This cruel lesson has given him an icy chill. Confessors do not suffer
such a repulse, without remaining a long time bitter, sometimes
spiteful for ever. The young priest knew well that he was the victim,
the disinherited of this world, but it had not been forced home upon
him. Gall drowns his heart. He prays to God (if he can still pray)
that the world may perish!

Then returning to his senses, and seeing himself irremediably limed in
that black winding-sheet, that death-robe that he will wear to the
grave, he shrouds himself within it as he curses it, and muses how he
may make the best of his torment.

The only thing he can do, is to strengthen his position as a priest.
He has two way of succeeding, either by an understanding with the
Jesuits, or by paying a servile court to _Monseigneur_ the bishop. I
recommend him especially to be violent against the philosophers, and to
bark at _pantheism_. Let him also blacken his fellow-priests, and he
will appear so much the purer himself. Let him prove himself a
thorough hater, and they will forgive him his love.

The Brotherhood will henceforth protect, defend, and cover him. What
would have ruined the solitary priest, becomes sanctity itself when he
becomes one of a party. Before, he would have been suspended, and sent
perhaps for six months to _La Trappe_--now he is made Vicar-general.

Only let him be prudent in the delicate business which the fraternity
wishes to conceal; let him learn the arts of priests--to feign, to
wait, to know when and how to be satisfied; to advance but slowly,
openly, and above ground sometimes, but more often secretly, underneath.

CHAPTER III.

CONFESSION.--THE CONFESSOR AND THE HUSBAND.--HOW THEY DETACH THE
WIFE.--THE DIRECTOR.--DIRECTORS ASSOCIATED TOGETHER.--ECCLESIASTICAL
POLICY.

When I reflect on all that is contained in the words _confession_ and
_direction_, those simple words, that immense power, the most complete
in the world, and endeavour to analyse their whole meaning, I tremble
with fear. I seem to be descending endless spiral stairs into the
depths of a dark mine. Just now I felt contempt for the priest; now I
fear him.

But we must not be afraid; we must look him in the face. Let us
candidly put down in set terms the language of the confessor.

"_God hears you_, hears you through me; through me God will answer
you." Such is the first word; such is the literal copy. The authority
is accepted as i