. Why had he not been on his guard against Satan's
wiles? Did he not know full well that it was his habit to glide up
softly with gentle paws that he might drive them like blades into the
very vitals of his victim?

His anger increased as he thought how he had been entrapped, like a mere
child. Was he destined, then, to be ever hurled to the ground, with sin
crouching victoriously on his breast? This time he had actually denied
his God. It was all one fatal descent. His transgression had destroyed
his faith, and then dogma had tottered. One single doubt of the
flesh, pleading abomination, sufficed to sweep heaven away. The divine
ordinances irritated one; the divine mysteries made one smile. Then came
other temptations and allurements; gold, power, unrestrained liberty,
an irresistible longing for enjoyment, culminating in luxuriousness,
sprawling on a bed of wealth and pride. And then God was robbed. His
vessels were broken to adorn woman's impurity. Ah! well, then, he was
damned. Nothing could make any difference to him now. Sin might speak
aloud. It was useless to struggle further. The monsters who had hovered
about his neck were battening on his vitals now. He yielded to them with
hideous satisfaction. He shook his fists at the church. No; he believed
no longer in the divinity of Christ; he believed no longer in the Holy
Trinity; he believed in naught but himself, and his muscles and the
appetites of his body. He wanted to live. He felt the necessity of being
a man. Oh! to speed along through the open air, to be lusty and strong,
to owe obedience to no jealous master, to fell one's enemies with
stones, to carry off the fair maidens that passed upon one's shoulders.
He would break out from that living tomb where cruel hands had thrust
him. He would awaken his manhood, which had only been slumbering. And
might he die of shame if he should find that it were really dead! And
might the Divinity be accursed if, by the touch of His finger, He had
made him different from the rest of mankind.

The priest stood erect, his mind all dazed and scared. He fancied that,
at this fresh outburst of blasphemy, the church was falling down upon
him. The sunlight, which had poured over the high altar, had gradually
spread and mounted the walls like ruddy fire. Flames soared and licked
the rafters, then died away in a sanguineous, ember-like glow. And all
at once the church became quite black. It was as though the fires of the
setting su