Then, amid that hush of awe-stricken expectation, Brother Michael spoke.
“Hear me, unhappy man, for thine own sake! Thou hast shed seas of innocent blood, and blighted the homes and harvests of the poor, and robbed holy churches, and profaned the sacred vessels of the altar; and now am I sent by Heaven to warn thee to repent of thy misdeeds ere it be too late; for lo! even now is God’s judgment hanging over thy head, ready to fall and crush thee!”
Croquart fairly gasped with amazement and rage. Never yet had the boldest and fiercest of the armed ruffians around dared even to contradict him; and here was a solitary man, aged, feeble, unarmed, bearding him in his own camp! What could this mean?
For one moment a thrill of vague terror shook the robber’s iron heart; and then, as usual with such base and brutal natures, he hastened to right himself in his own eyes for what he deemed a weakness by a fresh burst of blustering fury.
“Prate not to me, shaveling, but bethink thee how thou wilt face the doom that hangs over thy head! Know’st thou I have vowed to set up as a target for our arrows the next man who passed, and thou art he? How lik’st thou that?”
“I cannot believe,” said the old man, as calmly as ever, “that thou couldst do so base a deed as harm an aged man who stands unarmed before thee, and hath done thee no wrong. But if thou wilt do it, work thy will. I fear thee not. Thou canst but kill the body, and God will give me strength to die.”
Croquart stamped till the earth flew up in showers from beneath his armed heel. Like other such monsters, he loved cruelty for its own sake, and enjoyed as a luxury the agony of his victims at the prospect of torture and death; but when, as now, he had to do with a man who had no fear of death, and seemed rather eager to be tortured than otherwise, the sport lost all its savour.
All at once a new thought struck him, and, turning hastily to the old monk, he said—
“From what place didst thou come hither to us?”
“From Carcassonne,” said the monk. “I heard thou wert here, and came to visit thee.”