“Look at this!”--and he drew an ebony and silver crucifix from his breast--“Fix your eyes upon it, and try, my son,”--here he raised his voice a little--“try to conquer your thoughts of things temporal, and lift them to the things which are eternal! For things temporal do quickly vanish and disperse, but things eternal shall endure for ever! Humble your soul before God, and beseech Him with me, to mercifully cleanse the dark stain of sin upon your soul!” Here he began mumbling a Latin prayer, and while engaged in this, he caught the prisoner’s hand in a close grip. “Act--act with me!” he said firmly. “Fool!--Play a part, as I do! Bend your head close to mine--assume shame and sorrow even if you cannot feel it! And listen to me well! _You have failed_!” “I know it!” The reply came thick and low. “Why did you make the attempt at all? Who persuaded you?” The wretched youth lifted his head, and showed a wild white face, in which the piteous eyes, starting from their sockets, looked blind with terror. “Who persuaded me?” he replied mechanically--“No one! No single one,--but many!” Del Fortis gripped him firmly by the wrist. “You lie!” he snarled--“How dare you utter such a calumny! Who were you? What were you? A miserable starveling--picked up from the streets and saved from penury,--housed and sheltered in our College,--taught and trained and given paid employment by us,--what have _you_ to say of ‘persuasion’?--you, who owe your very life to us, and to our charity!” Roused by this attack, the prisoner, wrenching his hand away from the priest’s cruel grasp, sprang upright. “Wait--wait!” he said breathlessly--“You do not understand! You forget! All my life I have been under One great influence--all my life I have been taught to dream One great Dream! When I talk of ‘persuasion,’ I only mean the persuasion of that force which has surrounded me as closely as the air I breathe!--that spirit which is bound to enter into all who work for you, or with you! Oh no!--neither you nor any member of your Order ever seek openly to ‘persuade’ any man to any act, whether good or evil--your Rule is much wiser than that!--much more subtle! You issue no actual commands--your power comes chiefly by suggestion! And _with_ you,--working _for_ you--I have thought day and night, night and day, of the glory of Rome!--the dominion of Rome!--the triumph of Rome! I have learned, under you, to wish for it, to pray for it, to desire it more than my own life!--do you, can you blame me for that? You dare not call it a sin;--for your Order represents it as a virtue that condones all sin!” Del Fortis was silent, watching him with a kind of curious contempt.