burbs--three millions in all--had run to the enrolling stations in
St. Peter's as starving men run to food, and desperate to the storming
of a breach. For day after day the Pope himself had sat enthroned below
the altar of the Chair, a glorious, radiant figure, growing ever white
and weary towards evening, imparting his Blessing with a silent sign to
each individual of the vast crowd that swarmed up between the barriers,
fresh from fast and Communion, to kneel before his new Superior and kiss
the Pontifical ring. The requirements had been as stringent as
circumstances allowed. Each postulant was obliged to go to confession to
a specially authorised priest, who examined sharply into motives and
sincerity, and only one-third of the applicants had been accepted. This,
the authorities pointed out to the scornful, was not an excessive
proportion; for it was to be remembered that most of those who had
presented themselves had already undergone a sifting fierce as fire. Of
the three millions in Rome, two millions at least were exiles for their
faith, preferring to live obscure and despised in the shadow of God
rather than in the desolate glare of their own infidel countries.

On the fifth evening of the enrolment of novices an astonishing incident
had taken place. The old King of Spain (Queen Victoria's second son),
already on the edge of the grave, had just risen and tottered before his
Ruler; it seemed for an instant as if he would fall, when the Pope
himself, by a sudden movement, had risen, caught him in his arms and
kissed him; and then, still standing, had spread his arms abroad and
delivered a _fervorino_ such as never had been heard before in the
history of the basilica.

"_Benedictus Dominus!_" he cried, with upraised face and shining eyes.
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His
people. I, John, Vicar of Christ, Servant of Servants, and sinner among
sinners, bid you be of good courage in the Name of God. By Him Who hung
on the Cross, I promise eternal life to all who persevere in His Order.
He Himself has said it. _To him that overcometh I will give a crown of
life._

"Little children; fear not him that killeth the body. There is no more
that he can do. God and His Mother are amongst us...."

So his voice had poured on, telling the enormous awe-stricken crowd of
the blood that already had been shed on the place where they stood, of
the body of the Apostle that lay scarcely fifty ya