“I lived with them several years, devoting myself to study, and I used to say my mass in a church close by.  For I was a priest by nature and heart, and I had grown so used to my sin of sacrilege, that I shut my eyes, and told myself that it was the wish of Heaven.  But the truth is, I was a coward.  It was then that you first knew me and you know how my father died and my stepmother married again, and how I undertook to be the tutor of poor Bosio Macomer.  But with years, the city grew distasteful to me, and I wished to be alone, for Bosio was grown up, and I had no heart for teaching any one else.  I was also very poor, having spent what my father left me, both on books, and in other ways of which I need not speak because there was nothing wrong in what I did with the money.

“And then, Count Macomer—­the one who is now insane—­offered to make me curate of Muro and chaplain of the castle of the Serra, all of which you know.  And I, accustomed to my wickedness, and feeling myself a priest, though I was not one, accepted it for the peace of it.

“It is a very terrible thing.  For all the sacraments I have administered in these many years have been of no value; but the worst, for its consequences, is that none of the many hundreds I have married, are truly married, and that if the truth were known to them, the confusion would be beyond my power to imagine.  But Christians they are, for a layman may baptize, even though he be not in a state of grace.

“And for the other sacraments, the sin is all mine, as you see, and God will be good to them all, according to the intention and belief they had.  And now a worse thing has happened, though it was not my fault, excepting that the original fault is all mine.  For Don Gianluca della Spina was lying at the point of death, and there were with him the princess and Don Sigismondo Taquisara, the Baron of Guardia, his friend.  The princess desired to be married to Don Gianluca, before he died, and sent for me in great haste and commanded me to marry them.  As I raised my eyes to speak, for it was impossible to resist her will, the Taquisara thought that Don Gianluca was dead and took the princess’s hand from the dead man’s, as he thought, and as I suppose—­and I gave them the benediction.  But when I looked down, it was the Baron of Guardia who appeared to have been married to the princess, for their right hands were clasped; and I cannot tell whether, if I were a true priest, they would have been married or not.

“But the princess and Don Gianluca believe that I made them husband and wife, though the Taquisara knows that something was wrong, since he held her hand.  For Don Gianluca has recovered, and they are now about to have a civil marriage and announce it to their friends.