He tells the story of their flight, and tells it with extraordinary beauty and vehemence in her defence.

So noble is the tale that he convinces the judges who at first had disbelieved him; and the Pope confesses that his imprudence was a higher good than priestly prudence would have been.

When he makes his defence he has heard that Pompilia has been murdered.

Then we understand that in his conversion to goodness he has not lost but gained passion.

Scorn of the judges, who could not see that neither he was guilty nor Pompilia; fiery indignation with the murderer; infinite grief for the lamb slain by the wolf, and irrevocable love for the soul of Pompilia, whom he will dwell with eternally when they meet in Heaven, a love which Pompilia, dying, declares she has for him, and in which, growing and abiding, she will wait for him--burn on his lips.