is necessary for his salvation.  Like a devout martyr, he wishes to satisfy the implacable justice of men with blood.  But how much sweeter for you (and safer, at the same time) to see him raise some holy altar to the glory of God, and hide in the blessed peace of the cloister the baleful lustre of the name he has already abjured!  He is so much swayed by the spirit of his order, he has conceived such a love for self-denial, for humility and poverty, that it will need all my efforts and much help from on high to make him agree to this change of expiations.”

“It is you, then, prior, who from sheer goodness of heart are undertaking to alter this fatal resolution?  I admire your zeal, and I thank you for it; but I do not think there will be any need of all these negotiations.  M. Jean de Mauprat claims his share of the inheritance; nothing can be more just.  Even should the law refuse all civil rights to a man who owed his safety only to flight (a point which I will pass over), my relative may rest assured that there would never be the least dispute between us on this ground, if I were the absolute possessor of any fortune whatever.  But you are doubtless aware that I owe the enjoyment of this fortune only to the kindness of my great-uncle, the Chevalier Hubert de Mauprat; that he had enough to do to pay the debts of the family, which amounted to more than the total value of the estate; that I can alienate nothing without his permission, and that, in reality, I am merely the depositary of a fortune which I have not yet accepted.”

The prior stared at me in astonishment, as if dazed by an unexpected blow.  Then he smiled with a crafty expression, and said: 

“Very good!  It appears that I have been mistaken, and that I must apply to M. Hubert de Mauprat.  I will do so; for I make no doubt that he will be very grateful to me for saving his family from a scandal which may have very good results for one of his relatives in the next world, but which, for a certainty, will have very bad ones for another relation in the present world.”

“I understand, sir,” I replied.  “This is a threat.  I will answer in the same strain:  If M. Jean de Mauprat ventures to importune my uncle and cousin, it is with me that he will have to deal; and it will not be before the courts that I shall summon him to answer for certain outrages which I have by no means forgotten.  Tell him that I shall grant no pardon to the Trappist penitent unless he remains faithful to the role he has adopted.  If M. Jean de Mauprat is without resources, and he asks my help, I may, out of the income I receive, furnish him with the means of living humbly and decently, according to the spirit of the vows he has taken; but if ecclesiastical ambition has taken possession of his mind, and he thinks, by stupid, childish threats, to intimidate my uncle to such an extent that he will be able to extort from him the wherewithal to satisfy his new tastes, let him undeceive himself—­tell him so from me.  The old man’s peace of mind and his daughter’s future have only myself as guardian, and I shall manage to guard them, though it be at the risk of my life and my honour.”