imself, has the right to interfere, and still less
to punish. And yet a general, a miserable little general----"

"Father! His Excellency is the vice-regal representative of His
Majesty the King!" exclaimed the officer, rising to his feet.

"What do I care for His Excellency, or for any of your vice-regal
representatives!" answered the Franciscan, rising in his turn. "In
any other time than the present, he would have been thrown down
stairs in the same way as the religious corporations treated the
sacrilegious governor Bustamente in his time. Those were the days
when there was faith!"

"I'll tell you right here that I don't allow any--His Excellency
represents His Majesty the King!"

"I don't care whether he is king or rogue. For us there is no king
other than the true----"

"Stop this immediately!" shouted the lieutenant in a threatening
manner, and as though he were commanding his own soldiers. "Take back
what you have said, or to-morrow I shall inform His Excellency."

"Go and tell him at once! Go tell him!" answered Father Damaso,
sarcastically, at the same time approaching the lieutenant with his
fists doubled. "Don't you think for a moment that, because I wear
the dress of a monk, I'm not a man. Hurry! Go tell him! I'll lend
you my carriage."

The discussion began to grow ridiculous as the speakers became more
heated, but, at this point, fortunately, the Dominican interfered.

"Gentlemen!" he said in a tone of authority, and with that nasal
twang which is so characteristic of the friars, "there is no reason
why you should thus confuse matters or take offense where it is not
intended. We should distinguish between what Father Damaso says as
a man, and what he says as a priest. Whatever he may say as a priest
cannot be offensive, for the words of a priest are understood to be
absolutely true."

"But I understand what his motives are, Father Sibyla!" interrupted
the lieutenant, who saw that he would be drawn into a net of such
fine distinction that, if he allowed it to go on, Father Damaso
would get off scot free. "I know very well what his motives are,
and Your Reverence will also perceive them. During the absence of
Father Damaso from San Diego, his assistant buried the body of a very
worthy person. Yes, sir, an extremely worthy person! I had known
the man from time to time and had often been his guest. What if he
never had been to confession? I do not confess, either. To say that
he committed suicide i