All I ask is, that he
may be spared a public exposure. Such an exposure would do no
good to the count, and it would do dreadful injury to me. Look
over the papers yourself, and show them, whenever you think
proper, to the master of this house. I have every confidence in
his honor and kindness, and in yours."
He laid the roll of papers open on the table, and then retired
with great humility to the window. The doctor looked over them
with some curiosity.
The statement or confession began by boldly avowing the writer's
conviction that part of the property which the Count Fabio
d'Ascoli had inherited from his ancestors had been obtained by
fraud and misrepresentation from the Church. The various
authorities on which this assertion was based were then produced
in due order; along with some curious particles of evidence
culled from old manuscripts, which it must have cost much trouble
to collect and decipher.
The second section was devoted, at great length, to the reasons
which induced the writer to think it his absolute duty, as an
affectionate son and faithful servant of the Church, not to rest
until he had restored to the successors of the apostles in his
day the property which had been fraudulently taken from them in
days gone by. The writer held himself justified, in the last
resort, and in that only, in using any means for effecting this
restoration, except such as might involve him in mortal sin.
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