He begged the doctor to make a supreme effort, to attempt the impossible; but, pointing to the dying man with trembling hands, Giordano shook his head.

For his own father, his own mother he could have done nothing.

Death was there.

So why weary, why torture a dying man, whose sufferings he would only have increased?
And then, as the Cardinal, finding the end so near at hand, thought of his sister Serafina, and lamented that she would not be able to kiss her nephew for the last time if she lingered at the Vatican, the doctor offered to fetch her in his carriage which was waiting below.

It would not take him more than twenty minutes, said he, and he would be back in time for the end, should he then be needed.
Left to himself in the window recess the Cardinal remained there motionless for another moment.