forward to
draw the quilt farther over his knees. Then, with a flash, he
remembered, and, in spite of the cold, was out of bed in a moment,
kneeling on the couch and peering out through the curtains.
At first he could see nothing at all. There was but an
unfathomable gulf beyond the glass. He stood up on the couch, and
drawing the curtains behind his head to shut out the light, he
once more stared out. Then he began to see.
At first he could see nothing at all. There was but an unfathomable
gulf beyond the glass. He stood up on the couch, and drawing the
curtains behind his head to shut out the light, he once more stared
out. Then he began to see.
Immediately opposite him glimmered a huge white outline--in the
incalculable night it might be a hundred yards or a mile away. It
was of irregular outline, for the star-strewn sky showed in patches
and rifts above it. And this white mass curved away beneath, under
the ship in which he travelled, till it met, at a point which he
could but just discern, a blackness that rose to meet it.
Then, as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, he began to see
that the huge whiteness was flitting past, steadily and
leisurely, from right to left; that it was streaked with shadows
or clefts; and that following it, as in a sliding procession,
came another, like it, yet (it seemed) more distant.
All this time, too, the silence was profound. There was but a
soft humming note somewhere in the air, and the faintest sense of
vibration in the metal-work on which his hands were pressed. Once
too he heard a footstep pass softly and rhythmically overhead, as
if some watcher moved up and down the length of the upper deck.
The man dropped the curtains and sat back on his heels, trying
to force into his imagination the facts that he now perceived
and remembered.
They had left St. Germains last night, after dining at
Versailles. They were now crossing the Alps. They would be in
Rome for Mass and breakfast. . . . They were traversing at this
moment, no doubt, only a thousand feet high, one of those passes
up which (he thought he remembered from history) the old
railway-trains had been accustomed to climb, yard by yard and
spiral by spiral, a hundred years before . . .
In a minute or two he leaned forward and stared again, once more
closing the curtains behind his head.
The sky seemed a little brighter, he thought, than when he had
looked just now. Perhaps the moon was hiding somewhere. And
certainly the sky was more in evidence. Far away to the left
behind, passing even as he looked, moved those gigantic horns
of white, as if the ship stood still and the earth turned
beneath; and below now, sloping to the right, lay long lines of
darkness, jutting here and there with a sudden crag against the
blaze of stars. It was marvellous, he thought, how still all
lay; there was a steady hiss, now heard for the first time, as
the air tore past the glassy sides of the bird-shaped ship, as
thin as the cry of a bat.
He shifted on his knees a little, and staring forwards, saw far
ahead and at what seemed an incalculable distance something that
baffled him entirely, for it changed its aspect every instant
that he watched.
At first it was no more than a patch of luminosity; and he thought
it to be, perhaps, a lighted town. But the character of it was
changed as he formulated his thought and three brilliant spots
like blue stars broke out on a sudden, and these three stars
shifted their positions. He kept his eyes on these, marvelling;
and, with something very like fear, saw that they were approaching
upwards and onwards with the swiftness of thought.
Up and on they came. He shrank back a little, instinctively; and
then, as he leaned forward once more, determined to understand,
shrank back with a sharp indrawing of breath, as there whirled
past, it appeared only a few yards away, a flare of brilliant
blue lines, in the midst of which passed a phantom-like body in a
mist and accompanied by a musical sound (it seemed) of
extraordinary clarity and beauty, that rose from a deep
organ-note to the shrill of a flute, and down again Into a bass
and a silence. . . .
He smiled to himself as he climbed back into bed a minute or two
later, when he had reconstructed the phenomena and interpreted
them. It was but another volor, bound northwards, and it had
probably passed at least half a mile away.
Well, he must sleep again if he could. They would be in
Rome by morning.
* * * * *
They had delayed their departure from Versailles to the last
possible moment, since France was, after all, under the
circumstances, one of the best places in the world for Monsignor
to pick up again the threads of life. For one thing, it was near
to England--English was spoken there amongst the educated almost
as frequently as French; yet it was not England, and Monsignor's
plight would not cause him any great inconvenience. Further,
France was at present the theatre of the world's interest, since
the Emperor was there, and on the Emperor's future depended
largely the destinies of Europe: his conversion, it was thought,
might be the final death-blow to Socialism in his dominions.
Monsignor had employed his time well. Not only had he learned
accurately the general state of the world, but morning by morning
he had familiarized himself with his own work, and felt, by now,
very nearly competent to finish his lessons in England. Cardinal
Bellairs communicated with him almost every day, and professed
himself delighted with the progress made. Finally he had talked
Latin continually with Father Jervis in preparation for Rome, and
would have passed muster, at least, in general conversation.
* * * * *
The two motored into the city from the volor-station outside, and
everywhere as they went through the streets and crossed the Tiber
on their way to the Leonine City, where they were to lodge, were
evidences of the feast.
For the whole route from Vatican to Lateran, which they crossed
more than once, was one continual triumphal way. Masts had been
erected, swathed in the Papal colours and crowned with garlands;
barriers ran from mast to mast, behind which already the crowds
were beginning to gather, though it was hardly past six o'clock
in the morning; and from every window hung carpets, banners, and
tapestries. The motor was stopped at least half a dozen times;
but the prelate's insignia passed them through quickly; and it
was just half-past six as they drew up before an old palace
situated on the right in the road leading from the Tiber to the
Vatican, and scarcely a quarter of a mile away from St. Peter's.
Monsignor glanced up at the carved and painted arms above the
doorway and smiled.
"I did not know you were bringing me here," he said.
"You know it?"
"Why, it's the old palace where the kings of England
lodged, isn't it?"
Father Jervis smiled.
"Your memory's improving," he said.
Then a magnificent servant came out, bowed profoundly, and opened
the door of the car.
"By the way," said Father Jervis as they went in, "I'd better go and
enquire the details at the Vatican. You might give me your card.
I'll go at once, and then come back and join you at breakfast."
It was a pleasant little suite of rooms, not unlike in
arrangements to those of Versailles. The windows looked out on
the central court, where a fountain played, and the rooms
themselves were furnished in the usual Roman fashion--painted
ceilings, stone floors, and a few damask hangings.
Monsignor turned to the servant who was superintending the two
Englishmen they had brought.
"I've not been in Rome for some time," he said in Latin. "Tell me
what this house is now?"
"Monsignor, it is the English palace. Monsignor is in the
apartment of His Eminence Cardinal Bellairs."
"The King himself stays here?"
"It is His Majesty's palace," said the man. "The Prince George
arrived two days ago. His Highness is in the apartment below."
Monsignor smiled. He understood now Father Jervis' evasions as to
where they were to stay in Rome. Plainly it was determined that
he should have a front seat at all ceremonies.
Ten minutes later, as he came out of his bedroom, Father Jervis
himself came in.
"You have your choice, Monsignor," he said. "As a Domestic
Prelate you have the right to walk in the procession (here is the
permit), or as occupying rooms here we can, if you prefer, see
the procession from the front windows."
"Tell me what the programme is."
"At nine the procession leaves St. Peter's to go to the
Lateran--at least they call it nine. There the Holy Father sings
Mass, as bishop in his own cathedral. On the return of the
procession, I suppose about midday, the Holy Father visits the
tomb of St. Peter. Then this afternoon he is present at Vespers
in St. Peter's; and afterwards gives the blessing _Urbi et Orbi_
from the window as usual."
"What would you advise?"
"Well, I should advise your remaining here till mid-day.
There's no use in overdoing it. We can see everything
admirably. Then we can go into St. Peter's for the visit to the
tomb, and come back here to dejeuner. After that we can arrange
about the rest of the day."
"Very good. Then let us have something to eat at once."
"Who's Prince George of England?" demanded Monsignor presently as
they sat over coffee.
Father Jervis laughed.
"You've found that out, have you? Yes, he's here, of course.
Well, he's the second son: he's only a boy. He's over here to
represent the King. Every sovereign sends a prince of the
blood-royal for to-day. Even the German Emperor."
"Do you mean from Europe?"
"I mean from the whole world. You see the East is scarcely three
days away by the fast volors; so even the Chinese----"
"Do you mean that China and Japan send representatives?"
"Certainly. Japan is Christian of course, anyhow; and China has
at least one or two Christian princes of the blood."
"By the way, what about Russia?"
"Well, what about it?"
"Is it Catholic?"
"My dear Monsignor, it's been Catholic for thirty years."
"Oh dear me! You must lend me some more histories. . . . What
made it Catholic?"
"Common sense, I suppose. How they could have stood out for so
long is the only thing that puzzles me."
"But the Petrine claims----"
"Why, the Petrine claims were the very point. Facts were too
strong. If you look back over history you can't help seeing that
the only Christian body that was ever able to resist Erastianism
on the one side and endless division on the other has been the
Church built on Peter. They began to see it nearly a hundred
years ago in Russia and Greece. Then the Emperor of Russia was
secretly reconciled in 1930; and ten or twelve years later his
people followed him."
"Then there's no more dispute? What about the _Filioque_ clause?"
"Why, when Peter is accepted, the rest follows."
"Then you may say that the entire civilized world is represented
in Rome to-day?"
"Certainly. You'll see the princes in the procession."
(II)
An hour later they took their places at the central window of the
long sala on the third floor, looking out immediately upon the
narrow street, which, opposite, fell back into a tiny square, and
further up to the right, upon the enormous piazza of St. Peter's
and the basilica itself behind.
It was a real Roman day--not yet at its full heat, but intensely
clear and bright; and Monsignor congratulated himself on having
elected to remain as a spectator. The return journey from the
Lateran about noon would be something of an ordeal.
The street and the piazza presented an astonishingly brilliant
appearance. Beneath, the roadway was now one sheet of
greenery--box, myrtle, and bay. The houses opposite, as well as
within the little square, of which every window was packed with
heads, were almost completely hidden under the tapestries, the
carpets, the banners. Behind the barriers on either side of the
garlanded masts was one mass of heads resembling a cobbled
pavement. So much for sight. For sound, the air was filled with
one steady low roar of voices; for down to where the street opened
far away to the left into the space above the river, the same
vista presented itself. The Campagna since twenty-four hours
before had been emptying every living inhabitant into Rome; and
there was not a town in Italy, and scarcely in Europe, whence
special volors and trains had not carried the fervent to the Feast
of the Apostles in Holy Rome. And, for scent, the air was sweet
and fragrant with the aromatic herbs of the roadway, already
bruised a little by the feet of the galloping horses of those that
went up and down to guard the route or to carry messages.
It was a little hard to make out the arrangements of the vast
circular piazza in front of St. Peter's. The front of the
basilica was hung, in usual Roman fashion, with gigantic garlands
and red cloth; and the carpet of greenery lined with troops ran
straight up the centre of the space, rippled over the steps, and
ceased only beneath the towering portico of the church. But on
either side of this, with spaces between, stood enormous groups
of men and horses, marshalled, no doubt, in order to take their
places at the proper moment in the procession.
At the right, immovable and tremendous, rose up the great palace
of the Vatican itself, unadorned except where a glint of some
colour showed itself at the Bronze Doors; and above all, like a
benediction in stone, against the vivid blue of the sky, hung the
dome of the basilica.
Monsignor Masterman made a long, keen survey of all this. Then he
leaned back and sighed.
"What was the first year that the Pope came out of the
Vatican like this?"
"The year after the conquest of United Italy. It was Austria that----"
"I know all that. And you mean he never came out so long as the
old state of affairs continued?"
"How could he? Don't you see that the one thing, humanly
speaking, absolutely necessary if the world was to have
confidence in the Church, was that the Pope should be really
supra-national? Of course, for many years he had to be an
Italian--that's obvious, since he was at the mercy of Italy, and
the Romans would never have stood a foreigner; and that made it
all the more essential that he should be cut clean off, in
everything else, from Italian sympathies. He had to be two
things simultaneously, so to speak--emphatically an Italian for
the sake of Italy and indeed his own existence in Rome; and
emphatically not an Italian for the sake of the rest of
Christendom. And can you suggest any other way of accomplishing
this paradox? I can't."
Monsignor sighed again and began to meditate.
For somewhere at the back of his mind there ran an undercurrent
of thought, or as of some one talking, to the effect that the
Pope's old method of remaining as a prisoner in the Vatican was a
foolish and unhumble pose. (He supposed he must have read it all
somewhere in history.) Surely even Catholics used to talk like
that! They used to say how much more spiritual and Christian it
would have been, had the Vicar of Christ acquiesced and been
content to live as a simple Italian subject, neither claiming nor
desiring a position such as Peter had never enjoyed. Why all this
fuss, it used to be asked, about a Temporal Power on behalf of a
"Kingdom that was not of this world"?
Yet, somehow, now as he looked back on it all, with his friend's
comment in his mind, he began to see, not how clever or
diplomatic had been the old attitude, but how absolutely and
obviously essential. It was possible indeed for Peter to be a
subject of Nero in things pertaining to Caesar; but how could
that be possible to Peter's successor when the Kingdom of Christ
which he ruled on earth had become a Supra-national Society to
which the nations of the earth looked for guidance?
The phrase he had just heard ran in his mind.
"An Italian for the sake of Italy and his own existence in Rome.
Not an Italian for the sake of the rest of Christendom."
It seemed simple, somehow, just like that.
He was roused by a touch on his knee, and simultaneously was
aware of a new sound from the piazza.
"Look," said the old priest sharply. "They're beginning to move."
(III)
A curious seething movement had broken out in the piazza,
resembling the stir of a troubled ant-hill, on either side of the
broad green way down which the Pope would come; and already into
the head of the street up which the priests looked figures were
emerging. Simultaneously a crash of brazen music had filled the
air. A movement of attention, exactly like the lift of a swell
along the foot of a cliff, passed down the crowded street to the
left and lost itself round the corner towards S. Angelo.
Then they began to come, swinging over from the piazza to the
street as if from a pool into a narrow channel. Troops came
first--company after company--each with a band leading. First
the Austrian guard in white and gold on white chargers--passing
from the flash and dazzle their uniforms threw back in the
sunlight into the glow of the shadowed street. And then, by the
time that the Austrians were passing below the window, came
troop after troop down from the piazza in all the uniforms of
the civilized world.
At first Father Jervis murmured a name or two; he even laid his
hand upon his friend's arm as the Life-guards of England came
clashing by with their imperturbable faces above their silver
splendour; but presently the amazing spectacle forming in the
piazza, and, above all, on the steps of St. Peter's, silenced
them both. Monsignor Masterman gave scarcely a glance even to the
monstrous figures of the Chinese imperial guard, who went by
presently in black armour and vizarded helmets, like old Oriental
gods. For in the piazza itself the procession of princes was
forming; and the steps of the basilica already began to burn with
purple and scarlet where the Cardinals and the Papal Court were
making ready for the coming of the Lord of them all.
And then, at last, he came. . . .
Monsignor Masterman had begun to stare, almost with unintelligent
eyes, at the thronged street, beneath, watching the great
carriages come past, each surmounted by a crown with its proper
supporters, each surrounded by a small guard drawn from the
troops that had ridden by just now. He identified a few here and
there; and his heart gave a strange leap as the Imperial Crown of
England came in sight, held up by the Lion and the Unicorn, and
beneath it, within the gilded coach, the face of a boy capped and
robed in scarlet. And then he looked up again, startled by a
silence broken only by the footsteps of the horses and the wheels
over the matted roadway, and the murmur of talking.
The piazza was now one sea of white and purple, with emblems, gold
and silver and jewelled, shining here and there; the green strip
was gone; for the Papal procession was begun; and then, on the
instant, as he looked, there was a new group standing beneath the
giant columns of the portico, and the cry of the silver trumpets
told to the thousands that waited that the Vicar of Christ had
come out into this city that was again the City of God.
Very slowly he came down the steps, a tiny white and gemmed
figure, yet perfectly visible on the high throne on which he was
borne, his hand swaying as he came, and the huge fans moving
behind him like protecting deities. Down and down he came, while
the trumpets cried, and the waves of colour followed him, and
then vanished for a time among the crowd beneath, as he reached
the level ground.
Monsignor Masterman leaned back and closed his eyes. . . .
He was disturbed by another touch on his arm; and, looking up,
perceived that his friend was attracting his attention almost
mechanically, and without looking at him.
"Look," murmured Father Jervis--"it's the white jennet."
Beneath, the street was now as wholly ecclesiastical as it had
been military just before, except that the Papal zouaves marched
in single file on either side of the procession. But within there
was just one packed army, going eight abreast, of seminarians and
clerics. These were just passing as the priest looked again, and
close on their heels came the Court and the Cardinals; the latter
an indescribable glory of scarlet, riding four abreast in broad
hats and ample cloaks. But he gave scarcely more than a glance at
these; for, full in sight for at least half a minute, advancing
straight towards him down the roaring street, moved a canopy held
by figures he could not clearly make out, and beneath it,
detached and perfectly visible, on a white horse, a white figure,
its shoulders just draped in scarlet and its head shadowed by a
great scarlet hat, came slowly towards him.
(IV)
And so the day went by like a dream; and the man who still seemed
to himself as one risen from the dead into a new and wholly
bewildering world, watched and gathered impressions and
assimilated them. Once or twice during the day he found himself
at meals with Father Jervis; he asked questions now and then and
scarcely heard the answers; he talked with ecclesiastics a little
who came and went; but, for the most part almost unknown to
himself, he worked interiorly, busy as a bee, building up, not so
much facts as realizations, into the new and strange
world-edifice that was gradually forming about him. He was
present at the visit of the Pope to the tomb of the Apostle, and
watched from a tribune, even then so concentrated on observation
that he was hardly conscious of connected thought, as the vast
doors rolled back and a vision as of such a celestial troop as
was dreamed of by the old Italian painters came up out of the
vivid sunlight into the cool darkness of the basilica, as the
roofs gave back the roaring of the fervent thousands and the
clear cry of the silver trumpets; watched as the army of
ecclesiastics deployed this way and that, and the Father of
Princes and Kings came on between his royal children to the gates
of the Confession ringed by the golden lamps, and went down to
kneel by the body of the first Fisherman-King.
And again at Vespers, from the same tribune, he heard the peal of
the new great organs in the dome, and the psalm-melodies rocking
from side to side between the massed choirs; he glanced now and
again at the royal tribune opposite, where, each beneath a
canopy, the rulers of the earth sat together to do honour to the
Lord and His Anointed. And, above all, he watched, still with
that steady set face that made Father Jervis look at him once or
twice, the central figure of all, now on his throne, with his
assistants beside him, now passing up to the altar to incense it,
and finally passing out again on the _sedia gestatoria_ to the
palace where at last he ruled indeed.
Last of all, as the sun began to sink behind the monstrous dome,
and Rome stood out like an Oriental city of dreams, and the
purple lights came out on the low-lying hills, and the
illuminations glowed from every window, and blazed beneath the
feet and round the heads of the gigantic apostolic figures
gathered round their Lord--there, watching again from his window,
he saw, in a sudden hush over the heads of the countless crowds
the tiny white figure standing above the tapestries with the
Papal triple cross glinting beside him like a thread, and heard
the thin voice, gnat-like and clear, declare the "help of the
Lord who," as the thunder of the square answered him, "hath made
heaven and earth," and then invoke upon the city and the world,
before the tremendous _Amen_, the blessing of God Almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.