he wants to prevent us from
serving out our poisoner!"

"Death to him! death to him!"

With this burst of ferocious yells, which were fearfully re-echoed from
the groined arches of the cathedral, the mob, maddened by rage, rushed
towards the choir, at the door of which Gabriel was standing. The young
missionary, who, when placed on the cross by the savages of the Rocky
Mountains, yet entreated heaven to spare his executioners, had too much
courage in his heart, too much charity in his soul, not to risk his life
a thousand times over to save Father d'Aigrigny's--the very man who had
betrayed hire by such cowardly and cruel hypocrisy.

CHAPTER XXV. THE MURDERERS.

The quarryman, followed by his gang, ran towards Gabriel, who had
advanced a few paces from the choir-railing, and exclaimed, his eyes
sparkling with rage: "Where is the poisoner? We will have him!"

"Who has told you, my brethren, that he is a poisoner?" replied
Gabriel, with his deep, sonorous voice. "A poisoner! Where are the
proofs--witnesses or victims?"

"Enough of that stuff! we are not here for confession," brutally
answered the quarryman, advancing towards him in a threatening manner.
"Give up the man to us; he shall be forthcoming, unless you choose to
stand in his shoes?"

"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several voices; "they are 'in' with one another!
One or the other we will have!"

"Very well, then; since it is so," said Gabriel, raising his head, and
advancing with calmness, resignation; and fearlessness; "he or me,"
added he;--"it seems to make no difference to you--you are determined
to have blood--take mine, and I will pardon you, my friends; for a fatal
delusion has unsettled your reason."

These words of Gabriel, his courage, the nobleness of his attitude,
the beauty of his countenance, had made an impression on some of
the assailants, when suddenly a voice exclaimed: "Look! there is the
poisoner, behind the railing!"

"Where--where?" cried they.

"There--don't you see?--stretched on the floor."

On hearing this, the mob, which had hitherto formed a compact mass, in
the sort of passage separating the two sides of the nave, between the
rows of chairs, dispersed in every direction, to reach the railing
of the choir, the last and only barrier that now sheltered Father
d'Aigrigny. During this manoeuvre the quarryman, Ciboule, and others,
advanced towards Gabriel, exclaiming, with ferocious joy: "This time we
have him. Death to the poi