and he recognized in that moment of revelation that, whatever the uncertainty of his position before "the utmost walls of time" should "tumble in" to "end the world," in that moment was no uncertainty; his choice of life was fixed irrevocably. Hitherto he had loved the world too well to relinquish its joys wholly, whilst yet looking for a time when the renunciation, in which he believed to discern the highest course, should become possible: when he would at last "reconcile those lips" To letting the dear remnant pass ... some drops of earthly good Untasted! (ll. 583-585.) In the light of that flash of intuition, it at once became clear that such an attitude of compromise had meant, in fact, a decision in favour of the world; a choice of things temporal to the virtual exclusion of things eternal. That he, too, had been doing that which he to-night reproaches the Christian of placid assurance for doing: he had been but using his faith "as a condiment" wherewith to "heighten the flavours" of life. The final issue being assured, the true relations of life and faith became manifest. The sentence of the voice beside him was unessential to the revelation Life is done, Time ends, Eternity's begun, And thou art judged for evermore. (ll. 594-596.) And yet "the shows of things" remain. No longer fire that Would shrink And wither off the blasted face Of heaven, (ll. 524-526.) but the common yet visible around, and the sky which above Stretched drear and emptily of life. (l. 601.) In that vast stillness of earth and heaven, judgment is as emphatically pronounced as if read from "the opened book," in the presence of "the small and great," following "the rising of the quick and dead" which all prior conceptions of the Day of Judgment had led the spectator to anticipate. But he whose sentence had been passed was not of those whom Bold and blind, Terror must burn the truth into. (ll. 659-660.) For these, _their_ fate: such fate as the old Pope trusted should awaken the criminal Franceschini to a realization of the horror and brutality of a deed which he sought to justify to himself and to the world, as an act of self-defence. Sentence is there passed in lines recalling, though with intensified force, the description of Section XV. Thus, the result of the papal reflections-- For the main criminal I have no hope Except in such a suddenness of fate. I stood at Naples once, a night so dark I could have scarce conjectured there was earth Anywhere, sky or sea or world at all: But the night's black was burst through by a blaze-- Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore, Through her whole length of mountain visible: There lay the city thick and plain with spires, And, like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea. So may the truth be flashed out by one blow, And Guido see, one instant, and be saved.[66]