her, if the agent of the sanitary commission--"

"Saint Benoit II., in the matter of sepulture, resisted Constantine
Pogonatus."

"But the commissary of police--"

"Chonodemaire, one of the seven German kings who entered among the Gauls
under the Empire of Constantius, expressly recognized the right of nuns
to be buried in religion, that is to say, beneath the altar."

"But the inspector from the Prefecture--"

"The world is nothing in the presence of the cross. Martin, the eleventh
general of the Carthusians, gave to his order this device: Stat crux dum
volvitur orbis."

"Amen," said Fauchelevent, who imperturbably extricated himself in this
manner from the dilemma, whenever he heard Latin.

Any audience suffices for a person who has held his peace too long. On
the day when the rhetorician Gymnastoras left his prison, bearing in
his body many dilemmas and numerous syllogisms which had struck in, he
halted in front of the first tree which he came to, harangued it and
made very great efforts to convince it. The prioress, who was usually
subjected to the barrier of silence, and whose reservoir was overfull,
rose and exclaimed with the loquacity of a dam which has broken away:--

"I have on my right Benoit and on my left Bernard. Who was Bernard? The
first abbot of Clairvaux. Fontaines in Burgundy is a country that is
blest because it gave him birth. His father was named Tecelin, and his
mother Alethe. He began at Citeaux, to end in Clairvaux; he was ordained
abbot by the bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone, Guillaume de Champeaux; he had
seven hundred novices, and founded a hundred and sixty monasteries; he
overthrew Abeilard at the council of Sens in 1140, and Pierre de Bruys
and Henry his disciple, and another sort of erring spirits who were
called the Apostolics; he confounded Arnauld de Brescia, darted
lightning at the monk Raoul, the murderer of the Jews, dominated the
council of Reims in 1148, caused the condemnation of Gilbert de Porea,
Bishop of Poitiers, caused the condemnation of Eon de l'Etoile, arranged
the disputes of princes, enlightened King Louis the Young, advised Pope
Eugene III., regulated the Temple, preached the crusade, performed
two hundred and fifty miracles during his lifetime, and as many
as thirty-nine in one day. Who was Benoit? He was the patriarch of
Mont-Cassin; he was the second founder of the Saintete Claustrale,
he was the Basil of the West. His order has produced forty popes, two
hundred