to fervent prayer.

Though this scene was not of a nature to surprise a priest, Gabriel de
Rastignac was too young not to be profoundly touched by it. As yet he
had never exercised the priestly virtues; he knew himself called to
other functions; he was not forced to enter the social breaches where
the heart bleeds at the sight of woes: his mission was that of the
higher clergy, who maintain the spirit of devotion, represent the
highest intellect of the Church, and on eminent occasions display the
priestly virtues on a larger stage,--like the illustrious bishops of
Marseille and Meaux, and the archbishops of Arles and Cambrai.

This little assemblage of country people weeping and praying for him
who, as they supposed, was then being executed on a public square, among
a crowd of persons come from all parts to swell the shame of such a
death,--this feeble counterpoise of prayer and pity, opposed to the
ferocious curiosity and just maledictions of a multitude, was enough
to move any soul, especially when seen in that poor church. The Abbe
Gabriel was tempted to go up to the Tascherons and say,--

"Your son and brother is reprieved."

But he did not like to disturb the mass; and, moreover, he knew that
a reprieve was only a delay of execution. Instead of following the
service, he was irresistibly drawn to a study of the pastor from whom
the clergy in Limoges expected the conversion of the criminal.

Judging by the parsonage, Gabriel de Rastignac had made himself a
portrait of Monsieur Bonnet as a stout, short man with a strong and red
face, framed for toil, half a peasant, and tanned by the sun. So
far from that, the young abbe met his equal. Slight and delicate in
appearance, Monsieur Bonnet's face struck the eyes at once as the
typical face of passion given to the Apostles. It was almost triangular,
beginning with a broad brow furrowed by wrinkles, and carried down from
the temples to the chin in two sharp lines which defined his hollow
cheeks. In this face, sallowed by tones as yellow as those of a church
taper, shone two blue eyes that were luminous with faith, burning with
eager hope. It was divided into two equal parts by a long nose, thin and
straight, with well-cut nostrils, beneath which spoke, even when closed
and voiceless, a large mouth, with strongly marked lips, from which
issued, whenever he spoke aloud, one of those voices which go straight
to the heart. The chestnut hair, which was thin and fine, and lay