Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/286

 thrown aside. The difference of opinion turned on the pressing question of removal, some preferring one destination, some another. The discussion was at its height, and the pontiff was undecided whose advice to follow, when suddenly the British Legate walked in unannounced.

After the formal salutations were over, he said, speaking in French, on account of the presence of various foreign prelates whom he recognised,—

‘Holy Father, and brethren priests and dignitaries,—I have come hither, as in duty bound, upon receipt of the disastrous intelligence which reached me two days ago. It is not the first time that the hand of the persecutor has been heavy upon us, nor the first time that a Pope has been driven from Rome; but though not the first, I believe it is the most serious. The foundations are cast down; our priesthood is forcibly suspended from its functions, except on condition of violating that law of celibacy which has been its principle of cohesion through centuries of trial; the training of the young is taken away from us; and the ‘devout female sex,’ as we have been accustomed to call it, is learning rebellion and the spirit of domination, so that its influence is no longer on the Lord’s side’—here the prelate paused, produced a snuff-box and deliberately took a pinch, to the surprise and impatience of his august audience, to whom the action appeared singularly out of place; then, shutting the box with a loud snap, and returning it to his pocket—‘Hem! no longer on the Lord’s side. They are actually going to take this ancient building away from the Vicar of Christ, and turn it into a school for the training of young women into further rebellion, the training of them into such courses as that of our persecutress Madame Pisa-Vitri. How will it fare with holy Church when her daughters all trample upon her neck? Then they are taking her sons, too; the priests, the Levites, are being secularised; barrack