y
in petrified astonishment.

"Jean-Francois is pardoned!" cried the whole village, now rushing toward
the house, having heard the news from Ursule. "Monseigneur the bishop--"

"I knew he was innocent!" cried the mother.

"Will it hinder the purchase?" said the purchaser to the notary, who
answered with a satisfying gesture.

The Abbe Gabriel was now the centre of all eyes; his sadness raised a
suspicion of mistake. To avoid correcting it himself, he left the house,
followed by the rector, and said to the crowd outside that the execution
was only postponed for some days. The uproar subsided instantly into
dreadful silence. When the Abbe Gabriel and the rector returned, the
expression on the faces of the family was full of anguish; the silence
of the crowd was understood.

"My friends, Jean-Francois is not pardoned," said the young abbe, seeing
that the blow had fallen; "but the state of his soul has so distressed
Monseigneur that he has obtained a delay in order to save your son in
eternity."

"But he lives!" cried Denise.

The young abbe took the rector aside to explain to him the injurious
situation in which the impenitence of his parishioner placed religion,
and the duty the bishop imposed upon him.

"Monseigneur exacts my death," replied the rector. "I have already
refused the entreaties of the family to visit their unhappy son. Such a
conference and the sight of his death would shatter me like glass. Every
man must work as he can. The weakness of my organs, or rather, the
too great excitability of my nervous organization, prevents me from
exercising these functions of our ministry. I have remained a simple
rector expressly to be useful to my kind in a sphere in which I can
really accomplish my Christian duty. I have carefully considered how
far I could satisfy this virtuous family and do my pastoral duty to this
poor son; but the very idea of mounting the scaffold with him, the mere
thought of assisting in those fatal preparations, sends a shudder as of
death through my veins. It would not be asked of a mother; and remember,
monsieur, he was born in the bosom of my poor church."

"So," said the Abbe Gabriel, "you refuse to obey Monseigneur?"

"Monseigneur is ignorant of the state of my health; he does not know
that in a constitution like mine nature refuses--" said Monsieur Bonnet,
looking at the younger priest.

"There are times when we ought, like Belzunce at Marseille, to risk
certain death," repli