His great pity, may the
Lord pardon all the sins which have been committed from the ardour of
the passions. The sick man ought, at this moment, to detest anew all the
bad thoughts to which he has abandoned himself, all sentiments of
hatred, or vengeance that he has nourished in his heart."

And following the ritual, we could have spoken of something more than
the breast, but God knows what holy anger would have been aroused in the
Public Attorney's office, if we had spoken of the loins!

"_To the loins_: Through this holy unction and His great pity, may the
Lord pardon all the sins that you have committed by irregular impulses
of the flesh."

If we had said that, what a thunderbolt you would have had with which to
attempt to crush us, Mr. Attorney! and nevertheless, the ritual adds:
"The sick man ought, at this moment, to detest anew all illicit
pleasures, carnal delights, etc...."

This is the ritual; and you have seen the condemned article. It has
nothing of raillery in it, but is serious and earnest. And I repeat to
you that he who lent my client this book, and saw my client make the use
of it that he has, has taken him by the hand with tears in his eyes. You
see, then, Mr. Government Attorney, how rash--not to use an expression
which in order to be exact is not too severe--is your accusation of our
touching upon holy things. You see now that we have not mingled the
profane with the sacred when, at each sense we indicated the sin
committed by that sense, since it is the language of the Church itself.

I insist now upon mentioning the other details of the charge of outrage
against religion. The Public Minister said to me: "It is no longer
religion but the morals of all time that you have outraged; you have
insulted death!" How have we insulted death? Because at the moment when
this woman dies, there passes in the street a man whom she had met more
than once, to whom she had given alms from her carriage as she was going
to her adulterous meetings; a blind man whom she was accustomed to see,
who sang his song walking along slowly by the side of her carriage, to
whom she threw a piece of money, but whose countenance made her shiver?
This man was passing in the street; and at the moment when Divine pity
pardoned, or promised pardon, to the unfortunate woman who was expiating
the faults of her life by a frightful death, human raillery appeared to
her in the form of the song under her window. Great Heavens! you find
an