After these words, spoken with feverish energy, there was a gloomy silence which lasted some time.
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," a voice said, which made the hearers start.
All turned round; Father Seraphin, with his crucifix in his hand, and head erect, seemed to command them all by the grandeur of his evangelic mission.
"By what right do you make yourselves the instruments of divine justice?" he continued. "If this man was guilty, who tells that repentance has not come at this hour to wash the stains from his soul?"
"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," Bloodson muttered in a hoarse voice.
These words broke the charm that enchained the audience.
"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," they exclaimed wrathfully.
Father Seraphin saw he was conquered: he understood that all reasoning would fail with these blood-thirsty men, to whom the life of their fellow men is nothing, and who rank vengeance as a virtue.
"Farewell," he said in mournful voice; "farewell, poor misguided men. I dare not curse you, I can only pity you; but I warn you that I will do all in my power to save the victim you wish to immolate to your odious passions."
And he went out of the lodge.