ate into the Confessional. The king being caught and held
fast, was obliged to give satisfaction in some way or other. He paid
for his human weaknesses with political ones; such an amour cost him a
state-secret, such a bastard a royal ordinance. Occasionally, they did
not let him off without bail. In order to preserve a certain mistress,
for instance, he was forced to give up his son. How much did Father
Cotton forgive Henry IV. to obtain from him the education of the
dauphin.[1]

In this great enterprise of kidnapping man everywhere, by using woman
as a decoy, and by woman getting possession of the child, the Jesuits
met with more than one obstacle, but one particularly serious--their
reputation of Jesuits. They were already by far too well known. We
may read in the letters of St. Charles Borromeo, who had established
them at Milan and {36} singularly favoured them, what sort of character
he gives them--intriguing, quarrelsome, and insolent under a cringing
exterior. Even their penitents, who found them very convenient, were
nevertheless at times disgusted with them. The most simple saw plainly
enough that these people, who found every opinion probable, had none
themselves. These famous champions of the faith were sceptics in
morals: even less than sceptics, for speculative scepticism might leave
some sentiment of honour; but a doubter in practice, who says Yes on
such and such an act, and Yes on the contrary one, must sink lower and
lower in morality, and lose not only every principle, but in time every
affection of the heart!

Their very appearance was a satire against them. These people, so
cunning in disguising themselves, were made up of lying; it was
everywhere around them, palpable and visible. Like brass badly gilt,
like the holy toys in their gaudy churches, they appeared false at the
distance of a hundred paces: false in expression, accent, gesture, and
attitude; affected, exaggerated, and often excessively fickle. This
inconstancy was amusing, but it also put people on their guard. They
could well learn an attitude or a deportment; but studied graces, and a
bending, undulating, and serpentine gait are anything but satisfactory.
They worked hard to appear a simple, humble, insignificant, good sort
of people. Their grimace betrayed them.

These equivocal-looking individuals had, however, in the eyes of the
women a redeeming quality: they were passionately fond of children. No
mother, grandmo