第269章

THE RUPTURE.

Plunged into a state of mortal anxiety, Father d'Aigrigny had taken mechanically the note written by Rodin, and held it in his hand without thinking of opening it.The reverend father asked himself in alarm, what conclusion Gabriel would draw from these recriminations upon the past;

and he durst not make any answer to his reproaches, for fear of irritating the young priest, upon whose head such immense interests now reposed.Gabriel could possess nothing for himself, according to the constitutions of the Society of Jesus.Moreover, the reverend father had obtained from him, in favor of the Order, an express renunciation of all property that might ever come to him.But the commencement of his conversation seemed to announce so serious a change in Gabriel's views with regard to the Company, that he might choose to break through the ties which attached him to it; and in that case, he would not be legally bound to fulfil any of his engagements.[16] The donation would thus be cancelled de facto, just at the moment of being so marvellously realized by the possession of the immense fortune of the Rennepont family, and d'Aigrigny's hopes would thus be completely and for ever frustrated.Of all these perplexities which the reverend father had experienced for some time past, with regard to this inheritance, none had been more unexpected and terrible than this.Fearing to interrupt or question Gabriel, Father d'Aigrigny waited, in mute terror, the end of this interview, which already bore so threatening an aspect.

The missionary resumed: "It is my duty, father, to continue this sketch of my past life, until the moment of my departure for America.You will understand, presently, why I have imposed on myself this obligation."

Father d'Aigrigny nodded for him to proceed.

"Once informed of the pretended wishes of my adopted mother, I resigned myself to them, though at some cost of feeling.I left the gloomy abode, in which I had passed my childhood and part of my youth, to enter one of the seminaries of the Company.My resolution was not caused by an irresistible religious vocation, but by a wish to discharge the sacred debt I owed my adopted mother.Yet the true spirit of the religion of Christ is so vivifying, that I felt myself animated and warmed by the idea of carrying out the adorable precepts of our Blessed Saviour.To my imagination, a seminary, instead of resembling the college where I had lived in painful restraint, appeared like a holy place, where all that was pure and warm in the fraternity of the Gospel would be applied to common life--where, for example, the lessons most frequently taught would be the ardent love of humanity, and the ineffable sweets of commiseration and tolerance--where the everlasting words of Christ would be interpreted in their broadest sense--and where, in fine, by the habitual exercise and expansion of the most generous sentiments, men were prepared for the magnificent apostolic mission of making the rich and happy sympathize with the sufferings of their brethren, by unveiling the frightful miseries of humanity--a sublime and sacred morality, which none are able to withstand, when it is preached with eyes full of tears, and hearts overflowing with tenderness and charity!"

As he delivered these last words with profound emotion, Gabriel's eyes became moist, and his countenance shone with angelic beauty.

"Such is, indeed, my dear son, the spirit of Christianity; but one must also study and explain the letter," answered Father d'Aigrigny, coldly.

"It is to this study that the seminaries of our Company are specially destined.Now the interpretation of the letter is a work of analysis, discipline, and submission--and not one of heart and sentiment."

"I perceive that only too well, father.On entering this new house, I found, alas! all my hopes defeated.Dilating for a moment, my heart soon sunk within me.Instead of this centre of life, affection, youth, of which I had dreamed.I found, in the silent and ice-cold seminary, the same suppression of every generous emotion, the same inexorable discipline, the same system of mutual prying, the same suspicion, the same invincible obstacles to all ties of friendship.The ardor which had warmed my soul for an instant soon died out; little by little, I fell back into the habits of a stagnant, passive, mechanical life, governed by a pitiless power with mechanical precision, just like the inanimate works of a watch."

"But order, submission and regularity are the first foundations of our Company, my dear son."

"Alas, father! it was death, not life, that I found thus organized.In the midst of this destruction of every generous principle, I devoted myself to scholastic and theological studies--gloomy studies--a wily, menacing, and hostile science which, always awake to ideas of peril, contest, and war, is opposed to all those of peace, progress, and liberty."

"Theology, my dear son," said Father d'Aigrigny, sternly, "is at once a buckler and a sword; a buckler, to protect and cover the Catholic faith--

a sword, to attack and combat heresy."

"And yet, father, Christ and His apostles knew not this subtle science:

their simple and touching words regenerated mankind, and set freedom over slavery.Does not the divine code of the Gospel suffice to teach men to love one another? But, alas! far from speaking to us this language, our attention was too often occupied with wars of religion, and the rivers of blood that had flowed in honor of the Lord, and for the destruction of heresy.These terrible lessons made our life still more melancholy.As we grew near to manhood, our relations at the seminary assumed a growing character of bitterness, jealousy and suspicion.The habit of tale-