He turned with vehemence and said, raising his voice—
"Ah! madame, but those were extraordinary lives. Those people were saints."
"No, my father, they were men and women like you and me. What God did for St. Augustine or St. Catherine of Siena, can He not do it for me if I am ready to fulfil the conditions which He lays down? What does religion do, what is it worth, if it cannot deliver us from sin?"
He did not answer. He was silently thinking.
She went on, "Is Christ a Saviour, yes or no?"
"Oh, yes, yes, yes, He is!"
"Has He saved you, my father?"
They stood still for a moment, and he turned his face away, with a look of poignant sadness. Then followed a confession—one of the deepest, most heartfelt cries she had ever listened to—ending with the words, "Alas, alas! all the days of my life I sin, and I expect to sin to my latest breath."
The Maréchale was profoundly moved, and felt that she stood upon holy ground. At last she spoke—
"Then Calvary is the greatest fiasco the world has ever seen."