“No,” replied Bob; “I will not.”
“How is that?” said the priest.
“Explain yourself,” said Mr. Lucre.
“I'll die a Christian,” replied Bob. “You're both anything but what you ought to be; and if I wasn't on my death-bed you'd hear more of it. Here is a Christian clergyman, and under his ministry I will die.”
“Ah,” said Mr. Lucre, “I perceive, Mrs. Beatty, that the poor man's intellect is gone; whilst his reason was sound he remained a staunch Protestant, and as such, we shall claim him. He must be interred according to the rights of our church, for he dies clearly non compos mentis.”
Father Roche now addressed himself to Beatty, and prepared him for his great change, as became a pious and faithful minister of the gospel. Beatty, however, was never capable of serious impressions. Still, his feelings were as solemn as could be expected, from a man whose natural temperament had always inclined him to facetiousness and humor. He died the next day, after a severe fit, from which he recovered only to linger about half an hour in a state of stupor and insensibility.
This conflict between the priest and the parson was a kind of prelude in its way, to the great Palaver, or discussion, which was immediately to take place between the redoubtable champions of the rival churches.
CHAPTER XXVIII.—Darby is a Spiritual Ganymede
—Preparations for the Great Discussion, which we do not give—Extraordinary Hope of a Modern Miracle—Solomon like an Angel looking into the Gospel.