willing to die without
confession."

"But I have nothing to do with that, my child; that is the priest's
business."

"But are you not a priest, monseigneur?"

"Almost," replied our abbe, rather taken aback by this home-thrust, and
in a very bad humor besides at the interruption, "almost; but address
yourself in preference to the prior of the convent. Run to the chateau,
ring at the convent-gate; ring loudly, and reserve me for a better
occasion."

"Monseigneur," repeated the girl, "our grandfather has not time to wait;
he is dying--you must come."

"I tell you," replied the abbe, confused within himself at his refusal,
"I cannot go. I am, as you see, out shooting: the thing is utterly
impossible."

With these words he sought to pursue his way; but the young girl, who
could not comprehend the bad arguments made use of by the abbe, clung
obstinately to his coat skirts, and compelled him to turn round. Aroused
by the noise of this altercation, a few of the male population appeared
on the thresholds of their doors, others at their windows; and as a
village resembles a bundle of dry hay, which a spark will set in a
blaze, the wives joined their husbands, the children their mothers, and
soon the entire population flocked into the street to see what was the
matter.

The Abbe du Jard, seigneur of Voisenon, king of the country, felt deeply
humiliated amid the crowd which surrounded him, and which had already
begun to murmur at this refusal, as irreligious as it was inhuman.

But our poor abbe was not inhuman. The fact was, he had completely
forgotten the formula used on such occasions; and if the truth must be
told, as he was careless and indifferent in religious matters, rather
than hypocritical, his conscience reproached him for going to absolve or
condemn a fellow-creature when he inwardly felt how utterly unworthy he
was himself of judging others at the tribunal of the confessional.

Necessity, however, prevailed over his just scruples; which scruples,
however, be it said, could not be made use of as excuses to his vassals:
so, with downcast eyes and his reversed fowling-piece under his arm, he
permitted himself to be led to the cottage where lay the old man, who
was unwilling to render his last sigh without having made the official
avowal of his sins.

The villagers knelt in a circle before the door, whilst the abbe seated
himself by the side of the dying man, in order the better to receive his
confession.