ending to relieve the condition of the peasantry; yet he was almost as
strongly opposed as Trescorre to any reproduction of the Tuscan
constitution.

"He is afraid!" broke from Fulvia. She admired and respected Crescenti,
yet she had never fully trusted him. The taint of ecclesiasticism was on
him.

Odo smiled. "He has never been afraid of facing the charge of
Jansenism," he replied. "All his life he has stood in open opposition to
the Church party."

"It is one thing to criticise their dogmas, another to attack their
privileges. At such a time he is bound to remember that he is a
priest--that he is one of them."

"Yet, as you have often pointed out, it is to the clergy that France in
great measure owes her release from feudalism."

She smiled coldly. "France would have won her cause without the clergy!"

"This is not France, then," he said with a sigh. After a moment he began
again: "Can you not see that any reform which aims at reducing the power
of the clergy must be more easily and successfully carried out if they
can be induced to take part in it? That, in short, we need them at this
moment as we have never needed them before? The example of France ought
at least to show you that."

"The example of France shows me that, to gain a point in such a
struggle, any means must be used! In France, as you say, the clergy were
with the people--here they are against them. Where persuasion fails
coercion must be used!"

Odo smiled faintly. "You might have borrowed that from their own
armoury," he said.

She coloured at the sarcasm. "Why not?" she retorted. "Let them have a
taste of their own methods! They know the kind of pressure that makes
men yield--when they feel it they will know what to do."

He looked at her with astonishment. "This is Gamba's tone," he said. "I
have never heard you speak in this way before."

She coloured again; and now with a profound emotion. "Yes," she said,
"it is Gamba's tone. He and I speak for the same cause and with the same
voice. We are of the people and we speak for the people. Who are your
other counsellors? Priests and noblemen! It is natural enough that they
should wish to make their side of the question heard. Listen to them, if
you will--conciliate them, if you can! We need all the allies we can
win. Only do not fancy they are really speaking for the people. Do not
think it is the people's voice you hear. The people do not ask you to
weigh this claim against that, to look