tion, and I pardon
your offences against me, as I would God may grant me his pardon and
peace.' The porters of the Rhone, who had been long at variance, have
been many of them cordially reconciled: the invalids of the national
guard have also mutually vowed a perpetual friendship."

Whatever the interests and prejudices of M. Fransoy may be, it is
improbable that he would have risked his professional and private
reputation, by misrepresenting recent occurrences on the spot where they
took place; and certainly his narrative places the Mission in a new
point of view, both as to its conduct, its reception, and its effects.
It is, indeed, natural enough that such wits as do not affect either
much knowledge or much interest on religious subjects, should indulge
in desultory sarcasms (and the Hermite en Provence prudently does no
more) on such instances of spiritual Quixotism as may possibly have
occurred. The absurd[33] choice of hymn tunes, the petulant zeal of one
or two ecclesiastics, and the rueful countenances of some of the
penitents, though they prove nothing as to the main question, present a
ludicrous picture to the imagination, and have been made the most of by
the fictitious correspondent of the Hermite. It is also natural enough
that the violent Liberaux, who view with distrust every measure
countenanced by government, should treat the Mission as a mere engine of
policy; that the avaricious should consider the donatives received on
its behalf as squandered away; and that a large class of persons, who
are inveterately sceptical as to their neighbour's good motives, and
childishly credulous as to his bad ones, should pronounce it a mere
manoeuvre of bigotry. The little tract in question, however, addressed
to the experience of eye-witnesses of all that it describes, tells a
different story, though its effect may be weakened by the ludicrous
_naivete_ of its style. It describes the missionaries as addressing
themselves particularly to those who stood most in need of their
instructions, and who were most likely to treat them with derision; as
availing themselves of the favourable reception which they experienced
from the Avignonese, to preach the duties of forgiveness and
reconciliation, both private and political, and to dwell on the
practical and fundamental parts of Christianity.

[Footnote 33: See the letter introduced in Jouey's Hermite en Provence.]

Had they, indeed, in a public manner, denounced the vengean