The moment Charlotte got wind of my conversion, she insisted I meet Giuseppe Pecci, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Studies—the Vatican librarian. Nothing gave Charlotte more pleasure than proving her influence by bringing people together. Prefect Pecci was well connected with the expatriate community of scholars and promised to obtain commissions for me. He soon found me a patron, a foreigner, newly converted like myself, visiting Rome for the first time. 

            The Marquis de Bute was from the British Isles, with a long, distinguished lineage. Hatty, who knew of the man t...

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