f the bishop, who was sitting on the
lower terrace under a grape-vine arbor, where he often came to take his
dessert and enjoy the charm of a tranquil evening. The poplars on the
island seemed at this moment to divide the waters with the lengthening
shadow of their yellowing heads, to which the sun was lending the
appearance of a golden foliage. The setting rays, diversely reflected on
masses of different greens, produced a magnificent harmony of melancholy
tones. At the farther end of the valley a sheet of sparkling water
ruffled by the breeze brought out the brown stretch of roofs in the
suburb of Saint-Etienne. The steeples and roofs of Saint-Martial, bathed
in light, showed through the tracery of the grape-vine arbor. The soft
murmur of the provincial town, half hidden by the bend of the river, the
sweetness of the balmy air, all contributed to plunge the prelate into
the condition of quietude prescribed by medical writers on digestion;
seemingly his eyes were resting mechanically on the right bank of the
river, just where the long shadows of the island poplars touched it on
the side toward Saint-Etienne, near the field where the twofold
murder of old Pingret and his servant had been committed. But when
his momentary felicity was interrupted by the arrival of the two grand
vicars, and the difficulties they brought to him to solve, it was
seen his eyes were filled with impenetrable thoughts. The two priests
attributed this abstraction to the fact of being bored, whereas, on the
contrary, the prelate was absorbed in seeing in the sands of the Vienne
the solution of the enigma then so anxiously sought for by the officers
of justice, the des Vanneaulx, and the community at large.

"Monsieur," said the Abbe de Grancour, approaching the bishop, "it is
all useless; we shall certainly have the distress of seeing that
unhappy Tascheron die an unbeliever. He vociferates the most horrible
imprecations against religion; he insults that poor Abbe Pascal; he
spits upon the crucifix; and means to die denying all, even hell."

"He will shock the populace on the scaffold," said the Abbe Dutheil.
"The great scandal and horror his conduct will excite may hide our
defeat and powerlessness. In fact, as I have just been saying to
Monsieur de Grancour, this very spectacle may drive other sinners into
the arms of the Church."

Troubled by these words, the bishop laid down upon a rustic wooden table
the bunch of grapes at which he was pic