before me, and have been in twenty minds a month about granting or
refusing what his Society demands. The matter has been discussed in the
Press, too, with the usual pros and cons of hesitation, but it is the
People I am thinking of, the People! and I am just now in the humour to
satisfy a Nation rather than a Church!"

De Launay said nothing. His opinion was not asked.

"It is a case in which the temporal overbalances the spiritual,"
continued the King--"Which plainly proves that the spiritual must be
lacking in some essential point somewhere. For if the spiritual were
always truly of God, then would it always be the strongest. The
question which brings Monsignor Del Fortis here as special emissary of
the Vicar-General of the Society of Jesus, is simply this: Whether or
no a certain site in a particularly fertile tract of land belonging
chiefly to the Crown, shall be granted to the Jesuits for the purpose
of building thereon a church and monastery with schools attached. It
seems a reasonable request, set forth with an apparently religious
intention. Yet more than forty petitions have been sent in to me from
the inhabitants of the towns and villages adjacent to the lands,
imploring me to refuse the concession. By my faith, they plead as
eloquently as though asking deliverance from the plague! It is a
curious dilemma. If I grant the people's request I anger the priests;
if I satisfy the priests I anger the people."

"You mentioned a discussion in the Press, Sir--" hinted Sir Roger.

"Oh, the Press is like a weathercock--it turns whichever way the wind
of speculation blows. One day it is 'for,' another 'against.' In this
particular case it is diplomatically indifferent, except in one or two