Braschi gave the cardinal a sly glance. "Ah," said he, "Signora Corilla
seems to be less liberal than Signora Malveda? She will allow you no
discount of her future laurel-crown, is it not so? I know nothing
worse than an ambitious woman. Listen, Albani; it seems that we must be
mutually useful to each other; I need your voice to become pope, and you
need mine to become a favored lover. Very well, give me your voice, and
in return, I promise you a laurel-crown for Signora Corilla, and eight
thousand scudi for yourself!"
"Ah, you would haggle!" contemptuously exclaimed Albani. "You would be
a very niggardly vicegerent of God! But as Corilla is well worth two
thousand scudi, I am content. Give me eight thousand scudi and the
promise to crown Corilla!"
"As soon as I am pope, I will do both. My sacred word for it! Shall I
strengthen my promise by swearing upon the Bible?"
Cardinal Albani gave the questioner a glance of astonishment, and then
broke out with a loud and scornful laugh.
"You forget that you are speaking to one of your kind! Of what use would
such a holy farce be to us who have no faith in its binding power? No,
no, we priests know each other. Such buffoonery amounts to nothing. One
written word is worth a thousand sworn oaths! Let us have a contract
prepared--that is better. We will both sign it!"
"Just as you please!" said Braschi, with a smile, stepping to his
writing desk and rapidly throwing some lines upon paper, which he signed
after it had been carefully read by Albani.
"At length the business is finished," said Albani. "Now, Cardinal
Braschi, go to your signora, and surprise her with the news that
she holds in her arms a pope in spe. Pope Clement will soon need a
successor; he must be very ill, the poor pope!"
So speaking, he took leave of the future pope with a friendly nod, and
departed with as much haste as he had come.
"And now to these pious Jesuit fathers!" said he, stepping out upon the
grass. "It was very prudent in me that I went on foot to Corilla
to-day. Our cursed equipages betray every thing; they are the greatest
chatterboxes! How astonished these good Romans would be to see a
cardinal's carriage before these houses of the condemned! No, no,
strengthen yourselves for another effort, my reverend legs! Only yet
this walk, and then you will have rest."
And the cardinal trudged stoutly on until he reached the Jesuit college.
There he stopped and looked cautiously around him.
"This unfortunate saintly dress is also a hindrance," murmured he.
"Like the sign over the shop-door it proclaims to all the world: 'I am a
cardinal. Here indulgences, dispensations, and God's blessings are to be
sold! Who will buy, who will buy?' I dare not now enter this scouted and
repudiated sacred house. I might be remarked, suspected, and betrayed.
Corilla, dear, beautiful woman, it costs me much pains and many efforts
to conquer you; will your possession repay me?"