Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/81

 cal men in charge treat the malady more lightly than should have been the case. On the morning of Whitsunday, the Pope, however, felt his strength failing; he caused a mass to be read to him before daylight, and took the sacrament; but even then the doctors, in reply to his questions, declared that he would he out of bed in a week, and pronounced it unnecessary to issue a bulletin. But in the night the Pope's condition grew much worse, so that when, in the morning at seven o'clock, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Lambruschini, came, he found the Pope speechless, and already aneled in a hurry by another ecclesiastic than the one on whom, in the prescribed order of ceremonial, this duty devolved. The Pope was actually breathing his last; and in the absence of the Cardinal Penitentiary, who could not be summoned in time, the Secretary of State hastily read over him the appointed prayers for the dying. At the time, these facts gave rise to much comment, both in ecclesiastical and general circles, and suspicions were expressed for which there is no reason to believe that foundation existed. The only charge to be brought is that of negligence and want of