"True,--but----"

"But--what? De Launay, if you love me, do not look at me with so
expostulatory an air! It does not become your inches! Now listen!--when
the next press reporter comes nosing round for palace news, let him be
told that the King has refused permission to the Jesuits to build on
any portion of the Crown lands demanded for the purpose. Let this be
made known to Press and People--the sooner the better!"

"Sir," murmured De Launay--"We live in strange times----"

"Why, there you speak most truly!" said the King, with emphasis--"We do
live in strange times--the very strangest perhaps, since Aeneas Sylvius
wrote concerning Christendom. Do you remember the words he set down so
long ago?--'It is a body without a head,--a republic without laws or
magistrates. The pope or the emperor may shine as lofty titles, as
splendid images,--but they are unable to command, and no one is
willing to obey!' History thus repeats itself, De Launay;--and yet with
all its past experience, the Roman Church does not seem to realize that
it is powerless against the attacks of intellectual common sense. Faith
in God,--a high, perfect, pure faith in God, and a simple following of
the Divine Teacher of God's command, Christ;--these things are wise and
necessary for all nations; but, to allow human beings to be coerced by
superstition for political motives, under the disguise of religion, is
an un-Christian business, and I for one will have no part in it!"

"You will lay yourself open to much serious misconstruction, Sir," said
De Launay.