"Receive, then," he recited, "the sign of the Cross of Jesus Christ and of Christianity, which you have hitherto borne and which the error which had deceived you caused you to lose most miserably."
Then he swung wide the ponderous gate, saying:
"Enter into the house of God, after having departed therefrom, bewildered unhappily by error. Know you that you have been snatched from the snares which are Death and Destruction."
Annys followed the Abbot to his private chamber. The Abbot knew well the type of man before him, the exalted, morbidly self-censorious type, which would fling itself on the cold, hard ground for an entire night for the harboring of an unholy thought. He listened with benignant countenance to the tale of the penitent man, and well he believed his word that this had been his first temptation to sin. He knew, too, that this was a case that required soothing rather than harassing. This was the kind of man whose reason becomes unseated from a real agony of contrition. He laid one fat hand upon the shoulder of the young poor priest who kneeled before him, abjectly.
"How do you know, my son, that it was a woman whom you encountered in the woods on your way here, and who tempted you so sorely?"
How did he know? How could he bring himself to say that every nerve in his body had trembled with ecstasy in her presence?
"Yea, it was a woman, Holy Father, the most beautiful woman on the earth."
The Abbot smiled; in the course of a long experience he had heard of a good many most beautiful women on the earth.
"I know well that it bore the semblance of a woman," he went on suavely, "but how know you that it was other than an evil spirit—one of Satan's minions sent to tempt you on your way to Holy Church?"
Was it possible? Was the whole thing but a horrible vision which had been sent to mock him? Horrible! Was it, then, wholly horrible? Great God! he was undone indeed. Here he kneeled at the foot of his confessor, and, instead of the countenance of his dear Lord, the tantalizing, brilliant beauty of a woman's face was before his eyes. He was utterly lost in sin.