could be the successor of the noble Ganganelli!"

Many cardinals and princes of the Church, many noblemen and foreign
ambassadors, were assembled in the pope's audience-room, and as
Ganganelli entered, they all received him with joyful acclamations,
and humbly fell upon their knees before the head of the church, the
vicegerent of God, who, with solemn majesty, bestowed upon them his
blessing, and then condescendingly conversed with them. That was a
ceremony to which the pope was obliged to subject himself once a week,
and which he reckoned as not one of the least of the troubles attendant
upon his exalted position. Hence he was well pleased when this hour
was over, and he at length was relieved of the presence of all these
eulogistic and flattering gentlemen.

Only Cardinal Bernis had remained behind, and to him Ganganelli, giving
him his hand, and drawing a deep breath, said:

"What a mass of false and hypocritical phrases we have again been
obliged to swallow! These cardinals have the impudence to speak to me of
their love and veneration; they do not hesitate so to lie with the same
lips which to-day have already pronounced blessings and pious words of
edification! But let us forget these hypocrites. Business is over, and
it is kind of you to come and chat with me for one little hour. You know
I love you very much, my good friend Bernis, although you do pay homage
to the heathen divinities, and, as a real renegade, have constituted
yourself a priest of the muses."

"Ah, you speak of my youthful sins," said the cardinal, smiling. "They
are long since past, and sleep with my youthful happiness."

"That must be a wide bed which enables them all to find place side by
side," responded Ganganelli, laughing, and holding up his forefinger
threateningly to the cardinal.

"But what is that you are drawing from your breast-pocket with such an
important air?"

"A letter from the Marquise de Pompadour, holy father," seriously
replied the cardinal--"a letter in which I am commanded to communicate
to you, the father of Christendom, the acquiescence of France in your
proposed abolition of the order of the Jesuits. Here is a private letter
addressed to me by the marquise, and here the official letter signed by
King Louis, which is destined for your holiness."

The pope took the papers, and while he was reading them his face turned
deadly pale, and a dark cloud gathered upon his brow.

"France also acquiesces," said he, when