bably
explained in the testament, the heirs are to present themselves on the
day in question, before noon, in person, and not by any attorney, or
representative, or to forfeit all claim to the inheritance. The stranger
who undertook to distribute the medals to the different members of the
family of Rennepont is a man of thirty to thirty-six years of age, of
tall stature, and with a proud and sad expression of countenance. He has
black eyebrows, very thick, and singularly joined together. He is
known as JOSEPH, and is much suspected of being an active and dangerous
emissary of the wretched republicans and heretics of the Seven
United Provinces. It results from these premises, that this sum,
surreptitiously confided by a relapsed heretic to unknown hands, has
escaped the confiscation decreed in our favor by our well-beloved king.
A serious fraud and injury has therefore been committed, and we are
bound to take every means to recover this our right, if not immediately,
at least in some future time. Our Society being (for the greater glory
of God and our Holy Father) imperishable, it will be easy, thanks to the
connections we keep up with all parts of the world, by means of missions
and other establishments, to follow the line of this family of Rennepont
from generation to generation, without ever losing sight of it--so that
a hundred and fifty years hence, at the moment of the division of this
immense accumulation of property, our Company may claim the inheritance
of which it has been so treacherously deprived, and recover it by
any means in its power, fas aut nefas, even by craft or violence--our
Company not being bound to act tenderly with the future detainers of
our goods, of which we have been maliciously deprived by an infamous and
sacrilegious heretic--and because it is right to defend, preserve,
and recover one's own property by every means which the Lord may place
within one's reach. Until, therefore, the complete restitution of this
wealth, the family of Rennepont must be considered as reprobate and
damnable, as the cursed seed of a Cain, and always to be watched with
the utmost caution. And it is to be recommended, that, every year
from this present date, a sort of inquisition should be held as to the
situation of the successive members of this family.'"

Rodin paused, and said to Father d'Aigrigny: "Here follows the account,
year by year, of the history of this family, from the year 1682, to our
own day. It will