“I beg your Eminence’s pardon, but is the author a Benedictine by any chance?”

The Cardinal smiled.

“Yes:  I was coming to that.  His name is Dom Adrian Bennett.  He is—­or rather ought to be—­a Westminster monk, but his return has been deferred for the present.”

“I met him at Lourdes, your Eminence.”

“Ah!  He is a very clever young man, and at the name time perfectly courageous. . . .  Well, you’ll look up the procedure, if you’re not perfectly clear?  And I should wish to have the names of the judges by tomorrow night.  The Canon Theologian of the diocese may not be well enough to act.  But you will make arrangements.”

“Yes, your Eminence.”

“The second matter is exceedingly important.” (The Cardinal began to play with the pen that lay on his desk.) “And no rumour of it must get out from this house.  It may be made public at any moment, and I wish you to know beforehand in order that you may not be taken by surprise.  Well, it is this.  I have had information that the Emperor of Germany will be received into the Catholic Church to-night.  I needn’t tell you what that means.  He is quite fearless and quite conscientious; and there is not the slightest doubt that he will, sooner or later, make it impossible for the Socialists to congregate any longer in Berlin.  That will mean either civil war in Germany—­(I hear the Socialists have been in readiness for this for some time past)—­or it will mean their dispersal everywhere.  Europe, at any rate, will have to deal with them.  However, that’s in the future.  The important thing at the present is that we should be able to show our full strength when the time comes.  There will be thanksgivings throughout England, of course, as soon as the news is published, and I wish you to be in readiness to make what arrangements are necessary.  It was the Lourdes miracle, which you witnessed, that has finished the affair.  As you know, the Emperor has been on the edge of this for months past.”

The Cardinal spoke quietly and diplomatically enough; but the other could see how deeply moved he was by this tremendous development.  The Emperor’s position had been the one flaw in the Catholic organization of Europe—­and indeed of the world.  Now the last stone was laid, and the arch was complete.  The single drawback was that no statesman or prophet could conjecture with certainty what the effect on the Socialists would be.

“And how are you, Monsignor?” asked the Cardinal suddenly, smiling at him.

“I am getting on very well, your Eminence!”

“I should like to say that, for myself, I am more than satisfied,” went on the other.  “You seem to me to have regained all your old grip on things—­and in some points to have more than regained it.  I have written to Rome——­” (he broke off).

“It’s the details that still trouble me, your Eminence.  For instance, in this heresy-trial, I cannot remember the procedure, or the penalties, or anything else.”