A pause ensued--a long, excruciating pause! Lorenzo, kneeling,
prayed--Pope Ganganelli read the letter of the physician of Bologna. His
face had assumed a mortal pallor; while reading, his lips trembled, and
tear-drops rolled slowly down over his sunken cheeks.
Falling from his hand, the letter rustled to the earth; with hanging
head and folded hands sat the pope. Lorenzo was still upon his knees
praying. Ganganelli suddenly raised his head, his eyes were turned
heavenward, a cheerful, God-given peace beamed from his eyes, and with a
clear, exulting voice, he said: "Lord, Thy will be done! I resign myself
to Thy holy keeping."
"The letter, then, brings good news?" asked Lorenzo, misled by the
joyfulness of the pope. "There is, then, no ground for the presentiments
of death, and the learned doctor says you will live?"
"The life eternal, Lorenzo!" said Ganganelli. "This letter confirms my
suppositions! Brunelli is a man of honor, and he has told me the
truth. Lorenzo, would you know what signifies this consuming fire,
this weariness and relaxation of my limbs? It is the effect of _Acqua
Tofana_!"
"Oh, my God," shrieked Lorenzo, "you are poisoned!"
"Irretrievably," calmly responded the pope; "Brunelli says it, and I
feel in my burning entrails that he speaks the truth.
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