“You find me, cousin,” said he after a brief greeting, “much troubled by a question that has of late incessantly disturbed my rest—­can the soul, after full intuition of God, be polluted by the sins of the body?” he clutched Odo’s hand in his burning grasp.  “Is it possible that there are human beings so heedless of their doom that they can go about their earthly pleasures with this awful problem unsolved?  Oh, why has not some Pope decided it?  Why has God left this hideous uncertainty hanging over us?  You know the doctrine of Plotinus—­’he who has access to God leaves the virtues behind him as the images of the gods are left in the outer temple.’  Many of the fathers believed that the Neoplatonists were permitted to foreshadow in their teachings the revelation of Christ; but on these occult points much doubt remains, and though certain of the great theologians have inclined to this interpretation, there are others who hold that it leans to the heresy of Quietism.”

Odo, who had inferred in the Duke’s opening words an allusion to the little prince’s ill-health, or to some political anxiety, was at a loss how to reply to this strange appeal; but after a moment he said, “I have heard that your Highness’s director is a man of great learning and discrimination.  Can he not help your Highness to some decision on this point?”

The Duke glanced at him suspiciously.  “Father Ignazio,” said he, “is in fact well-versed in theology; but there are certain doctrines inaccessible to all but a few who have received the direct illumination of heaven, and on this point I cannot feel that his judgment is final.”  He wiped the dampness from his sallow forehead and pressed the scapular to his lips.  “May you never know,” he cried, “the agony of a father whose child is dying, of a sovereign who longs to labour for the welfare of his people, but who is racked by the thought that in giving his mind to temporal duties and domestic affections while such spiritual difficulties are still unsolved, he may be preparing for himself an eternity of torture such as that—­” and he pointed to an old and blackened picture of the Last Judgment that hung on the opposite wall.

Odo tried to frame a soothing rejoinder; but the Duke passionately interrupted him.  “Alas, cousin, no rest is possible for one who has attained the rapture of the Beatific Vision, yet who trembles lest the mere mechanical indulgence of the senses may still subject him to the common penalty of sin!  As a man who has devoted himself to the study of theology is privileged to argue on questions forbidden to the vulgar, so surely fasting, maceration and ecstasy must liberate the body from the bondage of prescribed morality.  Shall no distinction be recognised between my conduct and that of the common sot or debauchee whose soul lies in blind subjection to his lower instincts?  I, who have laboured early and late to remove temptation from my people—­who have punished offences against conduct as unsparingly as spiritual error—­I,