Those who stood around Kelly now fell back to a safe distance, and all was silence, terror, and trepidation once more.
“Come, Kelly, go on—the eighth?”
Kelly was still silent.
“Why, you ninny you, didn't you repeat it just now. 'Eighth—And to his church neglect not tithes to pay.' Now that I have put the words in your mouth, what does it mean?”
Kelly having thus got the cue, replied, in the words of the Catechism, “To pay tides to the lawful pasterns of the church, sir.”
“Pasterns!—oh, you ass you! Pasterns! you poor; base, contemptible, crawling reptile, as if we trampled you under our hooves—oh, you scruff of the earth! Stop, I say—it's pastors.”
“Pastures of the church.”
“And, tell me, do you fulfil that commandment?”
“I do, sir.”
“It's a lie, sir,” replied the priest, brandishing the whip over his head, whilst Kelly instinctively threw up his guard to protect himself from the blow. “It's a lie, sir,” repeated his Eeverence; “you don't fulfil it. What is the church?”