THE VATICAN SWINDLE _ALSO BY ANDRÉ GIDE_ STRAIT IS THE GATE “Deservedly the book which made André Gide famous. It is one of the great classics of French fiction since the death of Flaubert.”--Ernest Boyd in _The New Republic_. THE VATICAN SWINDLE (_Les Caves Du Vatican_) _Translated from the French of_ ANDRÉ GIDE _by Dorothy Bussy_ [Illustration: colophon] _New York_ ALFRED·A·KNOPF _Mcmxxv_ COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS BOOK I ANTHIME ARMAND-DUBOIS 9 BOOK II JULIUS DE BARAGLIOUL 46 BOOK III AMÉDÉE FLEURISSOIRE 100 BOOK IV THE MILLIPEDE 139 BOOK V LAFCADIO 204 THE VATICAN SWINDLE BOOK I: ANTHIME ARMAND-DUBOIS “_Pour ma part, mon choix est fait. J’ai opté pour l’athéisme social. Cet athéisme, je l’ai exprimé depuis une quinzaine d’années, dans une série d’ouvrages_....” --GEORGES PALANTE. _Chronique philosophique du Mercure de France_ (December, 1912). I In 1890, during the pontificate of Leo XIII, Anthime Armand-Dubois, unbeliever and freemason, visited Rome in order to consult Dr. X, the celebrated specialist for rheumatic complaints. “What!” cried Julius de Baraglioul, his brother-in-law. “Is it your body you are going to treat in Rome? Pray Heaven you may realise when you get there that your soul is in far worse case.” To which Armand-Dubois replied in a tone of excessive commiseration: “My poor dear fellow, just look at my shoulders.” Baraglioul was obliging; he raised his eyes and glanced, in spite of himself, at his brother-in-law’s shoulders; they were quivering spasmodically as though laughter, deep-seated and irrepressible, were heaving them; and the sight of this huge half-crippled frame spending the last remnants of its physical strength in so absurd a parody, was pitiable enough. Well, well! They had taken up their positions once and for all. Baraglioul’s eloquence wouldn’t change matters. Time perhaps? Or the secret influence of holy surroundings?... Julius merely said in an infinitely discouraged manner: “Anthime, you grieve me.” (The shoulders stopped quivering at once, for Anthime was fond of his brother-in-law.) “When I go to see you in Rome three years hence, at the time of the Jubilee, I trust I may find you amended!”