In this respect
societies have a divine origin. Man does not originate ideas, he
invents no form; he answers to the eternal relations that surround him
on all sides. Therefore, see what happens! Criminals going to the
scaffold, and having it in their power to carry their secret with
them, are compelled by the force of some mysterious power to make
confessions before their heads are taken off. Therefore, Monsieur
Minoret, if your mind is at ease, I go my way satisfied."
Minoret was so stupefied that he allowed the abbe to find his own way
out. When he thought himself alone he flew into the fury of a choleric
man; the strangest blasphemies escaped his lips, in which Ursula's
name was mingled with odious language.
"Why, what has she done to you?" cried Zelie, who had slipped in on
tiptoe after seeing the abbe out of the house.
For the first and only time in his life, Minoret, drunk with anger and
driven to extremities by his wife's reiterated questions, turned upon
her and beat her so violently that he was obliged, when she fell
half-dead on the floor, to take her in his arms and put her to bed
himself, ashamed of his act.
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