the morning.'
'Truly!' cried Gabriel, with uneasiness. 'I had not remarked your arm in a sling. What is the wound?'
At a sign from Agricola, Dagobert answered: 'Nothing; the consequence of a fall. But here I am, to unveil many infamies.'
It is impossible to paint the curiosity, anguish, surprise, or fear, of the different actors in this scene, as they listened to Dagobert's threatening words. But the most overcome was Gabriel. His angelic countenance was distorted, his knees trembled under him. Struck by the communication of Dagobert which revealed the existence of other heirs, he was unable to speak for some time; at length, he cried out, in a tone of despair: 'And it is I—oh, God! I—who am the cause of the spoliation of this family!'
'You, brother?' exclaimed Agricola.
'Did they not wish to rob you also?' added Dagobert.
'The will,' cried Gabriel, with increasing agony, 'gave the property to those of the heirs that should appear before noon.'
'Well?' said Dagobert, alarmed at the emotion of the young priest.
'Twelve o'clock has struck,' resumed the latter. 'Of all the family, I alone was present. Do you understand it now? The term is expired. The heirs have been thrust aside by me!'
'By you!' said Dagobert, stammering with joy. 'By you, my brave boy! then all is well.'
'But—'
'All is well,' resumed Dagobert, radiant with delight. 'You will share with the others—I know you.'
'But all this property I have irrevocably, made over to another,' cried Gabriel, in despair.
'Made over the property!' cried Dagobert, quite petrified. 'To whom, then?—to whom?'
'To this gentleman,' said Gabriel, pointing to Father d'Aigrigny.
'To him!' exclaimed Dagobert, overwhelmed by the news; 'to him—the renegade—who has always been the evil genius of this family!'
'But, brother,' cried Agricola, 'did you then know your claim to this inheritance?'
'No,' answered the young priest, with deep dejection; 'no—I only learned it this morning, from Father d'Aigrigny. He told me, that he had only recently been informed of my rights, by family papers long ago found upon me, and sent by our mother to her confessor.'
A sudden light seemed to dawn upon the mind of the smith, as he exclaimed: 'I understand it all now. They discovered in these papers, that you would one day have a chance of becoming rich. Therefore, they interested themselves about you—therefore, they took you into their college, where we could never see you—therefore, they deceived you in your vocation by shameful falsehoods, to force you to become a priest, and to lead you to make this deed of gift. Oh, sir!' resumed Agricola, turning towards Father d'Aigrigny, with indignation, 'my father is right— such machinations are indeed infamous!'
During this scene, the reverend father and his socius, at first alarmed and shaken in their audacity, had by degrees recovered all their coolness. Rodin, still leaning upon the casket, had said a few words in a low voice to Father d'Aigrigny. So that when Agricola, carried away by his indignation, reproached the latter with his infamous machinations, he bowed his head humbly, and answered: 'We are bound to forgive injuries, and offer them to the Lord as a mark of our humility.'
Dagobert, confounded at all he had just heard, felt his reason begin to wander. After so much anxiety, his strength failed beneath this new and terrible blow. Agricola's just and sensible words, in connection with certain passages of the testament, at once enlightened Gabriel as to the views of Father d'Aigrigny, in taking charge of his education, and leading him to join the Society of Jesus. For the first time in his life, Gabriel was able to take in at a glance all the secret springs of the dark intrigue, of which he had been the victim. Then, indignation and despair surmounting his natural timidity, the missionary, with flashing eye, and cheeks inflamed with noble wrath, exclaimed, as he addressed Father d'Aigrigny: 'So, father, when you placed me in one of your colleges, it was not from any feeling of kindness or commiseration, but only in the hope of bringing me one day to renounce in favor of your Order my share in this inheritance; and it did not even suffice you to sacrifice me to your cupidity, but I must also be rendered the involuntary instrument of a shameful spoliation! If only I were concerned—if you only coveted my claim to all this wealth, I should not complain. I am the minister of a religion which honors and sanctifies poverty; I have consented to the donation in your favor, and I have not, I could never have any claim upon it. But property is concerned which belong to poor orphans, brought from a distant exile by my adopted father, and I will not see them wronged. But the benefactress of my adopted brother is concerned, and I will not see her wronged. But the last will of a dying man is concerned, who, in his ardent love of humanity, bequeathed to his descendants an evangelic mission—an admirable mission of progress, love, union, liberty—and I will not see this mission blighted in its bud. No, no; I tell you, that this his mission shall be accomplished, though I have to cancel the donation I have made.'
On these words, Father d'Aigrigny and Rodin looked at each other with a slight shrug of the shoulders. At a sign from the socius, the reverend father began to speak with immovable calmness, in a slow and sanctified voice, keeping eyes constantly cast down: 'There are many incidents connected with this inheritance of M. de Rennepont, which appear very complicated—many phantoms, which seem un usually menacing—and yet, nothing could be really more simple and natural. Let us proceed in regular order. Let us put aside all these calumnious imputations; we will return to them afterwards. M. Gabriel de Rennepont—and I humbly beg him to contradict me, if I depart in the least instance from the exact truth—M. Gabriel de Rennepont, in acknowledgment of the care formerly bestowed on him by the society to which I have the honor to belong, made over to me, as its representative, freely and voluntarily, all the property that might come to him one day, the value of which was unknown to him, as well as to myself.'
Father d'Aigrigny here looked at Gabriel, as if appealing to him for the truth of this statement.
'It is true,' said the young priest: 'I made this donation freely.'
'This morning, in consequence of a private conversation, which I will not repeat—and in this, I am certain beforehand, of the Abbe Gabriel—'
'True,' replied Gabriel, generously; 'the subject of this conversation is of little importance.'
'It was then, in consequence of this conversation that the Abbe Gabriel manifested the desire to confirm this donation—not in my favor, for I have little to do with earthly wealth—but in favor of the sacred and charitable works of which our Company is the trustee. I appeal to the honor of M. Gabriel to declare if he have not engaged himself towards us, not only by a solemn oath, but by a perfectly legal act, executed in presence of M. Dumesnil, here present?'
'It is all true,' answered Gabriel.
'The deed was prepared by me,' added the notary.
'But Gabriel could only give you what belonged to him,' cried Dagobert. 'The dear boy never supposed that you were making use of him to rob other people.'
'Do me the favor, sir, to allow me to explain myself,' replied Father d'Aigrigny, courteously; 'you can afterwards make answer.'
Dagobert repressed with difficulty his painful impatience. The reverend father continued: 'The Abbe Gabriel has therefore, by the double engagement of an oath and a legal act, confirmed his donation. Much more,' resumed Father d'Aigrigny: 'when to his great astonishment and to ours, the enormous amount of the inheritance became known, the Abbe Gabriel, faithful to his own admirable generosity, far from repenting of his gifts, consecrated them once more by a pious movement of gratitude to Providence—for M. Notary will doubtless remember, that, after embracing the Abbe Gabriel with transport, and telling him that he was a second Vincent de Paul in charity, I took him by the hand, and we both knelt down together to thank heaven for having inspired him with the thought too offer these immense riches to the Greater Glory of the Lord.'
'That is true, also,' said Gabriel, honestly; 'so long as myself was concerned, though I might be astounded for a moment by the revelation of so enormous a fortune, I did not think for an instant of cancelling the donation I had freely made.'
'Under these circumstances,' resumed Father d'Aigrigny, 'the hour fixed for the settlement of the inheritance having struck, and Abbe Gabriel being the only heir that presented himself, he became necessarily the only legitimate possessor of this immense wealth—enormous, no doubt—and charity makes me rejoice that it is enormous, for, thanks to it, many miseries will be relieved and many tears wiped away. But, all on a sudden, here comes this gentleman,' said Father d'Aigrigny, pointing to Dagobert; 'and, under some delusion, which I forgive from the bottom of my soul, and which I am sure he will himself regret, accuses me, with insults and threats, with
