"We'll never see another Pope like him." "If Pius Vll hadn't broken his leg, he'd have lived to be a hundred." "It won't be easy to choose another pope." "He may be pope, but he's mortal like us." "The Cardinal Legate!" "All on their way." "Sure, speeding to Rome for the conclave." "Going to Rome for the conclave?" "Not interested?" "Look, we're almost there." "Anything to declare?" "Yes, another passenger, Countess Vitelleschi." "Her coach broke down before Spoleto." "You're the Countess Vitelleschi?" "I've a letter from the bishop of Bologna." "Here it is." "I'm coming to visit the city." "Were you here in Napoleon's time?" "I was a baby then." "Do you have a banker to recommend you?" "I have enough money." " Profession?" " Physician." "In what city do you practice?" "Forlì?" "In Romagna, eh?" "Is there anyone in Rome who can guarantee for you?" "Aren't my documents sufficient?" "Excuse me, I asked if anyone in Rome knows you." "I know the signore." "That's more than sufficient." "Foreigners?" "They're English tourists." "You may proceed." "I've no luggage." "Follow that carriage." "Countess, I must thank you." "O it's nothing." "Forgive me for following you." "You were most kind to guarantee for me." "Please, please, you must go now." "Leave me alone." "I'd like to rest a while." "Alone, Countess?" "You've arrived, my treasure!" "But what happened?" "Why alone?" "One of the wheels broke." "So I took the stage." "Someone must have accompanied you." "I saw two carriages." "O yes." "Someone followed me." "Who was on the stagecoach?" "A priest, two Englishmen... and an awful person who talked incessantly." "He tried to court you?" "Are you trying to be funny?" "Commucini promised he'd paint your portrait." "What a dear!" "Very dear!" "Costs a pile of money!" "What will I tell my husband?" "That Severoli will be pope." "Really?" "What shall I tell him, about the portrait?" "That the greatest painter in Rome begged you to pose." "I was impressed by his talent and bought the painting." "You want to keep it for yourself?" "No, please don't!" "I don't want to!" "We've sinned enough already!" "I think election of Consalvi would be wise." "Perhaps." "But Austria will oppose it." "Yes, I've heard Austria will veto him." "But I don't see why." "Because Consalvia is a moderate and moderation consolidates power." "Lovely day, isn't it?" "Yes but it won't last." "The larks were flying low." " Where did you go?" " To the sea." "At Capocotta." "Do you think your uncle will make it?" "Let's hope so." "There he is." "My daughter's waiting for those pheasant feathers." "You mustn't disappoint her." "She mustn't think of me as an unlucky hunter." "That depends on you." "No, my dear don Asdrubale." "You decide." "Right now?" "During the conclave?" "First let's see if your uncle is lucky." "Where you running to, sweetheart?" "Have a drink." "Hey, what are you doing, are you crazy?" "Put me down." "Where're you going, dearie?" "Stay and keep me company." "He's scared." "And a glass of cold water with a squeeze of lemon." "With all these beggars and misers around..." "I've never seen a conclave as lean as this one." "They all complain." "Meanwhile they're piling up the money." " I've no change." "What shall I do?" " It doesn't matter." "A tree doesn't die if one leaf falls off." "Can I change it for you?" "Even through the tree may not die, no need to let other leaves fall." "So many have fallen already!" "Is the hot wine ready?" "Almost." "Just a moment." "Come in, it's raining hard." "Someone's coming upstairs." "Watch out, here he is!" "Have you a match, please?" "It's the cousin from Romagna..." "Come." "Bertini is initiating a new member." " What do you seek, citizen?" " The light." "Reply softly." "This hatchet will serve..." "Lower your voice, please." "This hatchet will serve to kill you, if you betray;" "to aid you, if you're true." "Saverio Pontini is the one in front." "What do you see on the trunk?" "The white cloth." "It stands for purity of conduct." "The water - which frees of us of all vice." "The leaves... which tell us to carry out good deeds." "The salt - which tells us to act wisely in the struggle for a united Italy." "You can entrust us with the task." "No." "The one who died was born in Romagna." "We must respect the rules." " Will you swear fealty to the cause?" " I will." "I swear I shall devote myself to the cause of Italy." "Apparently you Romans don't take these ceremonies too seriously." "Because in this holy city the only law that counts is ritual." "And so..." "And so you've had enough of it." "...to live free, independent and united." "Carbonari cousins, notify your respective vendite that henceforth, here present, Ciro Belli," "student of medicine, is an active member of this reverend vendita." "Permit me to present a cousin who's come from Romagna, Pietro Missirilli." "I've come from Romagna to talk to you, cousin." "To me?" "Yes." "Let's go." "Do you know Amalia?" "Antonia?" "And our lovely Floriana?" "Wouldn't it be more convenient and safer to stay here and talk?" "Listen." "I have to leave the city within an hour." "Want to come with me to the coach?" "But where are we going?" "Do you have a permit to leave the city at night?" "Don't worry." "Walk." " But listen... wait..." " Hurry up." "Like to keep us company?" "Don't go away." "Look, here are some lovely girls!" "Come on, hurry up!" "But what do you want from me?" "I must talk to you of a task to entrust you with." "Was it here they executed Giacomo Ferri?" "He was from Romagna too, did you know?" "Did you know him?" "I think so." "One meets so many people." "But he's dead now." "So if you knew him, you should remember him." "Yes, of course I remember him." "He was one of the best in our vendita." "Generous." "Brave." "Intelligent." "Who knows who betrayed him?" "It was never discovered." "And where exactly was the scaffold?" "Back there, I think." "It's late." "If you're leaving..." "There's that matter to talk over." "My wife can't go to sleep until I come home..." "Giacomo Ferri had a wife too." "So what?" "Nothing." "I was thinking of my friend." "It won't take a minute." "You can't refuse to pay a last homage to our brave cousin." "The patrol." "We'll let them pass." "Help!" "Help!" "In England the bond of matrimony is inviolable, except for people with an income over 200 pounds." "In Rome when a marriage is arranged, the thought of eternal fidelity never enters anyone's head." "It's the truth." "It's so obvious that a husband scarcely bothers about his wife's behavior unless he falls in love with her." "Then he behaves like a lover." "Sciopine!" "Beware of him!" "If you only knew what he thinks of the Romans!" "Isn't it true here, that marriage is only an institution for regulating property and the status of eventual children?" "But what if there are no children?" "Did you see?" "She dances only with men who can be useful to her lover." "Well, how are you?" "Asdrubale!" "But look who's here!" "Let us admire your beautiful daughter!" "That's enough." "Go pay your respects to our hosts." "But don't you think beautiful women are really beautiful?" "But the men are splendid, no?" "You don't even know what you are!" "?" "Your heads are stuffed with books and fine phrases." "We may not read." "But love is love, we live only for that." "That's just what I was saying." "In fact, every married woman has at least two men, whereas our young girls are kept caged with Spanish strictness!" "You're all a bunch of hypocrites!" " When I arrive in a new city..." " What do you do?" "I find out who are the richest men, and the most beautiful women." "And also who is the most notorious man in town." "Then:" "I become friends with this most notorious man and also with the most beautiful women." "When I came to Rome, I became friends with him!" "Anyway, what do you care about beautiful women?" "Get rid of that man!" "Come!" "You're not having fun?" "Yet it's a magnificent reception, full of rich, beautiful, carefree people." "You're not in a good mood?" "I'm sorry, why?" "O it doesn't matter." "Look at these happy people." "They have everything they want." "Sure, they can buy everything." "Even happiness?" "Of course." "Just buy a glass and a bottle of wine." "So, let's have a drink, okay?" "No, I don't want to." "His Eminence Cardinal Cantanzaro Savelli!" "I'm sorry I interrupted our dance." "Which dance was it?" "A waltz." "But it's a forbidden dance, or at least disapproved of." "But it's an innocent dance, uncle." "I can't not believe in your innocence." "Papa's own lovely little dove!" "What is it?" "Why are you always so cold and distant?" "What must I do to please you?" "But what happened?" "A carbonaro escaped tonight from Castel St. Angelo." "From Castel St. Angelo?" "Impossible!" "I was walking along Via Giulia on my way here when I heard shouting, then footsteps and pistol shots." "A shadow ran past me." "Was he young?" "I don't know." "I only got a brief look, and it was dark." "Right after, the police came and asked me where he'd gone." "Did they catch him?" "I don't think so." "I saw the patrol coming back." "They told me the carbonaro had almost managed to escape dressed as a woman, but for some unknown reason, he attacked the soldiers with a dagger." "He was wounded, and the guards could catch him by following the bloodstains." "But where did he disappear?" "Who knows?" "Down toward the end of Via Giulia, in the gardens." "Has Countess Vitelleschi come?" "So, Vanina?" "What?" "What will they do to him if they catch him?" " To whom?" " To that carbonaro." "They'll kill him." "Why did you bring him here?" "I was in the garden waiting for the carriage, when I saw him covered with blood." "So why didn't you denounce him?" "He's so young." "He begged me to save him." "What could I do?" " Call the police." " I'd already told the police I'd seen no one." "We'll take him back to the garden and hide him where you can say you discovered him unconscious." "Why shouldn't they believe you?" "Suppose he tells them I helped him?" "Let's not complicate things." "The police might find out that he knew the address - that we know each other." "This you didn't tell me." "But yes!" "I met on the coach that brought me to Rome." "He seemed nice." "When the officer asked him a lot of questions... if anyone knew him..." "I said I did." "I don't know why." "And he followed you in the carriage and left you at the gate?" "No, no, Asdrubale." "I swear to you I never saw him again." "Now what do we do?" "We have to take him somewhere safe, until he's able to leave." "But if he dies, what'll we do with a corpse?" "You don't give me a thought, after being so imprudent as to compromise me in front of him!" "How I wish I were young again!" "Come on lad, come on." "I can't find my father and I'm a bit tired." "Please can you send me home?" "Certainly, dear." "Go call Plautill and Cornelia." "He's really mad, Asdrubale." "He'll never change." "Who knows what woman he's courting now!" "He's always in love." "At his age!" "True, Princess, he's completely mad, but he's so amusing." "Help me, I'm tired." "Did you have a good time?" "They brought you a present." "A cage of canaries." "Let me see them." "One of the Savelli servants brought it." "Hold the cat." "They're lovely." "Where can we put them?" "Outside, at the window." "Take him away." "Come help me." "O, let's take the stool." "Be careful." "Please." "Don't be afraid." "Nothing can happen." "Hand me the cage." "See, Clelia, out here in the air they'll be fine." "Clelia!" "Come up here!" "Look!" "What is it?" "One of the attic windows is open." "Doesn't it look like on the bed there's a woman?" "A woman?" "No, I can't see from here." " Come up." " I can't!" "I'll get dirty." "I saw her clearly." "Are you sure?" "Who could it be?" "A servant lying down for a while." "Lying down on the bed?" "She may have fallen asleep." "No, I don't think so." "Besides, the servants wear gray." "And she's dressed in violet." "The steward has a mistress." "Everyone knows." "O!" "But he wouldn't dare keep her there." "Who would ever notice?" "We've noticed, haven't we?" "Help me get dressed." "I'm going down to breakfast." "My lovely!" "My treasure!" "My pretty little girl!" "You were the loveliest of all last night." "Come have breakfast." "Why did you leave me alone?" "I had to ask to be escorted home." "They told me." "Forgive me." "I got stuck with some people and was bored to death." "Give papa a kiss." "You came back late, didn't you?" "Tell me, did you enjoy yourself?" "And Livio?" "You don't like him." "Why not?" "Livio and his kind bore me." "And I don't like Romans." "Then you don't like your own father!" "You'll make me cry." "Sit on my lap as you used to when you were little." "My treasure!" "Papa, listen to me." "My treasure!" "She's so melancholy in the morning!" "You saw." "Poor woman." "How she must suffer all alone up there." "My father must surely know her." "But why doesn't he trust anyone?" "Or perhaps she begged him to keep it secret." "Who can she be?" "Who knows?" "Maybe she's hiding because she killed her lover." "Or maybe he stabbed her." "You think so?" "A jealous lover!" "Why stab a woman who is so young and beautiful?" "How do you know she's young and beautiful if couldn't see her face?" "I'm sure she's very beautiful." "Go." "Go along now." " Open!" " Who is it?" " A friend." " What do you want?" "I won't betray your secret." "Open." "Who are you?" "I'm the daughter of Prince Vanini, the owner of this palace." "Don't be afraid." "But open, or I'll be seen up here." "There's nothing to fear, signora." "I assure you." "You can trust me." "I only want to help you." "Wait, don't be afraid." "I'm just a carbonaro." "My name is Pietro Missirilli." "So you escaped from Castel St. Angelo?" "How did you do it?" "No one's ever succeeded before." "One of our people got me woman's clothes." "Then you attacked the guards with a dagger." "No." "It was just that as I was passing the last guard post" "I heard one of them badmouthing the carbonari, so I struck him." "I was tensed up, and when I heard those insults" "I saw red and lost my head." "They pursued me and slashed me with bayonets." "I saw an open door." "The guards were chasing me." "I ran up the stairs." "Then into a garden - at the feet of a woman who..." "Countess Vitelleschi." "Remember, her name must never be mentioned." "Because she saved my life." "As the guards searched the house, your father brought me here in his carriage." "But maybe I'll die anyhow." "The wound is very painful." "You need a surgeon, quickly." "Surgeons in Rome are obliged to report any wounds they treat to the police." "Your father's already done what was necessary." "Not enough." "I'll get you one." "I'd rather die than compromise my benefactors." "The surgeon to Cardinal Catanzaro Savelli, the governor of Rome, is the son of one of our domestics." "He's very devoted to us and in his position fears no one." "My father was wrong not to trust him." "No, I don't want you to call him." "But it's necessary." "Please, your father mustn't know." "Do come back!" "It's the surgeon." "I'll come tomorrow, with the quinine and iodine you asked for." "Is the bandage comfortable?" "Yes, I feel better." "The shoulder wound is painful but superficial." "Your father was an able surgeon." "He's young and will be up in a day or so." "I'll come back tomorrow." "The surgeon said there's nothing to fear." "You mustn't thank me." "You may think it strange, but I'm happy to have met you." "And it rather frightens me." "Why?" "Because... you're so different, so different from the people around me." "Until now, nothing has ever excited me." "You've awakened feelings in me" "that I never knew before." "Maybe I love you." "Excuse me, I don't know what's come over me." "Vanina." "What a joy to see you again." "I dared not hope you'd come back." "Feeling better?" "The thought of leaving Rome now, not knowing if I'll ever see you again, makes me suffer." "What is it?" "Nothing." "I don't know." "I'm confused." "I told myself I only come to see how you're feeling." "But it's not true." "It's better you leave." "You're right." "For us... there can be no hope." "We belong to worlds too different." "But you'll be in my heart every moment." "Promise me, if it's possible, that we'll meet again." "I don't know." "Please..." "I can't, I can't promise anything." "Goodbye." "Here's the document." "It's a passport acquired from a foreign embassy." "Fortunately here one can buy anything." "You can leave Rome without danger." "But hurry!" "Thanks." "You've saved me." "Get ready to leave at once." "In a few days, all security will be tightened." "Now what?" "Has solitary confinement and meditation made you lose faith in your cause?" "I'd be risking too much to let you stay here another day." "I'll always be grateful." "Never mind the courtesies." "You can't understand." "Your soul's too simple." "But tell me the truth:" "You...?" "What are you fighting for?" "For liberty." "For independence, justice..." "Is it France that's paying you?" "Then it's Piedmont?" "No." "No one." "That may even be true." "Maybe it's worth fighting without pay for things like that." "But do you really believe this liberty of yours, this justice of yours, is of any interest to my servants or peasants?" "They don't care!" "Even servants, some day..." "O prophecies!" "Always that tune!" "Fall of Babylon!" "The Day of Judgment!" "Same old song!" "If you want to know the truth, Babylon's doing fine!" "She's an old whore with touch skin." "Ready?" "Then let's go." "I'll call your doctor." "He's loyal to you." "He'll take you to the Porretta waters." "We'll stop at Castel San Niccolò." "And there, maybe, it'll be possible to see him again, I'm sure!" "I've news for you." "Come with me." "Lots of soldiers are coming to apply the government's new policy." "All carbonari can give themselves up, in return for a pardon." "The hairdresser Martinelli is a spy." "And Confalonieri has been condemned to death." "Poor guy!" "Anything else?" "Princess Vanini has just come from Rome." "She'll be at the castle several days." "Even here... the same thing - grim faces and sealed lips." "They only said they thought he was dead." "But I'm sure they were lying." "Giovanni promised he'd find him." "The new chaplain wishes to see the princess." "Tell him to wait." "I'm the new chaplain." "I'll try be worthy of my predecessor, Don Vincenzo Perelli." "His great spirit, his charity, his simplicity, his apostolic fervor." "I was very fond of him." "He recommended me to the bishop as his successor." "He was very devoted to the House of Vanini." "And his thoughts were of you right to the last breath." "You'll excuse me, Reverend, if after the rosary I don't ask you to supper." "I'm very tired." "I understand." "The journey." "You need to rest." "I shan't bother you further." "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." "Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "I'll give you a signal." "I'll go tell the princess now." "Let's hope no one's seen you." "He's in my room." "Shall I bring him?" "What shall we do?" "Donna Vanini, he came here for you." "Okay, call him." "But don't leave me!" "Come, she's waiting for you." "Go see who it is." "I'll leave as soon as it's dark." "Yes, but try to come back before dawn." "I'll be waiting for you." "My dear love." "You have the power to make me forget everything." "But your noble heart must understand." "You know I love you." "But remember that, like my companions, I too have duties." "And that the unhappier Italy is, the more faithful I must be to her." "So?" "So I have to rejoin my friends and share the risks and dangers." "As soon as circumstances permit, I'll come back to you." "In a week... or two..." "I have to return to Rome." "What then?" "Pietro, I shall never love anyone else." "But you... maybe it'll be difficult for you to go on loving me." "But don't you understand I regard you as a wife?" "More than a wife." "From now on we're united forever." "You're the woman I adore, the woman I'll always love and protect." "Yes, my love, I'm yours, yours forever." "But do you realize how sad and bitter the waiting will be?" "And even more so for me." "How I wish I were free, rich and powerful!" "What would you do?" "Then I could be more useful to the cause of liberty." "And when Italy was free of its oppressors," "I'd stay forever with you." "How I love you!" "I want you to be happy." "You'll be rich, because I'll make it possible." "What do you mean?" "I mean that by marrying me, you'll have all this." "Now I am yours." "Only marriage can wipe away our sin." "We just have to call the chaplain, and it'll be done." "Then I'll see to it that my father accepts the fact." "Don't you realize I'm an outlaw?" "That there's a price on my head?" "No, there's nothing you can do." "I'll always be yours, no matter what." "It'll be kept secret." "Only my father will know." "The priest will know too." "Yes, but there's the secret of the confessional." "A secret he must respect." "I know." "But without wishing to, the way he'd behave, his attitude, would certainly end up revealing my presence." "Besides, how could I hide here for years?" "But then, what are we to do?" "We'll face our destiny." "Are you ready?" "I'll be back." "I'll be back soon." "Pietro, listen to me." "Come." "Listen to me, please!" "If you'd been helped by a poor peasant, you'd try to show your gratitude to her for her services." "Our future is so uncertain." "And your world is so full of danger and enemies." "Three days, three days, three days is all I ask of you as my reward, if you think me worthy." "Repay me, as if I were just a poor peasant." "Repay me for what I've given you." "Please, my love." "Give me three more days." "If you really loved me, you wouldn't behave like this." "You don't know what sacrifice and renunciation means." "But what are your feelings for me?" "Love." "Affection." "Pity or weariness?" "What're you saying?" "What nonsense?" "Don't you see how much I like you?" "No." "Well, women think they represent all existence." "But don't you understand what's bothering me - why I'm so upset?" "You don't understand the remorse I feel for giving into egoism?" "Remember Napoleon's response to the Brescians who swore to love liberty more than other Italian patriots." "What did he say?" "He said, "Sure!" ""They love talking about it to their mistresses. "" "Look, Pietro," "I'll tell you what I think of you!" "I think you're conceited." "Do you think you're changing the world?" "You don't see how conceited you are?" "Your Napoleon, obsessed with the same folly, drowned the world in blood." "And your Jacobins, just a conceited, swept the world with terror." "You're mad!" "Mad!" "And I pity you." "No, it's you who're to be pitied!" "You know nothing, yet you judge." "You suffer in silence and hate those who rebel." "Remember, your world is doomed to disappear!" "You're all dead and don't know it." "The happy day will come when power will pass to the people." "And the King will be the servant of the collectivity." "This is the meaning of the French Revolution." "Your present security is an illusion!" "All over Europe there are millions of people who are hungry." "And you think you can satisfy them with charity." "But they aspire to the dignity of man." "And you think you give it to them by calling them "brothers in Christ"!" "Yes, these starving plebeians have shed the blood of their oppressors." "But don't believe in romantic nonsense or legends." "The French Revolution wasn't the work of a mob." "It was born in the minds of a small group of superior men." "And their ideas are still alive." "Even after 20 years of tragedy, the people yearn more for peace and liberty." "We must keep those ideas alive!" "Books and a free press are banned, but they will never silence us." "They can kill us, it's true." "But to our last breath we'll fight against their reign of ignorance, their reign of incompetence, their reign of brute force." "After so much blood, with Napoleon fallen, the Congress of Vienna met." "And the problem of long or short trousers superseded... the problems of Prussia, Spain and all Europe." "The Holy Alliance, born of the Congress, raised the police to supreme authority." "It sanctioned terrible penalties for those who criticize acts of governments." "That's how peace was established." "The peace of a cemetery." "But we want to live!" "I want to live!" "Pietro, Pietro, my love!" "Donna Vanina, I'd like to talk to you." "You seem troubled, and I'd like to help you." "I don't feel well." "Why do you reply like that, Donna Vanina?" "My intention wasn't to reprove you, but to help you, to liberate you." "It's prayer that liberates us." "It's the only way to shed our anxieties." "I have no anxieties." "I'm just not feeling well." "Maybe the air here doesn't agree with you." "I spent all my childhood here." "Have you consulted a doctor?" "I don't like doctors." "You're right." "They think all sickness comes from the body." "They don't know that the soul is the source of our torments." "So?" "So," "I think that Confession, Donna Vanina..." "I haven't yet had time to examine my conscience." "We can do it together." "It's not easy to question oneself and respond at the same time." "I'll question you, and you'll reply - interiorly and in silence, of course." "Do you... still have a rapport with God in mind and deed?" "Have you always looked to Him as supreme ruler of the world?" "Have you ever placed something - or someone - before Him?" "Concentrate and meditate deeply." "Search within yourself." "At your age, it's more often other people, rather than ideas or things, that take the please of the Creator" "Consider, Donna Vanina, what are the affections that trouble your heart?" "I refer to affections of every kind, friendship, however moderate," "or even feelings of love, which may trouble your heart." "Or memories of audacious words someone may have whispered." "Or images of faces which your fantasy may conjure up, here in solitude." "The demon often takes advantage of out solitude to ensnare us." "Reflect well on these images, and recall." "If your young body has ever vibrated to an impure impulse?" "Reflect if something upset you through the clear light of eyes." "You know the ambiguous and morbid things can be expressed through the eyes." "The mouth, the lips." "I don't allude to words and declarations but to something sensual that issues from the mouth." "The mouth - which kisses a baby, which kisses a mother's cheek, but which can..." "And desire, Vanina." "I ask you to meditate on desire, on your desires." "Enough!" "I'm tired and don't feel well." "Excuse me." "What is it?" "Let me alone." "Don't talk." "Don't say anything." "I can't bear it anymore." "Pietro, we are damned!" "Why?" "We can't go on living in sin." "I must confess our guilt." "I've got to confess!" "You're mad, I forbid it." "Be quiet." "If you only knew what the chaplain said to me!" "O my love!" "What shame!" "What shame!" "The pleasure I felt!" "I can't bear this weight on my heart." "So say you want our love to end, my arrest, my death." "The most sacred functions are now matters for the police." "The priests are their informers." "It's no longer evil they persecute." "Names, they need names!" "And what better way to get them than in Confession?" "No police ever found anything so efficient." "Stop." "You're blinded by political passion." "I want you to know, I'm a believer." "You don't know what Confession is." "You don't know it's the most sublime, most dramatic sacrament in our religion." "You don't know what heroism its secrecy can demand of a priest." "Lf, say, in the secrecy of Confession, someone confided that the wine for the Mass had been poisoned, the priest'd still have to celebrate Mass, drink wine, and go to his death." "What's more... what's more," "you don't know what a great comfort Confession is for the soul." "The man - the priest - disappears and one communicates directly with God." "God, my God, have mercy on us." "We come from Rome and would like to pay our respects to the Princess." "Inform the Princess that Monsignor Benini would like to see her." "Was the trip comfortable?" "Excellent, my son, excellent." "What a joy, Monsignor!" "Believe me, my dear child, my joy is even greater." "I hope you'll honor us by staying at the castle." "Unfortunately no, Princess." "I'd have accepted with pleasure, but I haven't come to Romagna for a rest." "His Eminence Cardinal Rivarola, the cardinal legate, has been charged by His Holiness to suppress the activities of the secret societies, the carbonari, all those sects which aim to overthrow the State." "His Eminence has entrusted me with the Romagna sector." "I lead impressive armed forces and hope to be equal to the task." "...and he took the chaplain with him." "The chaplain?" "What for?" "I don't know." "He's from Cesena." "He suggested going with him so he could visit his mother." "That's just a pretext." "I wonder what they're scheming." "Vanina, I have to leave at once." "I think to the contrary, it's wiser to stay." "Roads will be blocked and all suspects hunted down." "Here, in this room, you'll be safe." "But I'm not thinking of myself, but of my companions." "I should have joined them long ago." "Alright." "As soon as it's dark you can go." "But be careful, my love." "If anything should happen to you, I'd die." "I'm Princess Vanini's confessor, on my way back to the castle San Niccolò." "Stay here." "No one will hurt you." "We want only to remove the protection of the far-from-holy Monsignor Benini." "I've nothing to do with Monsignor Benini." "I've never meddled with politics." "I attend only to my ministry." "Don't you love Italy?" "As much as you." "And you hope to make her free with your benedictions?" "Yes." "Some of your... "colleagues" don't think like you." "I'm not in agreement with what Monsignor Benini's come to do." "But that doesn't make me a revolutionary." "I've other things to do." "I chose the priesthood to help souls become free, free of sin, free of guilt." "Nice freedom!" "Don't laugh!" "Please." "Don't laugh." "We've already talked too much." "You stay here, and that's that." "At the castle they won't blame you if you're a bit late." "And don't try any tricks." "As patrons of liberty you treat me quite liberally." "So?" "Fine." "Our young priest's not so stupid." "Who said otherwise?" "Come on." "Giovanni, tell Vanina not to worry." "I'll see her in Cesena." "At the fair." "Leaders and promoters of sects will be sentenced to death on the simple evidence of inquisition." "Anyone concealing weapons, emblems or money will get 20 years' hard labor, and their accomplices ten." "Furthermore, seven years in prison to anyone who knows or suspects existence of a sect, or the membership of any individual in one, and fails to denounce it to the authorities." "Anyone behaving suspiciously will be subject to political restraint of the first degree." "Anyone liable to such restraint may not leave the limits of the city or his native province." "Stay at home from dusk to dawn." "And report to the police every 15 days." "Go to Confession monthly, and prove it to the police with testimony from the confessor." "There'll be a reward for anyone naming a carbonaro or a member of a secret sect." "Full pardon to any sect member who spontaneously surrenders within one month." "Show your hands!" "We got away just in time." "Look!" "Stop!" "They shot Costante." " When?" " A little while ago." "We must do something." "Onder and Giordano Pattiboni, here present, concealed from justice" "Costante Bragana, conspirator and bandit, who was executed an hour ago." "Said accomplices will be dealt 50 whip lashes, as a warning." "In the name of the Police Chief of Forlì, who ordered this punishment," "I invite all loyal subjects of our lord, Leo XII, to collaborate with justice against the carbonari." "We proceed with the execution." "I know them." "I know them." "What do we decide to do?" "We have to act now." "It's better to wait." "No, something has to be done." "Absolutely." "Tomorrow we need a meeting of the heads of our vendite." "Let them come here separately." "And with great caution." "Here?" "To this house?" "Here we're in the wolf's claws." "No one will suspect." "Anyone who wants to remain here can." "Less risk tomorrow." "He's awake." "Did you sleep well?" "I'd better go." "Why?" "It's not essential that you attend this meeting." "I'd rather go." "But you promised to stay till tomorrow." "Yes, I know." "But I was so tired I'd have given up everything." "Now it's different." "Love, it's been a long time since we've seen each other." "As soon as you got here, you went to bed." "And now you want to leave." "Pietro my love, you never think of me." "Vanina, you must know right now there are things much more important." "There're people in prison who may lose their lives." "You can wait." "Our future too depends on the next few days." "But what can you people do alone, against the police, the army, the spies?" "Yes, I know, they're very strong." "But we must save the essence of our vendita." "If it falls apart, none of us could start over again." "If any of us survives." "No!" "Give it up, Pietro." "You mustn't go." "I don't want you to." "My love, come away with me, far from here, please." "I'm afraid, I'm afraid." "I don't want to lose you." "Let me go." "Stop it!" "I beg you!" "Did you see those two men this morning?" "I saw them." "Sorry." "Love, stay at least tonight." "Alright, I'll stay tonight." "So Giovanni has to be sent to Cesena, to tell the others I'm here." "And to fetch me if necessary." " What's happened?" " Nothing." "What's the number of that house?" "82." "Go to Cesena and deliver this book to Monsignor Benini." "Tell him to read the last page and then send it back to me." "No one must recognize you." "But before you go, before you dress, tell Giovanni the game-keeper to go to Cesena at once." "Pietro's staying here tonight." "Giovanni's only to come back to let us know if something new happens." "Pietro, we've so many things to do together." "We've never even gone for a walk." "Who knows?" "Maybe someday we'll go to America." "Would you like that?" "Even the worst government has one good point, it doesn't manage to make you feel foreign." "Outside Italy, I think I'd feel dead, without passions, without feelings." "Someone was a spy." "The militia surrounded Malaguti's house and arrested everybody." "They took them to prison." "We've been betrayed." "It's impossible." "No one could have suspected that house." "But that's what happened." " Are you sure of what you're saying?" " Unfortunately, yes." "In prison Malaguti escaped and died jumping into the well." "In Cesena the roads are blocked." "Reinforcements are arriving." "No one can leave his house." "What are we to do now?" "Wait for me." "I'll be down soon." "You heard." "How lucky you didn't go." "I'm the only one who hasn't been arrested." "I don't want my companions to think I'm the one who betrayed them." "I'll give myself up." "How are you?" "My beautiful treasure!" "What beautiful eyes you have!" "But you look a bit haggard." "What is it?" "Nothing, papa." "Nothing?" "We can't go on like this." "We have to do something." "I'm so happy you're back." "Now listen, Vanina." "Cardinal Catanzaro Savelli, who baptized you when he was a monsignor, who gave you communion and confirmed you when he was a bishop, now as a cardinal would like so much to celebrate your marriage." "He's crazy about you." "He adores you." "And he'd like so much for you to marry his nephew Livio." "What do you say?" "As for me, personally, he's not so bad, but of course you can decide as you want." "I do think it's about time you began to think about marriage." "What do you say?" "What happiness in my heart to greet the noble scion of the House of Vanini!" "Please sit down." "But you seem troubled, my child, or am I wrong?" "No, you're right." "It's something that troubles both my conscience and my heart." "Ah, the heart!" "I think I know what it is, but don't worry about it, dear." "Don't forget it's God who prepares the meeting of hearts according to His providential and mysterious designs." "Accepted in this light, love becomes an inspiration and a font of holiness." "Love can even become a provident instrument of conversion." "You can tell me his name right away." "He's surely noble like you, worthy of you, loyal to the Holy See, devoted to the Church." "No, he's absolutely different, Eminence, at least in appearance." "He's noble in sentiment, but of a plebian family." "Your Eminence knows the news of the repression of the carbonari in Romagna?" "Certainly." "It was the happiest news we've had for a long time." "Your Eminence has heard the name of a certain Pietro Missirilli?" "He's one of the exponents of the carbonari in Romagna." "I don't think so, why do you ask?" "I'm in love." "What do you mean?" "Yes, Eminence, I love Pietro Missirilli." "You're kidding yourself." "You're still a child." "It's just one of those romantic infatuations... which young people like you can experience for an adventurer." "I love Pietro Missirilli." "I love him, have loved him, and shall love him forever." "You have loved him?" "I feel here the presence of the demon." "No, Eminence, don't speak like that, please." "Why the demon?" "In a moment of weakness, I might have been mistaken, but love is something else." "I have faith." "I'm Catholic, and the very fact that I'm here in your presence with soul torn from suffering and heart in pain proves it." "Moreover you said yourself, just now, that the meeting of hearts is inspired by God's designs." "The presence of the demon?" "Have you ever asked yourself, Eminence, if the demon doesn't rather like to dress itself in the clothes of hypocrisy?" "But what is reality around us?" "How many girls get sacrificed, along with their useless baggage of ideals, without love, at the altar of politics and property?" "I was unable to let myself partake of the hypocrisy." "I wanted to be faithful to your teachings." "I, more than anything, wanted to believe in love." "Calm yourself, my daughter, we understand your problem." "But we do not see a possible way out." "I may have sinned, but only by excess of love." "How alone I feel, and lost." "It was this feeling that brought me to Your Eminence." "God just now inspired you with the words that could be my salvation." ""Love can become a provident instrument of conversion. "" "What are you trying to say?" "In me you have a father always ready to come help." "Speak." "The only way to cleanse my sin is matrimony." "But over the head of Pietro Missirilli hangs capital punishment." "And yet there must be a way out." "Your Eminence must know that I revealed to Monsignor Benini the place where the carbonari heads in Romagna were meeting." "And Your Eminence is certainly aware that in Cardinal Rivarola's proclamation there's mention of pardon in the case of denunciation." "Well, I was able to speak only because Pietro Missirilli told me the name of the meeting place." "I understand what you mean." "We have before us a case of indirect denunciation." "But I don't think it's as easy as you'd like." "But Your Eminence must know that Pietro Missirilli gave himself up." "For what reason?" "Well, to be honest, to share the fate of his companions." "This seems to me to aggravate the situation." "His act is a challenge to the law, almost a provocation." "Yes, certainly, it is." "But don't you think it's the most beautiful aspect of his personality?" "And mightn't it reveal tomorrow a field of action to redeem him, to save him?" "You're asking me for something outside my competence." "I have to consult my colleague, His Eminence Cardinal Legate Rivarola, who alone can decide this matter." "His Eminence Cardinal Rivarola, with his well known magnanimity, has decided for clemency toward Pietro Missirilli and his carbonari companions." "I'm happy to tell you that credit is due entirely to my very dear colleague..." "Cardinal Catanzaro Savelli." "Naturally it's now up to you, Princess." "Everything's possible if Pietro Missirilli understands... his duty to offer clear signs of reformation." "I know him well, Eminence, and can tell you that if he sinned he did so through generosity, rather than wicked impulse." "We are disposed to believe you, Princess, and feel God will help you." "For the rest, we ask for nothing exceptional, only a small thing, a thing signifying humility, desire for pardon, and disavowal of his ugly past." "For the crimes on his conscience he's liable for capital punishment." "But this little thing will suffice to save his life and open also to his companions the possibility of full clemency." "And thus will be realized also your dream of love, Princess." "Vanina, why did you come here?" "You must forget me." "Pietro my love, what are you saying?" "Why are you talking this way?" "It's necessary." "I can never belong to you." "Pietro, that's not true, you can save yourself." "Now it depends only on you." "I confessed everything to Cardinal Catanzaro Savelli and Cardinal Rivarola." "Pietro, all you have to do..." "All I have to do..." "My love, I'd give my life for you." "No, I repeat, you must forget me." "Maybe bad luck pursued me due to the mortal sin in which I've always lived." "O Pietro, it will all end, like in a dream." "You'll be free, you'll be mine, and we'll be happy." "We'll be free from sin, all you have to do..." "What?" "Just a gesture, a little gesture showing humility, desire for pardon." "And then?" "Pietro, everything depends on you." "All you have to do is disavow your past." "And then?" "And then the two of us..." "The two of us!" "And my companions?" "Why didn't they arrest me with the others?" "Why wasn't I at my post with them that night?" "It's my absence that's made me suspect." "And I wasn't there because I didn't love just Italy." "If I loved anyone in this world, it was you, Vanina." "But fortunately now I too can die for my fatherland." "No, you'll be saved." "Yes, but at what price?" "Disavowing the ideals I fought for?" "Denying my companions?" "I promise you, Pietro, I promise you that they too..." "What?" "I have to get them to recant too?" "I, who alone deserve death for having deserted them?" "O Pietro, listen to me." "I'll go humiliate myself before them and confess I was so mad with love for you that night, that I denounced them - yes I did - to have you all to myself."