"And Dauphine, who greatly overcharged for water from her wells.
"And le Tortillard, who, when he met me carrying the Good Lord, rushed away, with his biretta perched on his head and his pipe stuck in his mouth … as proud as Lucifer … as though he had come across a mangy dog.
"And Coulau with his Zette, and Jacques, and Pierre, and Toni…."
* * * * *
Much moved and ashen with fear, the congregation whimpered, while imagining their fathers, and their mothers and their grandmothers and their sisters, when hell's gates were opened….
—Your feelings don't deceive you, brothers, the good abbot continued, you sense that this can't go on. I am responsible for your souls, and I do want to save you from the abyss towards which you are rushing helter-skelter and head first.
"Tomorrow, at the latest, my task begins. And the work will not be in vain! This is how I am going to go about it. For it to come out well, everything must be done in an orderly way. We will proceed step by step, like at Jonquières when there's a dance.
"Tomorrow, Monday. I will give confession to the old men and women.
Nothing much there.
"Tuesday. The children. I'll soon have done.
"Wednesday. The young men and women. That might take a long time.