"And now to these pious Jesuit fathers!" said he, stepping out upon the
grass. "It was very prudent in me that I went on foot to Corilla
to-day. Our cursed equipages betray every thing; they are the greatest
chatterboxes! How astonished these good Romans would be to see a
cardinal's carriage before these houses of the condemned! No, no,
strengthen yourselves for another effort, my reverend legs! Only yet
this walk, and then you will have rest."
And the cardinal trudged stoutly on until he reached the Jesuit college.
There he stopped and looked cautiously around him.
"This unfortunate saintly dress is also a hindrance," murmured he.
"Like the sign over the shop-door it proclaims to all the world: 'I am a
cardinal. Here indulgences, dispensations, and God's blessings are to be
sold! Who will buy, who will buy?' I dare not now enter this scouted and
repudiated sacred house. I might be remarked, suspected, and betrayed.
Corilla, dear, beautiful woman, it costs me much pains and many efforts
to conquer you; will your possession repay me?"
The cardinal patiently waited in the shadow of a taxus-bush until the
street become for a moment empty and solitary. Then he hastened to a
side-door of the building, and, sure of being unobserved, entered.
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