Jehan did not reply.
“Yes,” pursued the priest shaking his head, “that is the state of learning and letters at the present day. The Latin tongue is hardly understood, Syriac is unknown, Greek so odious that ’tis accounted no ignorance in the most learned to skip a Greek word without reading it, and to say, ‘Græcum est non legitur.’”
The scholar raised his eyes boldly. “Monsieur my brother, doth it please you that I shall explain in good French vernacular that Greek word which is written yonder on the wall?”
“What word?”
“ἈΝÁΓΚΗ.”
A slight flush spread over the cheeks of the priest with their high bones, like the puff of smoke which announces on the outside the secret commotions of a volcano. The student hardly noticed it.
“Well, Jehan,” stammered the elder brother with an effort, “What is the meaning of yonder word?”
“FATE.”
Dom Claude turned pale again, and the scholar pursued carelessly.
“And that word below it, graved by the same hand, Ἀνάγνεία, signifies ‘impurity.’ You see that people do know their Greek.”