This was the domestic position, these were the family prospects, on the morning of the twenty-sixth of April—a memorable day, for years afterwards, in the village of Croix-Daurade.
II. The Events of the Day.
Besides the curacy of the village church, good Monsieur Chaubard held some small ecclesiastical preferment in the cathedral church of St. Stephen at Toulouse. Early in the forenoon of the twenty-sixth, certain matters connected with this preferment took him from his village curacy to the city—a distance which has been already described as not greater than one French league, or between two and three English miles.
After transacting his business, Monsieur Chaubard parted with his clerical brethren, who left him by himself in the sacristy (or vestry) of the church. Before he had quitted the room, in his turn, the beadle entered it, and inquired for the Abbé de Mariotte, one of the officiating priests attached to the cathedral.
"The Abbé has just gone out," replied Monsieur Chaubard. "Who wants him?"
"A respectable-looking man," said the beadle. "I thought he seemed to be in some distress of mind, when he spoke to me."
"Did he mention his business with the Abbé?"
"Yes, sir; he expressed himself as anxious to make his confession immediately."
"In that case," said Monsieur Chaubard, "I may be of use to him in the Abbé's absence—for I have authority to act here as confessor. Let us go into the church, and see if this person feels disposed to accept my services."
When they went into the church, they found the man walking backwards and forwards in a restless, disordered manner. His looks were so strikingly suggestive of some serious mental perturbation, that Monsieur Chaubard found it no easy matter to preserve his composure, when he first addressed himself to the stranger.