The next Sabbath day, I held a public service in my chapel, which was crowded, without making any allusion to that deplorable affair. On the Monday following, four citizens of Bourbonnais were deputed to tell me what they had done, and asked me not to desert them in that hour of trial, but to remember that I was their countryman, and that they had nobody else to whom they could look to help to fulfill their religious duties. Here is the substance of their message:
“As soon as we saw that you had left our village, without telling us what to do, we called a public meeting, where we passed the following resolutions”:
1st. No personal insult shall be given to Mr. Courjeault.
2nd. We cannot consent to keep him a single hour as our pastor.
3rd. When, next Sabbath, he will begin his sermon, we will instantly leave the church, and go to the door, that he may remain absolutely alone, and understand our stern determination not to have him any more for our spiritual teacher.
4th. We will send these resolutions to the bishop, and ask him to allow Mr. Chiniquy to divide his time and attention between his new colony and us, till we have a pastor able to instruct and edify us.
Strange to say, poor Mr. Courjeault, shut up in his parsonage during that night, knew nothing of that meeting. He had not found a single friend to warn him of what was to happen the next Sunday. That Sunday, the weather was magnificent, and there never had been such a multitude of people at the church.
The miserable priest, thinking by that unusual crowd, that everything was to be right with him, that day, began his mass and went to the pulpit to deliver his sermon. But he had hardly pronounced the first words, when, at a signal given by some one, the whole people, without a single exception, ran out of the church, as if it had been on fire, and he remained alone.
Of course, this fell upon him as a thunderbolt, and he came very near fainting. However, recovering himself, he went to the door, and having with his tears and sobs, as with his words, persuaded the people to listen to what he had to tell them, he said:
“I see that the hand of God is upon me, and I deserve it. I have sinned, and made a mistake by coming back. You do not want me any more to be your pastor. I can not complain of that; this is your right, you will be satisfied. I will leave the place forever, to-night. I only ask you to forgive my past errors and pray for me.”