BOOK II.
CHAPTER XVI.
A POLITICAL SERMON.
"In the crowded old Cathedral all the town were on their knees."
—D'ARCY MCGEE
"That's not preaching la morale. And it's actionable!" a vigorous man energetically gesticulated among the crowd in the Circuit Court Room.
The subject of excitement was a sermon by the Curé.
Messire L'Archeveque, of Dormillière, was in most respects an unimpeachable priest. He ministered to the sick faithfully, after the rites of the Church, he gave to the poor, he rendered unto Cæsar. But—but, he hated Liberalism. On this point he was rabid; and as his Reverence was a stout, apoplectic person, of delivery and opinions not accustomed to criticism, it sometimes laid him somewhat open to ridicule.
How the sermon was delivered, matters little to us. Suffice it that it was a bold denunciation of the Liberals, named by their party name, and that there were some strong expressions in it:
"My brothers—when the priest speaks, it is not he who speaks,—but God."