III
The little chapel in the house below was scarcely more dignified thanthe other rooms. Of ornaments, except those absolutely essential toliturgy and devotion, there were none. In the plaster of the walls wereindented in slight relief the fourteen stations of the Cross; a smallstone image of the Mother of God stood in a corner, with an iron-workcandlestick before it, and on the solid uncarved stone altar, raised ona stone step, stood six more iron candlesticks and an iron crucifix. Atabernacle, also of iron, shrouded by linen curtains, stood beneath thecross; a small stone slab projecting from the wall served as a credence.There was but one window, and this looked into the court, so that theeyes of strangers might not penetrate.
It seemed to the Syrian priest as he went about his business--laying outthe vestments in the little sacristy that opened out at one side of thealtar, preparing the cruets and stripping the covering from thealtar-cloth--that even that slight work was wearying. There seemed acertain oppression in the air. As to how far that was the result of hisbroken rest he did not know, but he feared that it was one more of thosescirocco days that threatened. That yellowish tinge of dawn had notpassed with the sun-rising; even now, as he went noiselessly on his barefeet between the predella and the _prie-dieu_ where the silent whitefigure was still motionless, he caught now and again, above the roofacross the tiny court, a glimpse of that faint sand-tinged sky that wasthe promise of beat and heaviness.
He finished at last, lighted the candles, genuflected, and stood withbowed head waiting for the Holy Father to rise from His knees. Aservant's footstep sounded in the court, coming across to hear mass, andsimultaneously the Pope rose and went towards the sacristy, where thered vestments of God who came by fire were laid ready for the Sacrifice.
* * * * *
Silvester's bearing at mass was singularly unostentatious. He moved asswiftly as any young priest, His voice was quite even and quite low, andhis pace neither rapid nor pompous. According to tradition, He occupiedhalf-an-hour _ab amictu ad amictum_; and even in the tiny empty chapelHe observed to keep His eyes always downcast. And yet this Syrian neverserved His mass without a thrill of something resembling fear; it wasnot only his knowledge of the awful dignity of this simple celebrant;but, although he could not have expressed it so, there was an aroma ofan emotion about the vestmented figure that affected him almostphysically--an entire absence of self-consciousness, and in its placethe consciousness of some other Presence, a perfection of manner even inthe smallest details that could only arise from absolute recollection.Even in Rome in the old days it had been one of the sights of Rome tosee Father Franklin say mass; seminary students on the eve of ordinationwere sent to that sight to learn the perfect manner and method.
To-day all was as usual, but at the Communion the priest looked upsuddenly at the moment when the Host had been consumed, with a halfimpression that either a sound or a gesture had invited it; and, as helooked, his heart began to beat thick and convulsive at the base of histhroat. Yet to the outward eyes there was nothing unusual. The figurestood there with bowed head, the chin resting on the tips of the longfingers, the body absolutely upright, and standing with that curiouslight poise as if no weight rested upon the feet. But to the inner sensesomething was apparent the Syrian could not in the least formulate it tohimself; but afterwards he reflected that he had stared expecting somevisible or audible manifestation to take place. It was an impressionthat might be described under the terms of either light or sound; at anyinstant that delicate vivid force, that to the eyes of the soul burnedbeneath the red chasuble and the white alb, might have suddenly welledoutwards under the appearance of a gush of radiant light renderingluminous not only the clear brown flesh seen beneath the white hair, butthe very texture of the coarse, dead, stained stuffs that swathed therest of the body. Or it might have shown itself in the strain of a longchord on strings or wind, as if the mystical union of the dedicated soulwith the ineffable Godhead and Humanity of Jesus Christ generated such asound as ceaselessly flows out with the river of life from beneath theThrone of the Lamb. Or yet once more it might have declared itself underthe guise of a perfume--the very essence of distilled sweetness--such ascent as that which, streaming out through the gross tabernacle of asaint's body, is to those who observe it as the breath of heavenlyroses....
The moments passed in that hush of purity and peace; sounds came andwent outside, the rattle of a cart far away, the sawing of the firstcicada in the coarse grass twenty yards away beyond the wall; some onebehind the priest was breathing short and thick as under the pressure ofan intolerable emotion, and yet the figure stood there still, without amovement or sway to break the carved motionlessness of the alb-folds orthe perfect poise of the white-shod feet. When He moved at last touncover the Precious Blood, to lay His hands on the altar and adore, itwas as if a statue had stirred into life; to the server it was verynearly as a shock.
Again, when the chalice was empty, that first impression reasserteditself; the human and the external died in the embrace of the Divine andInvisible, and once more silence lived and glowed.... And again as thespiritual energy sank back again into its origin, Silvester stretchedout the chalice.
With knees that shook and eyes wide in expectation, the priest rose,adored, and went to the credence.
* * * * *
It was customary after the Pope's mass that the priest himself shouldoffer the Sacrifice in his presence, but to-day so soon as the vestmentshad been laid one by one on the rough chest, Silvester turned to thepriest.
"Presently," he said softly. "Go up, father, at once to the roof, andtell the Cardinal to be ready. I shall come in five minutes."
It was surely a scirocco-day, thought the priest, as he came up on tothe flat roof. Overhead, instead of the clear blue proper to that hourof the morning, lay a pale yellow sky darkening even to brown at thehorizon. Thabor, before him, hung distant and sombre seen through theimpalpable atmosphere of sand, and across the plain, as he glancedbehind him, beyond the white streak of Nain nothing was visible exceptthe pale outline of the tops of the hills against the sky. Even at thismorning hour, too, the air was hot and breathless, broken only by theslow-stifling lift of the south-western breeze that, blowing acrosscountless miles of sand beyond far-away Egypt, gathered up the heat ofthe huge waterless continent and was pouring it, with scarcely a streakof sea to soften its malignity, on this poor strip of land. Carmel, too,as he turned again, was swathed about its base with mist, half dry andhalf damp, and above showed its long bull-head running out defiantlyagainst the western sky. The very table as he touched it was dry and hotto the hand, by mid-day the steel would be intolerable.
He pressed the lever, and waited; pressed it again, and waited again.There came the answering ring, and he tapped across the eighty miles ofair that his Eminence's presence was required at once. A minute or twopassed, and then, after another rap of the bell, a line flicked out onthe new white sheet.
"'I am here. Is it his Holiness?'"
He felt a hand upon his shoulder, and turned to see Silvester, hoodedand in white, behind his chair.
"Tell him yes. Ask him if there is further news."
The Pope went to the chair once more and sat down, and a minute laterthe priest, with growing excitement, read out the answer.
"'Inquiries are pouring in. Many expect your Holiness to issue achallenge. My secretaries have been occupied since four o'clock. Theanxiety is indescribable. Some are denying that they have a Pope.Something must be done at once.'"
"Is that all?" asked the Pope.
Again the priest read out the answer. "'Yes and no. The news is true. Itwill be inforced immediately. Unless a step is taken immediately therewill be widespread and final apostasy.'"
"Very good," murmured the Pope, in his official voice. "Now listencarefully, Eminence." He was silent for a moment, his fingers joinedbeneath his chin as just now at mass. Then he spoke.
"We are about to place ourselves unreservedly in the hands of God. Humanprudence must no longer restrain us. We
command you then, using alldiscretion that is possible, to communicate these wishes of ours to thefollowing persons under the strictest secrecy, and to no otherswhatsoever. And for this service you are to employ messengers, takenfrom the Order of Christ Crucified, two for each message, which is notto be committed to writing in any form. The members of the SacredCollege, numbering twelve; the metropolitans and Patriarchs through theentire world, numbering twenty-two; the Generals of the ReligiousOrders: the Society of Jesus, the Friars, the Monks Ordinary, and theMonks Contemplative four. These persons, thirty-eight in number, withthe chaplain of your Eminence, who shall act as notary, and my own whoshall assist him, and Ourself--forty-one all told--these persons are topresent themselves here at our palace of Nazareth not later than the Eveof Pentecost. We feel Ourselves unwilling to decide the steps necessaryto be taken with reference to the new decree, except we first hear thecounsel of our advisers, and give them an opportunity of communicatingfreely one with another. These words, as we have spoken them, are to beforwarded to all those persons whom we have named; and your Eminencewill further inform them that our deliberations will not occupy morethan four days.
"As regards the questions of provisioning the council and all matters ofthat kind, your Eminence will despatch to-day the chaplain of whom wehave spoken, who with my own chaplain will at once set aboutpreparations, and your Eminence will yourself follow, appointing FatherMarabout to act in your absence, not later than four days hence.
"Finally, to all who have asked explicit directions in the face of thisnew decree, communicate this one sentence, and no more.
"_Lose not your confidence which hath a great reward. For yet a littlewhile, and, He that is to come will come and will not delay_.--Silvesterthe Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God."