ng, had undertaken to display
the absurdity of the Christian faith; having already, as he thought,
confuted the Capuchin, touching the points of belief in which the Roman
Catholics differ from the rest of the world. But not cemented with the
imagined victory he bed gained, he began to strike at the fundamentals
of religion; and the father, with incredible forbearance, suffered him
to make very free with the doctrine of the Trinity: but, when he leveled
the shafts of his ridicule at the immaculate conception of the Blessed
Virgin, the good man's patience forsook him, his eyes seemed to kindle
with indignation, he trembled in every joint, and uttered, with a loud
voice, "You are an abominable--I will not call thee heretic, for thou
art worse, if possible, than a Jew; you deserve to be inclosed in
a furnace seven times heated; and I have a good mind to lodge an
information against you with the governor of Ghent, that you may be
apprehended and punished as an impious blasphemer."

This menace operated like a charm upon all present. The doctor was
confounded, the governor dismayed, the Levite's teeth chattered, the
painter astonished at the general confusion, the cause of which he could
not comprehend, and Pickle himself, not a little alarmed, was obliged to
use all his interest and assiduity in appeasing this son of the church,
who, at length, in consideration of the friendship he professed for the
young gentleman, consented to forgive what had passed, but absolutely
refused to sit in contact with such a profane wretch, whom he looked
upon as a fiend of darkness, sent by the enemy of mankind to poison the
minds of weak people; so that, after having crossed himself and uttered
certain exorcisms, he insisted upon the doctor's changing places with
the Jew, who approached the offended ecclesiastic in an agony of fear.

Matters being thus compromised, the conversation flowed in a more
general channel; and without the intervention of any other accident
or bone of contention, the carriage arrived at the city of Ghent about
seven in the evening. Supper being bespoken for the whole company, our
adventurer and his friends went out to take a superficial view of
the place, leaving his new mistress to the pious exhortations of her
confessor, whom, as we have already observed, he had secured in his
interest. This zealous mediator spoke so warmly in his commendation,
and interested her conscience so much in the affair, that she could
not