But though all should crumble to-morrow, though the Holy Church should disappear among the ruins, though the most venerated sanctuaries should be crushed by the falling stars, it would still be necessary for us to bow and adore God, who after creating the world might thus annihilate it for His own glory.
And I wait, submissive to His will, for nothing happens unless He wills it.

If really the temples be shaken, if Catholicism be fated to fall to-morrow into dust, I shall be here to act as the minister of death, even as I have been the minister of life! It is certain, I confess it, that there are hours when terrible signs appear to me.

Perhaps, indeed, the end of time is nigh, and we shall witness that fall of the old world with which others threaten us.

The worthiest, the loftiest are struck down as if Heaven erred, and in them punished the crimes of the world.
Have I not myself felt the blast from the abyss into which all must sink, since my house, for transgressions that I am ignorant of, has been stricken with that frightful bereavement which precipitates it into the gulf which casts it back into night everlasting!" He again evoked those two dear dead ones who were always present in his mind.

Sobs were once more rising in his throat, his hands trembled, his lofty figure quivered with the last revolt of grief.