Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

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m-y or two,
but indeed eighteen centuries, if need be, behind, if, to 1m
counted among the \vite men, the adepts of tho present time,
it I'M absolutely necessary to enrol one's self in the ranks of tho
libree-penteur. Only," he continued, with increasing mergy,
"pleasi , :ili';t,uin, I beg, from wounding iu this my religious
sentiments, from turning into derision my most-cher-
ished, icy holiest beliefs; that is a rush impiety a Christian
can not tolerate. Do you then thin 1
;, sir, you can shake,
weaken, by your doubts, your railleries, that august and holy
religion which has been the strength and consolation of man-
kind for so many hundreds of "
years ?
"
In any case I hope I am free to express my opinion, to
give my advice. Why do you wish I should respect your
rites, your mysteries I who do not believe in them ?"
" Ah ! you do not believe in them ! Well, I predict a day
will come when you will regret not having believed ; an hour
will come when you will invoke with the supreme anguish of
remorse and despair, the presence, the succor of a minister of
God. But that God you shall have contemned, will He then
grant you those precious means of sslvation, those all powerful
graces you shall have so often turned into derision ? He
alone knows ! For my part I pray He may deign
not to re-
member at that hour the blasphemies uttered by you against
"
His heavenly goodness.
"
But, allow me, my dear Joseph," said M. Morren here
interrupted, eagerly desirous of giving another turn to this
conversation so "
awkwardly begun, what, I beg have all these
explanations in common with the resolution yon have taken of
going to serve at Borne ? Don't you know that to devote
yourself to the defence of the Pope is to embrace a party
without support and without hope to dedicate yourself to a
desperate enterprise, a lost cause ?"
"As I told you, uncle," replied Joseph, become calm and
serious, " I enter the Sovereign Pontiffs service in order to
fulfil the vow solemnlv formed by me during my mother's
illness. But how, I beg, do you discover that the sacred cause
of the common Father of the faithful is, as you say, a cause
without support and without hope ? Let us suppose that one
of your neighbors let him be named Jean Broron or Victor
Emmanuel without more ceremony, prepares to take possession
of your orchard, your garden, your meadows, alleging that
he wants those different portions of laud to enlarge his estate.
In that case would you look favorably upon those of your
cure."
"Ah! that's it! And do you really believe then, my child,
your offering, your prayers co-operated in that cure? It was a
miracle took place, then, according to you, my young friend.
Come Joseph, how can you, an intelligent, sensible lad, de-
"
lude yourself with such imaginings'?
'Allow me, my dear uncle I by no means affirm that in
that cure a miracle took place. The recovery of our good
mother might very well have been owing to natural causes,
frequent and regular. However, if God willed to accomplish
a miracle in her favor, who then, tell me, I beg, could have
"
hindered Him doing it?
"A miracle, indeed! What an absurdity! Miserable old
"
prejudices, old women's tales!
"
Tales in which many learned men, many heroes,
many sages have believed. Tell me was the great
Englishman, Shakespeare, your favorite neighbors
poet, an old woman ?
or friends who would appear disposed to sustain
those exorbitant pretensions ? As to ruy cousin Victor,
would he really deserve to be called your son, if he would not
entirely devote himself to the defence of your rights, even to
exposing and sacrificing his life ? And now, when a usurper,
whom the just sentence of history will brand, when a crowned
invader has ravished from my Father the possessions that rights
the most imprescriptible, and contracts the most sacred, havo
guaranteed him, could I, ungrateful child, degenerate sou, resolve
to look on with folded arms while this act of violi
this work of treason was accomplished and the idea no I
occur to me of upholding my glorious flag, defending my
Father, drawing my sword ! Oh ! in that case would I not,
bid farewell to my glorious name of Roman Catholic ?"
"Bravo! Joseph!" cried Victor; "well said' you aiv tho
worthy descendant of the old Crusaders, our fathers. See now
what consequences the consecration of those soi-dlsant prin-
ciples of the extension of nationalities they are so audaciously
si riving to apply to Italy entail ! Let the Emperor Napoleon
discover some day that it is quite natural and perfectly legitimate
to fix no other limits to his empire than its natural
frontiers iho Bhiue, the Bhoue, the Alps and the ocean.
what'll become of Belgium then, and what'll she have to say ?
Isn't that as clear, gentlemen, as the sun at noonday?"
" No, caf>pfri ! cried the young Italian. " There's a great,
a notable difference between the two hypotheses, Monsieur
Victor. Th" Unita cT/ta#a my dear sir, don't forget