order, and
they desire disorder. They will, it is true, always be a minority,
because the greater part of mankind are determined that order shall not
be destroyed. But those fellows will fight to the death, because they
know that in that battle there will be no quarter for the vanquished. It
will be a mighty struggle and will last long, but it will be decisive,
and will perhaps never be revived when it is once over. Men will kill
each other where-ever they meet, during months and years, before the end
comes, for all men who say that there is a God in Heaven will be upon
the one side, and all those who say there is no God will be upon the
other."

"May we not be alive to see anything so dreadful!" exclaimed Don Paolo
devoutly.

"No, you and I shall not see it. But those little children who are
playing with chestnuts down there in the court--they will see it. The
world is uneasy and dreads the very name of war, lest war should become
universal if it once breaks out. Tell your brother that."

"It is what he longs for. He is always speaking of it."

"Then it is inevitable. When many millions like him have determined that
there shall be evil done, it cannot long be warded off. Their blood be
on their own heads."

When Don Paolo had climbed again to his lonely lodging, half an hour
later, he pondered long upon what the Cardinal had said to him, and the
longer he thought of it, the more truth there seemed to be in the
prediction.

CHAPTER X

Gianbattista reached the church in which he was to do his work, and
superintended the unloading of the carts. It was but a little after one
o'clock, and he expected to succeed in putting up the grating before
night. The pieces were carefully carried to the chapel where they were
to be placed, and laid down in the order in which they would be needed.
It took a long time to arrange them, and the apprentice was glad he had
advised Maria Luisa and Lucia to come late. It would have wearied them,
he reflected, to assist at the endless fitting and screwing of the
joints, and they would have had no impression of the whole until they
were tired of looking at the details.

For hours he laboured with the men, not allowing anything to be done
without his supervision, and doing more himself than any of the workmen.
He grew hot and interested as the time went on, and he began to doubt
whether the work could be finished before sunset. The workmen
themselves, who preferred a job of thi