Henri, trusting that the moral part of the discourse was over, and anticipating nothing in the second part but a narrative more or less interesting, closed the old casement, festooned with cobwebs, and resumed his seat without speaking.

“Now that I reflect further,” continued the Abbe, “I think it will not perhaps be unprofitable for you to have passed through this place, although it be a sad experience you shall have acquired; but it will supply what I may not have formerly told you of the wickedness of men.  I hope, moreover, that the result will not be fatal, and that the letter we have written to the King will arrive in time.”

“I heard that it had been intercepted,” interposed Cinq-Mars.

“Then all is over,” said the Abbe Quillet; “the Cure is lost.  But listen.  God forbid, my son, that I, your old tutor, should seek to assail my own work, and attempt to weaken your faith!  Preserve ever and everywhere that simple creed of which your noble family has given you the example, which our fathers possessed in a still higher degree than we, and of which the greatest captains of our time are not ashamed.  Always, while you wear a sword, remember that you hold it for the service of God.  But at the same time, when you are among men, avoid being deceived by the hypocrite.  He will encompass you, my son; he will assail you on the vulnerable side of your ingenuous heart, in addressing your religion; and seeing the extravagance of his affected zeal, you will fancy yourself lukewarm as compared with him.  You will think that your conscience cries out against you; but it will not be the voice of conscience that you hear.  And what cries would not that conscience send forth, how fiercely would it not rise upon you, did you contribute to the destruction of innocence by invoking Heaven itself as a false witness against it?”

“Oh, my father! can such things be possible?” exclaimed Henri d’Effiat, clasping his hands.

“It is but too true,” continued the Abbe; “you saw a partial execution of it this morning.  God grant you may not witness still greater horrors!  But listen! whatever you may see, whatever crime they dare to commit, I conjure you, in the name of your mother and of all that you hold dear, say not a word; make not a gesture that may indicate any opinion whatever.  I know the impetuous character that you derive from the Marechal, your father; curb it, or you are lost.  These little ebullitions of passion give but slight satisfaction, and bring about great misfortunes.  I have observed you give way to them too much.  Oh, did you but know the advantage that a calm temper gives one over men!  The ancients stamped it on the forehead of the divinity as his finest attribute, since it shows that he is superior to our fears and to our hopes, to our pleasures and to our pains.  Therefore, my dear child, remain passive in the scenes you are about to witness; but see them you must.  Be present at this sad trial; for me, I must suffer the consequences of my schoolboy folly.  I will relate it to you; it will prove to you that with a bald head one may be as much a child as with your fine chestnut curls.”