of life our little Roma may not
some day ... God forbid!"

The boy moved in his sleep and laughed the laugh of a dream that is like
the sound of a breeze in soft summer grass, and it broke the thread of
painful reverie.

"Poor little man! he has forgotten all his troubles."

Perhaps he was back in his sunny Italy by this time, among the vines and
the oranges and the flowers, running barefoot with other children on the
dazzling whiteness of the roads!... Perhaps his mother in heaven was
praying her heart out to the Blessed Virgin to watch over her fatherless
darling cast adrift upon the world!

The train of thought was interrupted by voices in the street, and the
doctor drew the curtain of the window aside and looked out. The snow had
ceased to fall, and the moon was shining; the leafless trees were
casting their delicate black shadows on the whitened ground, and the
yellow light of a lantern on the opposite angle of the square showed
where a group of lads were singing a Christmas carol.

"While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around."

Doctor Roselli closed the curtain, put out the lamp, touched with his
lips the forehead of the sleeping boy, and went to bed.

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PART ONE--THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

TWENTY YEARS LATER

I

It was the last day of the century. In a Bull proclaiming a Jubilee the
Pope had called his faithful children to Rome, and they had come from
all quarters of the globe. To salute the coming century, and to dedicate
it, in pomp and solemn ceremony, to the return of the world to the Holy
Church, one and universal, the people had gathered in the great Piazza
of St. Peter.

Boys and women were climbing up every possible elevation, and a
bright-faced girl who had conquered a high place on the base of the
obelisk was chattering down at a group of her friends who were listening
to their cicerone.

"Yes, that is the Vatican," said the guide, pointing to a square
building at the back of the colonnade, "and the apartments of the Pope
are those on the third floor, just on the level of the Loggia of
Raphael. The Cardinal Secretary of State used to live in the rooms
below, opening on the grand staircase that leads from the Court of
Damasus. There's a private way