Monsignor felt the point prick him.  He riposted gently.

“Well, you will have to take refuge in Germany,” he said.

The face of the other changed a little; his eyelids came down just a fraction.

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do, Monsignor—­I—­but I think there’s somebody wanting you.”

Monsignor turned.  There was a hand beckoning him from behind a face, as if in agitation, from the entrance to door No.  XI.

“If you’ll excuse me,” he said, and hurried off.

“I thought you’d like to be present at the end, Monsignor,” whispered the member who had beckoned him.  “The Cardinal is just speaking.”

Committee room number XI seemed strangely quiet, as the prelate slipped in behind his friend and stood motionless.  One voice was speaking; and, as he tried to catch the sense, he looked round the faces, that were all turned in his direction.  He saw Mr. Manners on the extreme left.

Every man sat without moving, simply listening, it seemed, with an extraordinary attention; some leaning forward, some back, with the papers disregarded on the table.  A couple of recording machines stood now in the centre.  Then he began to catch the words. . . .

“I think, gentlemen,” said the voice from behind the high-backed chair, “that I need say no more.  We have discussed at length, and I hope to your satisfaction, the particular points on which you desired information:  and my answers have brought out, I think, the essence of all the conditions on which alone the Church can accept the terms proposed.

“I wish it to be brought before the House, perfectly clearly, that in her own province the Church must be supreme.  She must have an entire and undisputed right over her own doctrine and discipline; for that is at the root of her only claim to be heard.  In respect to any legislation which, in her opinion, touches the eternal principles of morality—­in all such things, for example, as the marriage law—­her supreme authority must be respected; as well as in all those other matters of the same nature upon which you have questioned me.

“But on the other side the Church recognizes, and always will recognize, the right of a free people to govern themselves; and, not only recognizes that right, but will support it with all the power at her command.  I have acknowledged that in a few instances in history ecclesiastics have interfered unduly with what did not concern them—­interfered, that is, not as citizens (for that is their right, in common with all other citizens)—­but in the Name of Religion.  Now that, gentlemen, is simply a thing of the past.  If secular rulers have learned by experience, so have ecclesiastical rulers. . . .  I have invited investigation into the history of the last hundred years; and I have answered those few charges that have been brought—­I hope to your satisfaction.”  (There was a murmur of applause.)