form of creed,—­but for all!—­if you are truly the Dispenser of Christ’s Message to the earth!  Come—­unprotected, save by the Cross!  Come with no weapon of defence—­’heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils!  Freely ye have received, freely give!  Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purse,’—­ come, and by your patience—­your gentleness—­your pardon—­your love to all men, show that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ Walk fearless in the thick of battles, and your very presence shall engender peace!  For the Holy Spirit shall surround and encompass you; the fiercest warriors shall bend before you, as they never would if you assumed a world’s throne or a world’s sovereignty!  Come, uncrowned, defenceless;—­but strong in the Spirit of God!  Think of all the evil which has served as the foundation for this palace in which you dwell!  Can you not hear in the silence of the night, the shrieks of the tortured and dying of the Inquisition?  Do you never think of those dark days, ten and twelve hundred years after Christ, when no virtue seemed left upon the earth?—­when the way to this very throne was paved by poison and cold steel?—­when those who then reigned here, and occupied Your place, led such infamous lives that the very dogs might have been ashamed to follow in their footsteps!—­when they professed to be able to sell the Power of the Holy Ghost for so much gold and silver?  Remember the words, ’Whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.’  Look back upon the Past—­and look out upon the Present!  Try to understand the sufferings of the forsaken people!—­the pain—­the bewilderment—­ the groping for life in death!—­and come out with me!  Come and preach Christ as He lived and died, and was, and is!  Come out with me!”

The dreadful, dumb spell remained unbroken.  The loom seemed invested with a strange solemnity—­the figures of the human beings in it were like images frozen into rigidity—­even Cardinal Bonpre appeared stricken by this mental paralysis, and not a fold of his rich attire stirred with so much as a pulsation of natural breath.  Only Manuel seemed truly alive—­his slight boyish figure was instinct with ardour—­his face was radiant, and his eyes brilliant as stars.  And now, withdrawing himself a little from the motionless creature seated stiffly on the Papal throne, with its deep, dark eyes alone giving sign of life by their unwearied stare and feverish glitter, he raised his head with a royal gesture of mingled appeal and warning.