The duke's lips were compressed, and his brow gathered into a deep frown.

Mingled sorrow and hope were portrayed in the missionary's face, and his breast heaved with excitement.
"I am king!" said Rodolph, in a whisper, still scanning the priest, as though he would read his soul.
"Not yet!" was the reply.
"Who can prevent it ?" "God!" "Most humbly would I submit to His gracious interposition," said the duke, bending his head devoutly; "but can any human power prevent it ?" "Yourself!" Rodolph buried his face in his hands and with rapid, nervous gestures paced up and down the small apartment.
"Hear me!" he exclaimed, suddenly leading Father Omehr to a chair, and taking a seat beside him.

"Hear me!" he repeated, bending forward until his lips almost touched his companion's ear, and the veins swelled in his throat and temples: "I have toiled and sighed and prayed for this! Day after day, night after night, for years, this has been the aim of all my actions, ay, even the limit of my aspirations.

Once to be king--oh! ever since I first clutched a lance I panted for it! In love, in sickness, in peace, in war, I never forgot that one surpassing object--the crown! Hear me on! It is now within my reach--I can touch it--and you ask me to resign it?
--" The duke paused a minute, his eagle eye flashing fire; then, with a vehemence almost appalling, he resumed: "You ask me to resign it--and I _would_, without a pang--gladly, cheerfully--this very instant! Yes--I swear to you--here in presence of my Creator, that I no longer covet the crown I have well-nigh worshipped; that, but for Germany and the Church, I would rather place it on Henry's perjured head than wear it on my own!" "Then you will resign it ?" said the missionary, eagerly.
Rodolph slowly shook his head and fixed his eyes upon the floor.
"Let no fears for the Church and your country restrain you," pursued the priest; "they both demand your refusal, not your acceptance." Still Rodolph sternly shook his head.
"Then as you value honor, defer your decision until the appointed time--our Holy Father may still be with us--it is treacherous to deprive him of the opportunity of interfering, by thus anticipating by a month the day on which we invited him to meet us." "It is too late for interference now," replied the duke, "and of what avail is it to pause on the brink when all the avenues from Carpineta are closed by Henry's minions ?" "Have confidence, I conjure you," exclaimed the other, passionately, "in the virtue and wisdom of His Holiness.

Rest assured that he will find some means to avert bloodshed and yet preserve his See and the empire." "War is inevitable!" "Obey the Pope and trust in God.