“Do you still persist in your refusal to confess, my son?” said the priest.
“I do persist,” said Bruno, quietly.
“Then I shall no longer delay the mass for the dead,” said the priest, “which I will repeat without pressing you any further; and I trust that, while you listen, the Heavenly Spirit will visit you and inspire you with better thoughts.”
“It may be so, father,” said Bruno; “but I have no reason to believe it will.”
The gens-d’armes entered, unbound Bruno, and led him to the church of St. François de Sales, facing the prison, and at that moment brilliantly illuminated, for, according to custom, he was there to hear the mass for the dead and pass the night in prayer, the execution being fixed for eight o’clock the following morning.
An iron ring was fixed in a pillar in the choir, and Pascal was secured to this ring by means of a chain that went round his body, but which was sufficiently long to enable him to reach the balustrades where the communicants knelt.
The instant mass commenced, the officers of the lunatic asylum brought in a coffin, which they placed in the centre of the church: it contained the remains of an insane person who had died during the day, and the director thought the deceased might as well receive the benefit of the mass that was about to be celebrated for the condemned criminal who was to die.
Besides, there was an economy in this arrangement, both of time and labour for the priest; and as it accommodated all parties, no objection was made.
The sacristan lighted two tapers, one for the head and the other for the foot of the coffin, and the mass began.
Pascal listened attentively during the whole service, and when it was over, the priest went up to him and asked him if he was in a better frame of mind; but the condemned man answered that, notwithstanding the mass to which he had listened,—notwithstanding the prayers with which he had accompanied it, his feelings of hatred and desire for vengeance were still the same.