Being physically tired with the exertion of withstanding the
concentrated gaze of Rome, He rested all the afternoon. The palace was
a scene of commotion. Cardinals and their familiars cackled and cooed
and squeaked and growled in corners: or arranged for return to their
distant sees. Workmen cleared-away the structure of the Conclave.
Hadrian made an attempt to get-into the gardens with a book: but,
obsequious black velvet chamberlains with their heads in frills like
saucers made themselves so extremely necessary, and Auditors of the
Ruota scudded along bye-paths with such obvious secrecy and bounded
out of box-hedges before Him by carefully calculated accident so very
frequently, that at last He took refuge in the pontifical apartment. He
rang the gong and sent for Caerleon.
"We have a more or less distinct remembrance of a place on the Lake of
Albano, called Castel something."
"Castel Gandolfo, Holiness."
"Yes. And it used to be a pontifical villa?"
"It is a pontifical villa now: but since 1870 an order of religious
women have used part of it as a convent."
"Which part?"
"They, I believe, keep the pontifical suite in statu quo, hoping for
the day when the Holy Father shall come to His Own again."
"Good. Now will you at once telegraph to those nuns that the Pope
is coming to His Own to-morrow for the inside of a week. And please
arrange everything on a plain and private scale. That is the first
thing."
"Perhaps I'd better do that at once whatever."
"Yes, but don't be long."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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