XXIII

As the cry of the populace rang down the Canal Grande, following the

retreating ranks of the Jesuits, who, bound by their greater vows to

Rome, had remained steadfast and refused obedience to the Senate's

mandate, the Lady Marina, roused by the excitement which they dreaded,

had started to her feet with a marvelous return of her former mental

power and a fullness of comprehension which sought for no explanations.

She stood for a moment panting with hot, unspoken speech, turning from

one to another, and then, with a sudden, great effort, repressed the

words she would have spoken, asking quietly, after a pause in which no

reference had been made to the expulsion of the confraternities:

"Which of the orders have gone? What more hath happened that I know

not?"

"Nay, the orders of the monks and of the friars have chiefly been

faithful to Venice," they told her, "and all is well. This society,

which for long hath been cause of much disorder in our Republic, it is

well that it leave Venice in peace."

She answered nothing, weighing their words silently. "Is it because they

are faithful to their vows, and to their Church?" she asked at length,

in quiet irony.

"Nay, but because they teach disobedience to princes and would thus

undermine the law of the land," Marcantonio hastened to explain,

grateful that she could at length discuss the question.

"Carina,--blessed be San Marco,--thou art like thyself! We will talk

together; we will make all clear to thee; thou shalt grieve no more,

carinissima!"

She put up her hand and touched his cheek with an answering caress--the

first through all these weary days. "I shall get well, Marco mio," she

said, with a sudden conviction that surprised them; but still there was

no smile in her eyes, and their hearts were sad, though the change that

had come over her was so extraordinary that they hoped much from the

explanation which the great Santorio had authorized.

But for whom should they send in this moment, when life and death hung

in the balance, to speak that authoritative word.

The Bishop of Aquileia, first and greatest of the Venetian bishops, had

incurred the displeasure of the Senate for refusing to perform the

duties of his office while the Republic remained under that fulminated

but unacknowledged censure, and a new prelate, of opinions approved by

the Most Serene Republic, sat in the vacated see. The Bishop of Vicenza

had likewise signified his sympathy with the Holy See; and in Brescia

their wandering prelate had scarcely yet received that strengthening

monition of the watching Senate which was to recall him from his

hiding-place and hold him steadfast in his cathedral service.

And for the Patriarch Vendramin, who had been summoned to Rome to

receive the benediction of the Supreme Pontiff, but had been forbidden

by the Senate to leave the Venetian domains, this episode, which was a

feature of the struggle known to the whole of Venice, placed him so

openly on the side of the Republic that it forbade his ministry with the

Lady Marina.

But there was one so jealously guarded from all interruption and fatigue

that strangers who came from far to see him were refused audience, by

order of the Senate, or were received for a few moments only in some

protected chamber of the Ducal Palace; for the springs of government

moved at his touch, the matters which occupied him were weighty, and for

these they would spare his strength. Yet again the Senate signified a

rare consideration for the Ca' Giustiniani by permitting the attendance

of their Teologo Consultore in the palazzo of the Lady Marina; for who

so well could minister to her diseased mind as he who had unanswerably

placed the question in its true light before all the Councils of the

Republic?

She stood with bowed head and clasped hands as he approached her, her

hair falling unbound, as in her maiden days, over the simply white robe

which she had preferred in her illness, discarding all her jewels and

all emblems of her state--pale as a vision, like a sad dream of the

beautiful Madonna del Sorriso which the Veronese had painted for that

altar of the Servi at which, each morning, Fra Paolo still dutifully

ministered.

"Peace be with thee and to thine house, my daughter," said the Padre

Maestro Paolo, spreading out his hands in priestly salutation as he

entered the oratory of the palazzo Giustiniani, where the Lady Marina

awaited him.

She had desired that the interview should take place in this chapel,

which she had not visited since her illness. A faint odor of desolation

stole through the dimness of the place to meet him--a breath from the

withered rose-petals which had dropped from the golden vases upon the

splendid embroidered altar-cloth and mingled with the dust of those many

days which had remained guiltless of Mass or service; the altar candles

were unlighted; the censer had lost its halo of mystic smoke.

"It were fitter to my mood, most Reverend Father, wert thou to scatter

penitential ashes before a desecrated altar which may send no incense of

praise to heaven."

"Nay, my daughter; love and faith may still minister, and God, the

Unchangeable, accept that service from every altar in Venice! 'The

sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit,' it is written in the Holy Book

which God hath granted for the comfort of His people. May peace indeed

bring thee its benediction--the more that thy need is great."

Was there some strange power of resistance in that fragile, drooping

figure which made it difficult to rehearse the argument for Venice with

his accustomed mastery?

She listened silently while the learned Counsellor patiently explained

that the sentence of Rome was unjust, therefore not incurred and not to

be observed by priests nor people; wherefore it was the duty of the

Prince to prevent its execution--of the Prince who, more than any

private citizen, is bound to fear God, to be zealous in the faith and

reverent toward the priests who are permitted to stand in the place of

Christ for the enforcement of his teaching only; but it is also the more

the duty of the Prince to eschew hypocrisy and superstition, to preserve

his own dignity, and maintain his state in the exercise of the true

religion.

But there was no acquiescence in her eyes.

"I thank thee, most Reverend Father, for thy patient teaching," she

said; "but I lack the learning to make it helpful. Fra Francesco was

more simple, and he hath taught me by no arguments; but he, for the

exercise of the true religion, hath found it needful to quit Venice, and

doth make his pilgrimage to Rome, barefooted, that he may pray the Holy

Father, of his grace, to lift this curse from our people."

"There is that in her face which maketh argument useless," Fra Paolo

said low to his friend Santorio, for he was himself no mean physician,

having contributed discoveries of utmost importance to the medical

science, "and there is a physical weakness combined with this mental

assertiveness which doth make it a danger to oppose her beliefs. Yet I

would I might comfort her, for her soul is tortured."

"It must be that thou shalt convince her!" Santorio pleaded with him.

Thus urged, Fra Paolo spoke again, in a tone that pity rendered

strangely near to tenderness. "I would not weary thee, my daughter,

having spoken the truth which I would fain have thee embrace for thine

own healing. Only this would I remind thee--that none may be excluded

from the Holy Catholic Church if he be not first excluded by his own

demerits from Divine Grace."

She answered nothing, but there was an unspoken argument in her face.

"See'st thou not that those terrors which thou dost fear shall not come

upon Venice, since she hath not sinned? It is this which, for thy peace,

we would have thee comprehend."

"My Father, there is but one whose teaching fitteth my reasoning," she

answered resolutely, "and he hath fled from Venice that he may be free

to believe and to practise his religion as our Holy Church doth require,

and to plead against our doom, where prayer may be heard, unhindered by

the cloud which keepeth us in Venice from God's favor. He, being a holy

man, hath taught me that the law of obedience to the Supreme Head of the

Church may not be transgressed--that our doom cometh not undeserved--and

my whole heart is sick with fear!"

"There is but One to whom is owed this supreme and inalterable

obedience, my daughter; we do not differ in our beliefs; yield it always

to him, most reverently and unreservedly," Fra Paolo answered solemnly.

"But upon this earth, it hath been taught us by our Lord himself, 'there

is none good--nay, not one.' The Head of the Church of God is God

himself, the only infallible and just. Thinkest thou that He would have

us obey a command conceived in error, with intention to exclude from

every benefit of our Holy Church, in the hour when they most need divine

comfort and protection, those who would faithfully do him service? Thus

read we not the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father!"

"Most Reverend Father," she cried, clasping her hands in extremity.

"How shall a weak, untaught woman reason with the Counsellor of Venice!

I know not where the words are written--but, somewhere, Fra Francesco

hath taught me, yet his soul is loving--there is a thought of the

vengeance of God, and it is terrible! Day and night there is no other

vision in my soul but this--of the _vengeance of God_, poured out upon

the disobedient. For this the blessed Mater Dolorosa of San Donato

weepeth ceaselessly. Love is for those who serve him; but

vengeance--here and hereafter--for those who disobey. Oh, my Father! for

every human soul in Venice--the helpless women, who have no power but

prayer, which is but insult while God's face is hidden--the little

children who have done no harm--Madre Beatissima, how can we bear it!"

"Nay, nay, my daughter, for our Father is righteous and merciful.

'Vengeance is mine,' he saith; '_I_ will repay.' He giveth no man charge

to bring his wrath upon us. He hath invested no human power with a

supremacy beyond that which abideth in every loving and faithful soul,

as to the things of the conscience. Thou, with thy love and faith and

pain, art at this moment very near to Him; be comforted, and cease not

to believe that He counteth all thy tears, and that thy prayers are dear

to Him."

"My Father," she confessed sadly, "it is a part of the shadow that it

hides my faith; night and day, with fast and penance, have I not ceased

to pray for Venice--and the answer hath been denied me. I could seek for

death, but for the horror that cometh after, at the Madonna dell'

Orto--the Tintoret--and that which the Michelangelo hath seen in

vision--Oh, my God!"

"My child, it is not God who faileth thee in answer to thy prayer; and

love and faith are yet strong and beautiful within thy soul; only a

human weakness is upon thee which cloudeth thy human reason, and for

this thy soul is dark. For reason, also, is of God's gift--lower than

faith and love, yet a very needful part of man while God leaveth him in

his human habitation. There hath come an answer to the prayer, though

thou see'st it not."

"Is it written, my father, in the cruel words of the interdict?" she

gasped.

"She is tortured out of reverence," Santorio exclaimed apart, and would

have hushed her.

But Fra Paolo, overhearing, said gently:

"For this I came, to hearken all thy trouble, if perchance I might give

thee rest. The answer to thy prayer is not written in those unjust

words. For they--mark well, it is here that thy reason faileth thee--for

they were uttered by a human will, striving to coerce obedience in a

matter beyond its province. The power which God hath given to priests

and princes is not arbitrary, but to be regulated by the law of God;

neither is obedience toward those in authority to be stolid and blind,

but yielded only when the command is within this divine law. The Holy

Father hath no power to command disobedience to the Prince in his

rightful realm,--which thus he seeketh to do."

She spread out her hands before her and half-turned away her head, as if

in deprecation of some sacrilege, growing very white.

"Is _this_ the answer, my Father?"

"It is the reason for the answer which hath come by unanimous conviction

into the soul of every man of the ruling body of Venice, and hath been

voiced by each, in his vote, with a fullness of consent which is of

God's sending. Thus are they nerved to declare the censure void--and

Venice is unharmed."

"Madre Beatissima! _thus_ hast thou answered me?"

"My daughter, may it not comfort thee to know that that which thou, in

faith and love, hast prayed for Venice--that in this struggle she should

hold God's favor unharmed--hath come to her, though the manner of the

benefit accord not with the manner of the grace which thou hast asked?"

"If my reason is clouded with terror," she said very slowly, as if her

strength were spent, "God hath vouchsafed me no other reason--but only

that which trembles at this broken law of obedience. My Father--I pray

thee--I am very weary----"