“We must bring the Pap-fed man to declare these propositions in every respect orthodox—­show him their good effect upon despotic governments—­upon true Catholics, the muzzlers of the people.  He will fall into the snare.  The propositions once published, the storm will burst forth.  A general rising against Rome—­a wide schism—­the sacred college divided into three parties.  One approves—­the other blames—­the third trembles.  The Sick Man, still more frightened than he is now at having allowed the destruction of Poland, will shrink from the clamors, reproaches, threats, and violent ruptures that he has occasioned.

“That is well—­and goes far.

“Then, set the Pope to shaking the conscience of the Sick Man, to disturb his mind, and terrify his soul.

“To sum up.  Make everything bitter to him—­divide his council—­isolate him—­frighten him—­redouble the ferocious ardor of good Albini—­revive the appetite of the Sanfedists[25]—­give them a gulf of liberals—­let there be pillage, rape, massacre, as at Cesena—­a downright river of Carbonaro blood—­the Sick Man will have a surfeit of it.  So many butcheries in his name—­he will shrink, be sure he will shrink—­every day will have its remorse, every night its terror, every minute its anguish; and the abdication he already threatens will come at last—­perhaps too soon.  That is now the only danger; you must provide against it.

“In case of an abdication, the grand penitentiary has understood me.  Instead of confiding to a general the direction of our Order, the best militia of the Holy See, I should command it myself.  Thenceforward this militia would give me no uneasiness.  For instance:  the Janissaries and the Praetorian Guards were always fatal to authority—­why?—­because they were able to organize themselves as defenders of the government, independently of the government; hence their power of intimidation.

“Clement XIV. was a fool.  To brand and abolish our Company was an absurd fault.  To protect and make it harmless, by declaring himself the General of the Order, is what he should have done.  The Company, then at his mercy, would have consented to anything.  He would have absorbed us, made us vassals of the Holy See, and would no longer have had to fear our services.  Clement XIV. died of the cholic.  Let him heed who hears.  In a similar case, I should not die the same death.”

Just then, the clear and liquid voice of Rose-Pompon was again heard.  Rodin bounded with rage upon his seat; but soon, as he listened to the following verse, new to him (for, unlike Philemon’s widow, he had not his Beranger at his fingers’ ends), the Jesuit, accessible to certain odd, superstitious notions, was confused and almost frightened at so singular a coincidence.  It is Beranger’s Good Pope who speaks—­