"I will not here relate what I said in answer to a discourse so strange.... I spoke warmly of this attempt to succeed by surprise; I resolutely protested that I would never accept such an act, expressly contrary to the Pope's will. I therefore declared that if, on their part, they either could not or would not sign the document we had agreed upon, the sitting must come to an end". Joseph Bonaparte then spoke. He depicted the fatal consequences which would result to religion and to the state from breaking off the negotiations; he exhorted them to use every means in their power to come to some understanding between themselves, on that very day, seeing that the conclusion of the treaty had been announced in the newspapers, and that the news of its having been signed was to be proclaimed at to-morrow's grand banquet. It was easy, added he, to imagine the indignation and fury of one so headstrong as his brother, when he should have to appear before the public as having published in his own journals false news on a matter of such importance. But no arguments could persuade the Cardinal to negotiate on the basis of the substituted project of Concordat. He consented, however, to discuss once more the articles of the treaty on which they had agreed before. The discussion commenced about five o'clock in the evening. "To understand how serious it was, how exact, what warm debates it gave rise to on both sides, how laborious, how painful, it will be enough to say that it lasted without any interruption or repose for nineteen consecutive hours, that is to say, to noon on the following day. We spent the entire night at it, without dismissing our servants or carriages, like men who hope every hour to finish the business on which they are engaged. At mid-day we had come to an understanding on all the articles, with one single exception". This one article, of which we shall speak later, appeared to the Cardinal to be a substantial question, and to involve a principle which, as has often been the case, the Holy See might tolerate as a fact, but which it could never sanction (_canonizzare_) as an express article of a treaty. The hour when Joseph Bonaparte must leave to appear before the First Consul was at hand, and "it would be impossible", says the Cardinal, "to enumerate the assaults made on me at that moment to induce me to yield on this point, that he might not have to carry to his brother the fatal news of a rupture". But nothing could shake the resolution of the Papal minister or lead him to act contrary to his most sacred duties. He yielded so far, however, as to propose that they should omit the disputed article, and draw out a copy of the Concordat in which it should not appear, and that this copy should be brought to Bonaparte. Meantime the Holy See could be consulted on the subject of the article under debate, and the difficulty could be settled before the ratification of the Concordat. This plan was adopted.