\"Most Reverend Father,\" she cried, clasping her hands in extremity. \"How shall a weak, untaught woman reason with the Counsellor of Venice! I know not where the words are written—but, somewhere, Fra Francesco hath taught me, yet his soul is loving—there is a thought of the vengeance of God, and it is terrible! Day and night there is no other vision in my soul but this—of the vengeance of God , poured out upon the disobedient. For this the blessed Mater Dolorosa of San Donato weepeth ceaselessly. Love is for those who serve him; but vengeance—here and hereafter—for those who disobey. Oh, my Father! for every human soul in Venice—the helpless women, who have no power but prayer, which is but insult while God''''s face is hidden—the little children who have done no harm—Madre Beatissima, how can we bear it!\"
\"Nay, nay, my daughter, for our Father is righteous and merciful. ''''Vengeance is mine,'''' he saith; '''' I will repay.'''' He giveth no man charge to bring his wrath upon us. He hath invested no human power with a supremacy beyond that which abideth in every loving and faithful soul, as to the things of the conscience. Thou, with thy love and faith and pain, art at this moment very near to Him; be comforted, and cease not to believe that He counteth all thy tears, and that thy prayers are dear to Him.\"
\"My Father,\" she confessed sadly, \"it is a part of the shadow that it hides my faith; night and day, with fast and penance, have I not ceased to pray for Venice—and the answer hath been denied me. I could seek for death, but for the horror that cometh after, at the Madonna dell'''' Orto—the Tintoret—and that which the Michelangelo hath seen in vision—Oh, my God!\"
\"My child, it is not God who faileth thee in answer to thy prayer; and love and faith are yet strong and beautiful within thy soul; only a human weakness is upon thee which cloudeth thy human reason, and for this thy soul is dark. For reason, also, is of God''''s gift—lower than faith and love, yet a very needful part of man while God leaveth him in his human habitation. There hath come an answer to the prayer, though thou see''''st it not.\"
\"Is it written, my father, in the cruel words of the interdict?\" she gasped.
\"She is tortured out of reverence,\" Santorio exclaimed apart, and would have hushed her.
But Fra Paolo, overhearing, said gently:
\"For this I came, to hearken all thy trouble, if perchance I might give thee rest. The answer to thy prayer is not written in those unjust words. For they—mark well, it is here that thy reason faileth thee—for they were uttered by a human will, striving to coerce obedience in a matter beyond its province. The power which God hath given to priests and princes is not arbitrary, but to be regulated by the law of God; neither is obedience toward those in authority to be stolid and blind, but yielded only when the command is within this divine law. The Holy Father hath no power to command disobedience to the Prince in his rightful realm,—which thus he seeketh to do.\"
She spread out her hands before her and half-turned away her head, as if in deprecation of some sacrilege, growing very white.
\"Is this the answer, my Father?\"
\"It is the reason for the answer which hath come by unanimous conviction into the soul of every man of the ruling body of Venice, and hath been voiced by each, in his vote, with a fullness of consent which is of God''''s sending. Thus are they nerved to declare the censure void—and Venice is unharmed.\"
\"Madre Beatissima! thus hast thou answered me?\"
\"My daughter, may it not comfort thee to know that that which thou, in faith and love, hast prayed for Venice—that in this struggle she should hold God''''s favor unharmed—hath come to her, though the manner of the benefit accord not with the manner of the grace which thou hast asked?\"
\"If my reason is clouded with terror,\" she said very slowly, as if her strength were spent, \"God hath vouchsafed me no other reason—but only that which trembles at this broken law of obedience. My Father—I pray thee—I am very weary——\"