he could of the state of public opinion in
Italy.

"You are quite right, Abbe," said he, with a sage shake of the head.
"Small concessions, petty glimpses of liberty, only give a zest for
more enlarged privileges. There is nothing like a good flood of popular
anarchy for creating a wholesome disgust to freedom. There must be
excesses!"

"Precisely so, sir," said the Abbe. "There can be no question of an
antidote if there has been no poisoning."

"Ay; but may not this system be pushed too far? Is not his Holiness
already doing so?"

"Some are disposed to think so, but I am not of the number," said
D'Esmonde. "It is necessary that he should himself be convinced that the
system is a bad one; and there is no mode of conviction so palpable as
by a personal experience. Now, this he will soon have. As yet, he does
not see that every step in political freedom is an advance towards the
fatal heresy that never ceases its persecutions of the Church. Not that
our Revolutionists care for Protestantism or the Bible either; but, by
making common cause with those who do, see what a large party in England
becomes interested for their success. The right of judgment conceded in
religious matters, how can you withhold it in political ones? The men
who brave the Church will not tremble before a cabinet. Now the Pope
sees nothing of this; he even mistakes the flatteries offered to himself
for testimonies of attachment to the Faith, and all those kneeling
hypocrites who implore his blessing he fancies are faithful children of
Rome. He must be awakened from this delusion; but yet none save himself
can dispel it He is obstinate and honest."

"If the penalty were to be his own alone, it were not so much matter,"
said the Minister; "but it will cost a revolution."

"Of course it will; but there is time enough to prepare for it."

"The state of the Milanais is far from satisfactory," said the Minister,
gravely.

"I know that; but a revolt of a prison always excuses double irons,"
said D'Esmonde, sarcastically.

"Tell him of Sardinia, Abbe," said Madame de Heidendorf.

"Your real danger is from that quarter," said D'Esmonde. "There is
a growing spirit of independence there,--a serious desire for free
institutions, wide apart from the wild democracy of the rest of Italy.
This is a spirit you cannot crush; but you can do better,--you can
corrupt it Genoa is a hotbed of Socialist doctrine; the wildest
fanaticism of the 'Reds' is there tr