"Well, you know he made Balaam's ass speak out," said the young abbe quickly.
"But according to some commentators she did not know what she was saying," replied the bishop, laughing.
The two grand vicars smiled. In the first place, the joke came from Monseigneur; next, it bore gently on the young abbe, of whom the dignitaries and other ambitious priests grouped around the bishop were somewhat jealous.
"My advice would be," resumed the young man, "to ask Monsieur de Grandville to reprieve the man for the present. When Tascheron knows that he owes an extension of his life to our intercession, he may pretend to listen to us, and if he listens--"
"He will persist in his present conduct, finding that it has won him that advantage," said the bishop, interrupting his favorite.
"Messieurs," he said, after a moment's silence, "does the whole town know of these details?"
"There is not a household in which they are not talked over," said the Abbe de Grancour. "The state in which our good Abbe Pascal was put by his last efforts is the present topic of conversation throughout the town."
"When is Tascheron to be executed?" asked the bishop.
"To-morrow, which is market-day"; replied Monsieur de Grancour.
"Messieurs," exclaimed the bishop, "religion must not be overset in this way. The more public attention is attracted to the matter, the more I am determined to obtain a notable triumph. The Church is now in presence of a great difficulty. We are called upon to do miracles in this manufacturing town, where the spirit of sedition against religious and monarchical principles has such deep root, where the system of inquiry born of protestantism (which in these days calls itself liberalism, prepared at any moment to take another name) extends into everything. Go at once to Monsieur de Grandville; he is wholly on our side, and say to him from me that we beg for a few days' reprieve. I will go myself and see that unhappy man."
"You, Monseigneur!" said the Abbe de Rastignac. "If you should fail, wouldn't that complicate matters? You ought not to go unless you are certain of success."
"If Monseigneur will permit me to express my opinion," said the Abbe Dutheil, "I think I can suggest a means which may bring victory to religion in this sad case."
The prelate answered with a sign of assent, so coldly given as to show how little credit he gave to his vicar-general.
"If any one can influence that rebellious soul and bring it back to God," continued the Abbe Dutheil, "it is the rector of the village in which he was born, Monsieur Bonnet."
"One of your proteges," remarked the bishop.
"Monseigneur, Monsieur Bonnet is one of those men who protect themselves, both by their active virtues and their gospel work."
This ****** and modest reply was received in a silence which would have embarrassed any other man than the Abbe Dutheil. The three priests chose to see in it one of those hidden and unanswerable sarcasms which are characteristic of ecclesiastics, who contrive to express what they want to say while observing the strictest decorum.