to put himself at the
head of his flock in order to defend it.

As to the wounded and prisoners, once the engagement was ended, the
worthy priest ameliorated their situation as far as he could, and with
the greatest care dressed the wounds which he had himself made.

We will not undertake to prove that the conduct of Father Griffen was in
all points canonical, nor to solve the question so often debated, "Under
what circumstances may the clergy go to war?" We do not claim for this
subject either the authority of Saint Gregory nor that of Leo IV. We
simply say that this worthy priest did good and combated evil with all
his might.

Of a loyal and generous character, frank and gay, Father Griffen was
mischievously hostile and mocking where women were concerned. He was
continually making jests upon the daughters of Eve; these temptresses,
these diabolical allies of the Serpent. In justice to Father Griffen, we
must say that he showed in his railleries, otherwise without malice, a
little rancor and contempt; he jested lightly on the subject of a
happiness that he regretted not being able to desire; for, in spite of
the extreme license of Creole customs, the purity of Father Griffen's
life was never questioned.

He might have been accused of loving the pleasures of the table; not
that he abused them (he observed bounds in enjoying the good gifts which
God bestowed), but he was singularly fond of indulging himself with
marvelous recipes for dressing game, seasoning fish, or preserving in
sugar the fragrant fruits of the tropics; at times, even the description
of his epicurean tastes became contagious, when he would enlarge upon
certain repasts after the manner of buccaneers, prepared in the depths
of the forests or on the shore of the island. Between you and me, Father
Griffen possessed, among others, the secret of cooking a turtle,
buccaneer-fashion, of which the mere recital was enough to excite
ravenous hunger on the part of his hearers. In spite of his usually
formidable appetite, Father Griffen scrupulously observed his fasts,
which an edict of the pope's decreed should be much less strict at the
Antilles and in the Indies than in Europe.

It is unnecessary to say here that the worthy priest would abandon the
most delicate repast in order to fulfill his duties as a priest to a
poor slave; no one was more pitiful than he--a more charitable or
prudent manager, regarding the little he possessed as the property of
the un