He was now leading an active life, and suffered less from the frightful void which he had brought back from Lourdes; and as he no longer questioned himself, the anguish of uncertainty no longer tortured him.

It was with the serenity which attends the simple accomplishment of duty that he continued to say his mass.

He even finished by thinking that the mystery which he thus celebrated--indeed, that all the mysteries and all the dogmas were but symbols--rites requisite for humanity in its childhood, which would be got rid of later on, when enlarged, purified, and instructed humanity should be able to support the brightness of naked truth.
And in his zealous desire to be useful, his passion to proclaim his belief aloud, Pierre one morning found himself at his table writing a book.

This had come about quite naturally; the book proceeded from him like a heart-cry, without any literary idea having crossed his mind.

One night, whilst he lay awake, its title suddenly flashed before his eyes in the darkness: "NEW ROME." That expressed everything, for must not the new redemption of the nations originate in eternal and holy Rome?
The only existing authority was found there; rejuvenescence could only spring from the sacred soil where the old Catholic oak had grown.