"Blind as he
was he yet kept a mistress. How, then, can he wonder that I, who can
see, kept several? Two eyes see more than none; that is natural!"
"But do you, then, so wholly forget your solemn oath of chastity and
virtue?" excitedly exclaimed the pope. "Look upon the cross that covers
your breast, and fall upon your knees to implore the pardon of God."
"This cross was laid upon my breast when I was yet a boy," gloomily
responded the cardinal; "the fetters were attached to me before I had
the strength to rend them; my will was not asked when this stone was
laid upon my breast! Now I ask not about your will when I seek, under
this weight, to breathe freely as a man! And, thank God, this weight has
not crushed my heart--my heart, that yet glows with youthful freshness,
and in which love has found a lurking-hole which your cross cannot fill
up. And in this lurking-hole now dwells a charming, a wonderful woman,
whom Rome calls the queen of song, and whom I call the queen of beauty
and love! All the world adjudges her the crown of poesy, and only you
refuse it to her."
"Again this old complaint!" said the pope, with a slight contraction of
his brow. "You again speak of her--"
"Of Corilla," interposed the cardinal--"yes of Corilla I speak, of that
heavenly woman whom all the world admires; to whose beautiful verses
philosophers and poets listen with breathless delight, and who well
deserves that you should reward her as a queen by bestowing upon her the
poetic crown!"
"I crown a Corilla!" mockingly exclaimed the pope.
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