Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Act One: Scene Two A servant has opened the shutters and the whole of the room is seen. Dawn. There is a high wind and it is pouring in torrents. The violently driven rain streams down the panes. Large trees, whose branches almost touch the windows, darken the room. At intervals is heard the harsh creak of a rusty weathercock. A shaggy- haired dog is lying at the entrance. Suddenly a panel in the library wainscot slides back, revealing for a moment a secret door which stands open. At the back is seen through it the flame of a candle and the corner of an altar with its altar cloth and mass book upon it. An old man in a black cassock enters, his head covered with a white skull cap. POPE PlUS: My son, peace be with you. It is I. (COUFONTAINE, who was standing, musing, at one of the windows, turns round quickly and kneels before the old man, who gives him his hand to kiss. COUFONTAINE (rising]: Eat and drink, Holy Father, for the road hither was long and rough, and your rest short before this morning mass. POPE PlUS: What bread is this that you would give me to eat? Coufontaine: It is loyal bread. A Christian dwelling shelters you. Pope PlUS: I recognised an ecclesiastical building. Coufontaine: This is the Cistercian abbey of Coufontaine, which my ancestors founded and supported. My cousin Sygne bought it with a dispensation, ?the chateau of Dormant having been burnt, ? To keep it from destruction, guarding it for its rightful owners. Pope PluS: She is that pious young woman to whom I gave the sacrament last night? COUFONTAINE: And I am Viscount Ulysses Agenor George de Coufontaine et Dormant, Lord Lieutenant of King Louis in France for Champagne and Lorraine. POPE PlUS: What is the meaning of this violent course? Why have y..