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——­”

XXIV

The nuncio had declared that Venice no longer required his services and had withdrawn, with every ceremony of punctilious and honorable dismissal, to Rome, from whence the Venetian ambassador presently went forth without the customary compliments.

But if diplomatic relations were severed between Rome and Venice, there were still chances for private communication which sometimes cast a curious light upon the subject under discussion, but which made no change in that irreproachable suavity of exterior or that invincibility of purpose with which the Venetians held in check any attempt at disaffection through Roman agency, or averted any schismatic movement within their own dependencies.