Pope Pius VI first led the bishops in a brief prayer. Then, clasping his fingers tightly and lowering his head, he said, "Everyone should know what has happened. What should we do?"
Cardinal Galdini of Venice immediately raised his voice in fury:
"We should hand Muzarelli over to the French first. It was precisely his foolish... Oh, may God forgive my rudeness. His attempts to curry favor with Vienna enraged the French..."
The middle-aged Cardinal beside him quietly interrupted, "Didn't you know? Cleric Muzarelli fled Rome last month."
Eder, the Cardinal of Naples seated beside Pius VI, suddenly began chanting scripture aloud:
"O Jehovah, the heathen have entered Your inheritance..."
Fierce debate instantly erupted all around them. "Let the Pope call upon the Crusaders! Believers from all over Europe will come to fight for God!"
"Have Habsburg send more troops. The Holy See gave them immense support; now is the time for them to repay it."
"Archbishop Destro, Vienna's army could not even hold Lombardy. If you ask me, we must seek aid from Madrid..."
"Have you lost your mind? Spain is a member of that 'Mediterranean Military Organization.'"
"It is the Mediterranean Security Organization, Archbishop Pacini..."
"No nation's army can help us." The aged Cardinal of Genoa pressed a hand downward. "We should now summon martyrs to assassinate that blasphemer in Versailles Palace..."
"Enough." Pius VI raised his wrinkled face and shook his head pale-faced. "Terror has gnawed away your reason. These ideas are more blasphemous than the French bayonets."
He looked at Archbishop Eder. "Can the Papal Guard hold them back? Oh, along with the Roman Militia and the Anti-Smuggling Squad."
The latter hesitated. "That... I fear it will be difficult, Holy Father."
The Holy See's core fighting force, the Swiss Guard, numbered only a little over four