injury to an innocent person, I have taken the best and quickest way to make full amends.  I wronged a woman—­this boy’s mother—­” and he indicated with a slight gesture Cyrillon, who had remained a silent witness of the scene,—­“and the boy himself from early years set his mind and his will to avenge his mother’s dishonour.  I—­the chief actor in the drama,—­am thus responsible for a woman’s misery and shame; and am equally responsible for the murderous spirit which has animated one, who without this feeling, would have been a promising fellow enough.  The woman I wronged, alas!—­is dead, and I cannot reinstate her name, save in an open acknowledgment of her child, my son.  I do acknowledge him,—­I acknowledge him in your presence, and therefore virtually in the presence of His Holiness.  I thus help to remove the stigma I myself set on his name.  Plainly speaking, Monsignor, we men have no right whatever to launch human beings into the world with the ‘bar sinister’ branded upon them.  We have no right, if we follow Christ, to do anything that may injure or cause trouble to any other creature.  We have no right to be hasty in our judgment, even of sin.”

“Sin is sin,—­and demands punishment—­” interrupted Moretti.

“You quote the law of Moses, Monsignor!  I speak with the premise ‘if’.  If we follow Christ;—­if we do not, the matter is of course different.  We can then twist Scripture to suit our own purpose.  We can organise systems which are agreeable to our own convenience or profit, but which have nothing whatever of Christ’s Divine Spirit of universal love and compassion in them.  My action this morning was unusual and quixotic no doubt.  Yet, it seemed to me the only way to comport myself under those particular circumstances.  I did a wrong—­ I seek to make amends.  I believe this is what God would have me do.  I believe that the Supernal Forces judge our sins against each other to be of a far worse nature than sins against Church or Creed.  I also believe that if we try to amend our injustices and set crooked things straight, death will be an easier business, and Heaven will come a little nearer to our souls.  As for my attack on the Church—­”

“Ah truly!  What of your attack on the Church?” said Moretti, his small eyes glistening, and his breath going and coming quickly.

“I would say every word of it again with absolute conviction,” declared Vergniaud, “for I have said nothing but the truth!  There is a movement in the world, Monsignor, that all the powers of Rome are unable to cope with!—­the movement of an advancing resistless force called Truth,—­the Voice of God,—­the Voice of Christ!  Truth cannot be choked, murdered and killed nowadays as in the early Inquisition!  Rather than that the Voice of Truth should be silenced or murdered now at this period of time, God will shake down Rome!”

“Not so!” exclaimed Moretti hotly—­“Every nation in the world shall perish before Rome shall lose her sacred power!  She is the ’headstone of the corner’—­and ’upon whomsoever that stone shall fall, it shall grind him to powder!’”