When pious persons and vestrymen denounced the fraud, begging
the abbe to consult them in future before lending himself to such
cupidity, he would say:--
"But suppose they had done something wrong to obtain their bit of
land? Isn't it doing good when we prevent evil?"
Some persons may wish for a sketch of this figure, remarkable for the
fact that science and literature had filled the heart and passed
through the strong head without corrupting either. At sixty years of
age the abbe's hair was white as snow, so keenly did he feel the
sorrows of others, and so heavily had the events of the Revolution
weighed upon him. Twice incarcerated for refusing to take the oath he
had twice, as he used to say, uttered in "In manus." He was of medium
height, neither stout nor thin. His face, much wrinkled and hollowed
and quite colorless, attracted immediate attention by the absolute
tranquillity expressed in its shape, and by the purity of its outline,
which seemed to be edged with light. The face of a chaste man has an
unspeakable radiance. Brown eyes with lively pupils brightened the
irregular features, which were surmounted by a broad forehead.
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