"I tell you I love her, I adore
her, this heavenly, beautiful woman! How can you ask me to renounce
her?"
"Nevertheless I do demand it," said the pope with solemnity, "demand it
in the name of your father, in the name of God, against whose holy laws
you have sinned--you, His consecrated priest."
"But that is an impossibility!" passionately exclaimed Francesco. "One
must bear a heart of stone in his bosom to require it; and that you can
do so only proves that you have never known what it is to love!"
"And that I can do so should prove to you that I have indeed known it,
my son!" sadly responded the pope.
"Whoever has known love knows that there can be no renunciation!"
"And whoever has known love can renounce!" exclaimed the pope, with
animation. "Listen to me, my son, and may the sad story of a short
happiness and long expiation serve you as a warning example! You think
I cannot have known love? Ah, I tell you I have experienced all its joys
and all its sorrows--that in the intoxication of rapture I once forgot
my vows, my duties, my holy resolutions, and, doubly criminal, I also
taught her whom I loved to forget her own sacred duties and to sin! Ah,
you call me a saint, and yet I have been the most abject of sinners!
Under this Franciscan vesture beat a tempestuous, fiery heart that
derided God and His laws; a heart that would have given my soul to the
evil one, had he promised to give me in exchange the possession of my
beloved! She was beautiful, and of a heavenly disposition; and hence,
when she passed through the aisles of the church, with her slight fairy
form, her angelic face veiled by her long dark locks, her eyes beaming
with love and pleasure, a heavenly smile playing about her lips--ah,
when she thus passed through the church, her feet scarcely touching the
floor, then I, who awaited her in the confessional, felt myself nearly
frantic with ecstasy, my brain turned, my eyes darkened, there was a
buzzing in my ears, and I attempted to implore the aid and support of
God.
Pages:
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307