elieve only in crimes which are confessed to me, and of which the
sinner repents," said the priest, in an apostolic tone.

"Crime?" cried Minoret.

"A crime frightful in its consequences."

"What consequences?"

"In the fact that it escapes human justice. The crimes which are not
expiated here below will be punished in another world. God himself
avenges innocence."

"Do you think God concerns himself with such trifles?"

"If he did not see the worlds in all their details at a glance, as you
take a landscape into your eye, he would not be God."

"Monsieur l'abbe, will you give me your word of honor that you have had
these facts from my uncle?"

"Your uncle has appeared three times to Ursula and has told them and
repeated them to her. Exhausted by such visions she revealed them to me
privately; she considers them so devoid of reason that she will never
speak of them. You may make yourself easy on that point."

"I am easy on all points, Monsieur Chaperon."

"I hope you are," said the old priest. "Even if I considered these
warnings absurd, I should still feel bound to inform you of them,
considering the singular nature of the details. You are an honest man,
and you have obtained your handsome fortune in too legal a way to wish
to add to it by theft. Besides, you are an almost primitive man, and
you would be tortured by remorse. We have within us, be we savage or
civilized, the sense of what is right, and this will not permit us to
enjoy in peace ill-gotten gains acquired against the laws of the society
in which we live,--for well-constituted societies are modeled on the
system God has ordained for the universe. In this respect societies have
a divine origin. Man does not originate ideas, he invents no form;
he answers to the eternal relations that surround him on all sides.
Therefore, see what happens! Criminals going to the scaffold, and having
it in their power to carry their secret with them, are compelled by the
force of some mysterious power to make confessions before their heads
are taken off. Therefore, Monsieur Minoret, if your mind is at ease, I
go my way satisfied."

Minoret was so stupefied that he allowed the abbe to find his own way
out. When he thought himself alone he flew into the fury of a choleric
man; the strangest blasphemies escaped his lips, in which Ursula's name
was mingled with odious language.

"Why, what has she done to you?" cried Zelie, who had slipped in on
tiptoe after seeing t