“Yes, and the Biblical texts abound, conclusive, explicit, irrefutable,” said Carhaix.  “All the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachariah, Malachi, speak of it.’  The Acts of the Apostles is very precise on this point.  In the first chapter you will read these lines, ’This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.’  Saint John also announces the tidings in the Apocalypse, which is the gospel of the second coming of Christ, ‘Christ shall come and reign a thousand years.’  Saint Paul is inexhaustible in revelations of this nature.  In the epistle to Timothy he invokes the Lord ’who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearance and his kingdom.’  In the second epistle to the Thessalonians he writes, ’And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.’  Now, he declares that the Antichrist is not yet, so the coming which he prophesies is not that already realized by the birth of the Saviour at Bethlehem.  In the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus responds to Caiaphas, who asks Him if He is the Christ, Son of God, ’Thou hast said, and nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.’  And in another verse He says to His apostles, ’Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.’

“And there are other texts I could put my finger on.  No, there is no use in talking, the partisans of the glorious kingdom are supported with certitude by inspired passages, and can, under certain conditions and without fear of heresy, uphold this doctrine, which, Saint Jerome attests, was in the fourth century a dogma of faith recognized by all.  But what say we taste a bit of this creme de celeri which Monsieur Durtal praises so highly?”

It was a thick liqueur, sirupy like anisette, but even sweeter and more feminine, only, when one had swallowed this inert semi-liquid, there lingered in the roots of the papillae a faint taste of celery.

“It isn’t bad,” said the astrologer, “but there’s no life to it,” and he poured into his glass a stiff tot of rum.

“Come to think of it,” said Durtal, “the third kingdom is also announced in the words of the Paternoster, ‘Thy kingdom come.’”

“Certainly,” said the bell-ringer.

“But you see,” interjected Gevingey, “heresy would gain the upper hand and the whole belief would be turned into nonsense and absurdity if we admitted, as certain Paracletists do, an authentic fleshly incarnation.  For instance, remember Fareinism, which has been rife, since the eighteenth century, in Fareins, a village of the Doubs, where Jansenism took refuge when driven out of Paris after the closing of the cemetery of Saint Medard.  There a priest, Francois Bonjour, reproduced the ‘convulsionist’ orgies