Gerald Fitzgerald: The Chevalier Part 47

The day after he had despatched this, a plain carriage, without arms, and the servants in dark grey liveries, drove into the college, and the Cardinal Caraflfa got out of it, and asked to see the Elector.

With a cheek slightly flushed, and a haughty step, Caraflfa entered the little library, where the Pere was seated at study, and though Ma.s.soni's reception was marked by every observance of respectful humility, his Eminence sharply said--

'You carry your head high, Pere Ma.s.soni. You have a haughty spirit. Is it that your familiarity with Royalty has taught you to treat Cardinals thus cavalierly?'

'I am the humblest slave and servant of your Eminence,' was the submissive answer, as with arms crossed upon his breast and head bent forward, Ma.s.soni stood before him.

'I should be sorry to have a whole household of such material,' said the Cardinal with a supercilious smile; then, after a moment, and in an easier, lighter tone of banter he said: 'And his Royal Highness, Pere, how is he?'

'The Prince is better, your Eminence: he is able to walk about the garden, where he is at this moment.'

'The cares of his estate have not, I trust, interfered with his recovery,' said Caraflfa in the same accent of mockery.

'If he does not yet know them,' said Ma.s.soni gravely, 'it is because in my deference to your Eminence I have waited for yourself to make the communication.'

'Are you still decided, then, that he must be of royal race?'

'I see no reason why he should be robbed of his birthright.'

'Would you make him the heir of Charles Edward?'

'He is so.'

'King of England, too?'

'If legitimacy mean anything, he is that also.'

'Arnulph tells us, that when a delusion gets hold of a strong intellect, it grows there like an oak that has its roots in a rock: its progress slow, its development difficult, but its tenacity ineradicable.'

'Your Eminence's logic would be excellent in its application, but that you have a.s.sumed the whole question at issue! Are you so perfectly sure that this is a delusion?'

'Let us talk like men of the world, Pere Ma.s.soni,' said Carafla bluntly.

'If this tale be all true, what interest has it for you or me?'

'Its truth, your Eminence,' said the Pere, with a gesture of deep humility, as though by a show of respect to cover the bold rebuke of his words.

'So far, of course, it claims our sympathy and our support,' said Carafla, reddening; 'but my question was addressed rather to what would carry a more worldly signification. I meant, in short, to what object could it contribute for which we are interested?'

'I have already, and at great length, explained to your Eminence, the importance of connecting the great convulsion of the day, with a movement in favour of monarchy and the Church. When men wandered from the one, they deserted the other. Let us see if the beacon that lights to the throne should not show the path to the shrine also.'

'You would a.s.suredly accept a very humble instrument to begin your work with.'

'A fisherman and a tent-maker sustained a grander cause against a whole world!'

The Cardinal started. He was not, for a second or two, quite satisfied that the reply was devoid of profanity. The calm seriousness of Ma.s.soni's face, however, showed that the speech was not uttered in a spirit of levity.

'Pere Ma.s.soni,' said the Cardinal seriously, 'let us bethink ourselves well ere we are committed to the cause of this youth. Are we so sure that it is a charge will repay us?'

'I have given the matter the best and maturest reflection,' said the Pere; 'I have tested it in all ways as a question of right, of justice, and of expediency; I have weighed its influence on the present, and its consequences on the future; and I see no obstacles or difficulties, save such as present themselves where a great work is to be achieved.'

'Had you lived in as close intimacy with the followers of the Stuarts as I have, Ma.s.soni, you would pause ere you linked the fortunes of an enterprise with a family so unlucky. Do you know,' added he earnestly, 'there was scarcely a mishap of the last expedition not directly traceable to the Prince.'

The Pere shook his head in dissent.

'You have not then heard, as I have, of his rashness, his levity, his fickleness, and worse than all these, his obstinacy.'

'There is not one of these qualities without another name,' said the Pere, with a sad smile; 'and they would read as truthfully if called bravery, high-heartedness, versatility, and resolution; but were it all as your Eminence says, it matters not. Here is an enterprise totally different. The cause of the Stuarts appealed to the chivalry of a people, and what a mere fragment of a nation accepts or recognises such a sympathy! The cause of the Church will appeal to all that calls itself Catholic. The great element of failure in the Jacobite cause was that it never was a religious struggle: it was the a.s.sertion of legitimacy, the rights of a dynasty; and the question of the Faith was only an incident of the conflict. Here,' he added proudly, 'it will be otherwise, and the greatest banner in the fight will be inscribed with a cross!'

'Prince Charles Edward failed, with all the aid of France to back him; and how is his son--if he be his son--to succeed, who has no ally, no wealth, and no prestige?'

'And do you not know that it was France and French treachery that wrecked the cause of the Stuarts? Did not the Cardinal Gualterio detect the secret correspondence between the Tuileries and St. James's? Is it not on record that the expedition was delayed three days in sailing, to give time to transmit intelligence to the English government?'

'These are idle stories, Ma.s.soni; Gualterio only dreamed them.'

'Mayhap it was also a dream that the Prince was ordered to quit Paris in twenty-four hours, and the soil of France within a week, at the express demand of England?'

'What you now speak of was a later policy, ign.o.ble and mean, I admit.'

'But why waste time on the past? Has your Eminence read the memoir I sent you?'

'I have.'

'Have you well and duly weighed the importance attached to the different character of the present scheme from all that has preceded it, and how much that character is likely to derive support from the peculiarity of the Irish temperament?'

'Yes. It is a people eminently religious: steadfast in the faith.'

'Have you well considered that if this cause be not made our own it will be turned against us; that the agents of Irish independence--Tone, Teeling, Jackson, and other--are in close communication with the French government, and earnestly entreating them to despatch an expedition to Ireland?'

'This would be indeed fatal to us,' said Caraflfa despondingly.

'And yet it is what will a.s.suredly happen if we do not intervene.'

'But can we prevent it?'

'I believe we can. I believe there is even yet time to make the struggle our own. But if there is not--if it be too late--we shall have a great game to play. A Protestant rising must never have our support! Better far for us to turn to the government and by this ostentatious show of our allegiance, lay foundation for future demands and concessions.'

The Cardinal bent his head twice in approval.

'All these things, however, combine to show that we must be up and stirring. Many who would be with us, if they were sure of our going forward, will take service with Tone and his party, if we delay. Carrol himself was pledged to report in person to the secret committee at Waterford by the eighth of the month, and we are now at the seventeenth.

These delays are serious! This letter from Hussey, which only reached me last night, will show your Eminence how eagerly our answer is awaited.'

The Cardinal made a gesture of impatience, as he declined the proffered letter.

'It is not,' said he, 'by such considerations we are to be swayed, Ma.s.soni.'

'Hussey insists on knowing whether or not your Eminence is with them,'

said the Pere boldly, 'and if you have recognised the young Prince.'