The Count of Monte Cristo

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Albert and the fair peasant continued all day. In the evening, on his
return, Franz found a letter from the embassy, informing him that he
would have the honor of being received by his holiness the next day. At
each previous visit he had made to Rome, he had solicited and obtained
the same favor; and incited as much by a religious feeling as by
gratitude, he was unwilling to quit the capital of the Christian world
without laying his respectful homage at the feet of one of St. Peter's
successors who has set the rare example of all the virtues. He did
not then think of the Carnival, for in spite of his condescension and
touching kindness, one cannot incline one's self without awe before the
venerable and noble old man called Gregory XVI. On his return from the
Vatican, Franz carefully avoided the Corso; he brought away with him a
treasure of pious thoughts, to which the mad gayety of the maskers
would have been profanation. At ten minutes past five Albert entered
overjoyed. The harlequin had reassumed her peasant's costume, and as
she passed she raised her mask. She was charming. Franz congratulated
Albert, who received his congratulations with the air of a man conscious