“Minister of the devil, sir,” thundered the baronet; “do you think that I shall be influenced by this slavish cant?  Where is the note I speak of?  If you do not produce it, I shall consider you an accomplice after the fact, and will hold you responsible as such.  Remember, you are but a Popish priest.”

“That is a fact, sir, which I shall always recollect with an humble sense of my own unworthiness; but so long as I discharge its duties conscientiously and truly, I shall also recollect it with honor.  Of the note you allude to in such unbecoming words, I know nothing; and as to your threats, I value them not.”

“If you know nothing of the note, sir, you do certainly of the robber.”

“I do, Sir Thomas; I know who the man is that robbed you.”

“Well, sir,” replied the other, triumphantly, “I am glad you have acknowledged so much.  I shall force you to produce him.  At least I shall take care that the law will make you do so.”

“Sir Thomas Gourlay, I beg you to understand that there is a law beyond and above your law—­the law of God—­the law of Christian duty; and that you shall never force me to transgress.  The man who robbed you in a moment of despair and madness, repented him of the crime; and the knowledge of that crime, and its consequent repentance were disclosed to me in one of the most holy ordinances of our religion.”

“Is it one of the privileges of your religion to throw its veil over the commission of crime?  If so, the sooner your religion is extirpated out of the land the better for society.”

“No, sir, our religion does not throw its veil over the criminal, but over the penitent.  We leave the laws of the land to their own resources, and aid them when we can; but in the case before us, and in all similar cases, we are the administrators of the laws of God to those who are truly penitent, and to none others.  The test of repentance consists in reformation of life, and in making restitution to those who have been injured.  The knowledge of this comes to us in administering the sacred ordinance of penance in the tribunal of confession; and sooner than violate this solemn compact between the mercy of God and a penitent heart, we would willingly lay down our lives.  It is the most sacred of all trusts.”

“Such an ordinance, sir, is a bounty and provocative to crime.”

“It is a bounty and provocative to repentance, sir; and society has gained much and lost nothing by its operation.  Remember, sir, that those who do not repent, never come to us to avow their crimes, in which case we are ignorant both of the crime and criminal.  Here there is neither repentance, on the one hand, nor restitution, on the other, and society, of course, loses everything and gains nothing.  In the other case, the person sustaining the injury gains that which he had lost, and society a penitent and reformed member.  If, then, this sacred refuge for the penitent—­not for the criminal, remember—­had no existence, those restitutions of property which take place in thousands of cases, could never be made.”