Frederick sends his soldiers to secure Arnaldo, but as to Ostasio and his children he relents somewhat, being touched by the anguish of Adelasia. Adrian rebukes his weakness, saying that he learned in the cloister to subdue these compassionate impulses. In the next scene, which is on the Capitoline Hill, the Roman Senate resolves to defend the city against the Germans to the last, and then we have Arnaldo a prisoner in a cell of the Castle of St. Angelo. The Prefect of Rome vainly entreats him to recant his heresy, and then leaves him with the announcement that he is to die before the following day. As to the soliloquy which follows, Niccolini says: “I have feigned in Arnaldo in the solemn hour of death these doubts, and I believe them exceedingly probable in a disciple of Abelard. This struggle between reason and faith is found more or less in the intellect of every one, and constitutes a sublime torment in the life of those who, like the Brescian monk, have devoted themselves from an early age to the study of philosophy and religion. None of the ideas which I attribute to Arnaldo were unknown to him, and, according to Müller, he believed that God was all, and that the whole creation was but one of his thoughts. His other conceptions in regard to divinity are found in one of his contemporaries.” The soliloquy is as follows: Aforetime thou hast said, O King of heaven, That in the world thou wilt not power or riches. And can he be divided from the Church Who keeps his faith in thine immortal word, The light of souls? To remain in the truth It only needs that I confess to thee All sins of mine. O thou eternal priest, Thou read'st my heart, and that which I can scarce Express thou seest. A great mystery Is man unto himself, conscience a deep Which only thou canst sound. What storm is there Of guilty thoughts! Oh, pardon my rebellion! Evil springs up within the mind of man, As in its native soil, since that day Adam Abused thy great gift, and created guilt. And if each thought of ours became a deed, Who would be innocent? I did once defend The cause of Abelard, and at the decree Imposing silence on him I, too, ceased. What fault in me? Bernard in vain inspired The potentates of Europe to defend The sepulcher of God. Mankind, his temple, I sought to liberate, and upon the earth Desired the triumph of the love divine, And life, and liberty, and progress. This, This was my doctrine, and God only knows How reason struggles with the faith in me For the supremacy of my spirit. Oh, Forgive me, Lord. These in their war are like The rivers twain of heaven, till they return To their eternal origin, and the truth Is seen in thee, and God denies not God. I ought to pray. Thinking on thee, I pray. Yet how thy substance by three persons shared, Each equal with the other, one remains,