youthful freshness,
and in which love has found a lurking-hole which your cross cannot fill
up. And in this lurking-hole now dwells a charming, a wonderful woman,
whom Rome calls the queen of song, and whom I call the queen of beauty
and love! All the world adjudges her the crown of poesy, and only you
refuse it to her."

"Again this old complaint!" said the pope, with a slight contraction of
his brow. "You again speak of her--"

"Of Corilla," interposed the cardinal--"yes of Corilla I speak, of that
heavenly woman whom all the world admires; to whose beautiful verses
philosophers and poets listen with breathless delight, and who well
deserves that you should reward her as a queen by bestowing upon her the
poetic crown!"

"I crown a Corilla!" mockingly exclaimed the pope. "Shall a Corilla
desecrate the spot hallowed by the feet of Tasso and Petrarch? No, I
say, no; when art becomes the plaything of a courtesan, then may the
sacred Muses veil their heads and mourn in silence, but they must not
degrade themselves by throwing away the crown which the best and noblest
would give their heart's blood to obtain. This Corilla may bribe you
poor earthly fools with her smiles and amorous verses, but she will not
be able to deceive the Muses!"

"You refuse me, then, the crowning of the renowned improvisatrice
Corilla?" asked the cardinal, with painfully suppressed rage.

"I refuse it!"

"And why, then, did you send for me?" exclaimed the cardinal with
vehemence. "Was it merely to mock me?"

"It was for the purpose of warning you, my son!" mildly responded the
pope. "For even the greatest forbearance must at length come to an
end; and when I am compelled to forget that you are Alessandro Albani's
nephew, I shall then only have to remember that you are the criminal
Francesco Albani, whom all the world condemns, and whom I must judge!
Repent and reform, my son, while there is yet time; and, above all
things, renounce this love, which heaps new disgrace upon your family
and overwhelms your relatives with sorrow and anxiety!"

"Renounce Corilla!" cried the cardinal. "I tell you I love her, I adore
her, this heavenly, beautiful woman! How can you ask me to renounce
her?"

"Nevertheless I do demand it," said the pope with solemnity, "demand it
in the name of your father, in the name of God, against whose holy laws
you have sinned--you, His consecrated priest."

"But that is an impossibility!" passionately exclaimed Francesco