ime he wore a sub-deacon's dalmatic upon his shoulders,
he bound himself for ever by the vow of chastity, he trembled in every
pore, despite his faith, at the terrible _Accedite_ from the bishop,
which put to flight two of his companions, blanching by his side. His
new duties were to serve the priest at the altar, to prepare the cruets,
sing the epistle, wipe the chalice, and carry the cross in processions.
And, at last, he passed once more, and for the last time, into the
chapel, in the radiance of a June sun: but this time he walked at the
very head of the procession, with alb girdled about his waist, with
stole crossed over his breast, and chasuble falling from his neck. All
but fainting from emotion, he could perceive the pallid face of the
bishop giving him the priesthood, the fulness of the ministry, by
the threefold laying of his hands. And after taking the oath of
ecclesiastical obedience, he felt himself uplifted from the stone flags,
when the prelate in a full voice repeated the Latin words: '_Accipe
Spiritum Sanctum.... Quorum remiseris peccata, remittuntur eis, et
quorum retinueris, retenta sunt_.'--'Receive the Holy Ghost.... Whose
sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost
retain, they are retained.'

XVI

This evocation of the deep joys of his youth had given Abbe Mouret a
touch of feverishness. He no longer felt the cold. He put down the tongs
and walked towards the bedstead as if about to go to bed, but turned
back and pressed his forehead to a window-pane, looking out into the
night with sightless eyes. Could he be ill? Why did he feel such
languor in all his limbs, why did his blood burn in every vein? On two
occasions, while at the seminary, he had experienced similar attacks--a
sort of physical discomfort which made him most unhappy; one day,
indeed, he had gone to bed in raving delirium. Then he bethought himself
of a young girl possessed by evil spirits, whom Brother Archangias
asserted he had cured with a simple sign of the cross, one day when she
fell down before him. This reminded him of the spiritual exorcisms which
one of his teachers had formerly recommended to him: prayer, a general
confession, frequent communion, the choosing of a wise confessor
who should have great authority on his mind. And then, without any
transition, with a suddenness which astonished himself, he saw in
the depths of his memory the round face of one of his old friends, a
peasant, who h