You are at
liberty. You are free to depart and to go wheresoever you will. This bull
concerns you." And he held it out to me.
My mind moved through these happenings as a man moves through a dense fog,
faltering and hesitating at every step. I took the parchment and
considered it. Satisfied as to its nature, however mystified as to how the
Pope had come to intervene, I folded the document and thrust it into my
belt.
Then the familiars of the Holy Office assisted me to resume my garments;
and all was done now in utter silence, and for my own part in the same
mental and dream-like confusion.
At length the inquisitor waved a huge hand doorwards. "Ite!" he said, and
added, whilst his raised hand seemed to perform a benedictory gesture--"Pax
Domini sit tecum."
"Et cum spiritu tuo," I replied mechanically, as, turning, I stumbled out
of that dread place in the wake of the messenger who had brought the bull,
and who went ahead to guide me.
CHAPTER IX
THE RETURN
Above in the blessed sunlight, which hurt my eyes--for I had not seen it
for a full week--I found Galeotto awaiting me in a bare room; and scarcely
was I aware of his presence than his great arms went round me and enclasped
me so fervently that his corselet almost hurt my breast, and brought back
as in a flash a poignant memory of another man fully as tall, who had held
me to him one night many years ago, and whose armour, too, had hurt me in
that embrace.
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