This, at the moment, put Odo on his guard; but Trescorre having one day
begged him to give Gamba warning of some petty danger that threatened
him from the clerical side, it became difficult not to believe in an
interest so attested; the more so as Trescorre let it be seen that
Gamba's political views were not such as to distract from his sympathy.
"The fellow's brains," said he, "would be of infinite use to me; but
perhaps he serves us best at a distance. All I ask is that he shall not
risk himself too near Father Ignazio's talons, for he would be a pretty
morsel to throw to the Holy Office, and the weak point of such a man's
position is that, however dangerous in life, he can threaten no one from
the grave."
Odo reported this to Gamba, who heard with a two-edged smile. "Yes," was
his comment, "he fears me enough to want to see me safe in his fold."
Odo flushed at the implication. "And why not?" said he. "Could you not
serve the cause better by attaching yourself openly to the liberals than
by lurking in the ditch to throw mud at both parties?"
"The liberals!" sneered Gamba. "Where are they? And what have they done?
It was they who drove out the Jesuits; but to whom did the Society's
lands go? To the Duke, every acre of them! And the peasantry suffered
far less under the fathers, who were good agriculturists, than under the
Duke, who is too busy with monks and astrologers to give his mind to
irrigation or the reclaiming of waste land. As to the University, who
replaced the Jesuits there? Professors from Padua or Pavia? Heaven
forbid! But holy Barnabites that have scarce Latin enough to spell out
the Lives of the Saints! The Jesuits at least gave a good education to
the upper classes; but now the young noblemen are as ignorant as
peasants.
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