"
All present made the sign of the cross.
"My dear friends," continued the abbe, "let us pray in the first place
for the souls of the dead,--Jean Cochegrue, Nicalos Laferte, Joseph
Brouet, Francois Parquoi, Sulpice Coupiau, all of this parish, and
dead of wounds received in the fight on Mont Pelerine and at the siege
of Fougeres. /De profundis/," etc.
The psalm was recited, according to custom, by the congregation and
the priests, taking verses alternately with a fervor which augured
well for the success of the sermon. When it was over the abbe
continued, in a voice which became gradually louder and louder, for
the former Jesuit was not unaware that vehemence of delivery was in
itself a powerful argument with which to persuade his semi-savage
hearers.
"These defenders of our God, Christians, have set you an example of
duty," he said. "Are you not ashamed of what will be said of you in
paradise? If it were not for these blessed ones, who have just been
received with open arms by all the saints, our Lord might have thought
that your parish is inhabited by Mahometans!--Do you know, men, what
is said of you in Brittany and in the king's presence? What! you don't
know? Then I shall tell you. They say: 'Behold, the Blues have cast
down altars, and killed priests, and murdered the king and queen; they
mean to make the parish folk of Brittany Blues like themselves, and
send them to fight in foreign lands, away from their churches, where
they run the risk of dying without confession and going eternally to
hell; and yet the gars of Marignay, whose churches they have burned,
stand still with folded arms! Oh! oh! this Republic of damned souls
has sold the property of God and that of the nobles at auction; it has
shared the proceeds with the Blues; it has decreed, in order to gorge
itself with money as it does with blood, that a crown shall be only
worth three francs instead of six; and yet the gars of Marignay
haven't seized their weapons and driven the Blues from Brittany! Ha!
paradise will be closed to them! they can never save their souls!'
That's what they say of you in the king's presence! It is your own
salvation, Christians, which is at stake.
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