A clumsy, childish
device that, to keep you faithful."

Arsenio looked up. Words that defamed the great were ever welcome to
him; arguments that showed him he was oppressed and imposed upon sounded
ever gratefully in his ears. He nodded his approval of "Battista's"
dictum.

"Body of Bacchus!" he swore, "you are right in that, compatriot. But my
case is different. I am thinking of the curse that Mother Church has
put upon this house. Yesterday was All Saints, and never a Mass heard I.
To-day is All Souls, and never a prayer may I offer up in this place of
sin for the rest of my mother's soul."

"How so?" quoth Garnache, looking in wonder at this religiously minded
cut-throat.

"How so? Is not the House of Condillac under excommunication, and every
man who stays in it of his own free will? Prayers and Sacraments are
alike forbidden here."

Garnache received a sudden inspiration. He leapt to his feet, his face
convulsed as if at the horror of learning of a hitherto undreamt-of
state of things. He never paused to give a moment's consideration to the
cut-throat's mind, so wonderfully constituted as to enable him to break
with impunity every one of the commandments every day of the week for
the matter of a louis d'or or two, and yet be afflicted by qualms of
conscience at living under a roof upon which the Church had hurled her
malediction.

"What are you saying, compatriot? What is it that you tell me?"

"The truth," said Arsenio, with a shrug. "Any man who wilfully abides in
the services of Condillac"--and instinctively he lowered his voice
lest the Captain or the Marquise should be within earshot--, "is
excommunicate."

"By the Host!" swore the false Piedmontese. "I am a Christian man
myself, Arsenio, and I have lived in ignorance of this thing?"

"That ignorance may be your excuse. But now that you know--" Arsenio
shrugged his shoulders.

"Now that I know, I, had best have a care of my soul and look about me
for other employment."

"Alas!" sighed Arsenio; "it is none so easy to find."

Garnache looked at him. Garnache began to have in his luck a still
greater faith than hitherto. He glanced stealthily around; then he sat
down again, so that his mouth was close to Arsenio's ear.

"The pay is beggarly here, yet I have refused a fortune offered me by
another that I might remain loyal to my masters at Condillac. But this
thing that you tell me alters everything. By the Host! yes."

"A fortune?" sneered Arse