me. This had often happened to me in my long career as
a magistrate, and, although I had been set aside by the Republic, I was
still often called upon in similar circumstances. I therefore followed
the priest, who led me to a miserable little room in a large tenement
house.

"There I found a strange-looking man on a bed of straw, sitting with his
back against the wall, in order to get his breath. He was a sort of
skeleton, with dark, gleaming eyes.

"As soon as he saw me, he murmured: 'Don't you recognize me?'

"'No.'

"'I am Moiron.'

"I felt a shiver run through me, and I asked 'The schoolmaster?'

"'Yes.'

"'How do you happen to be here?'

"'The story is too long. I haven't time to tell it. I was going to die
--and that priest was brought to me--and as I knew that you
were here I sent for you. It is to you that I wish to confess--since
you were the one who once saved my life.'

"His hands clutched the straw of his bed through the sheet and he
continued in a hoarse, forcible and low tone: 'You see--I owe you
the truth--I owe it to you--for it must be told to some one
before I leave this earth.

"'It is I who killed the children--all of them. I did it--for
revenge!

"'Listen. I was an honest, straightforward, pure man--adoring
God--this good Father--this Master who teaches us to love, and
not the false God, the executioner, the robber, the murderer who governs
the earth. I had never done any harm; I had never committed an evil act.
I was as good as it is possible to be, monsieur.

"'I married and had children, and I loved them as no father or mother
ever loved their children. I lived only for them. I was wild about them.
All three of them died! Why? why? What had I done? I was rebellious,
furious; and suddenly my eyes were opened as if I were waking up out of a
sleep. I understood that God is bad. Why had He killed my children? I
opened my eyes and saw that He loves to kill. He loves only that,
monsieur. He gives life but to destroy it! God, monsieur, is a murderer!
He needs death every day. And He makes it of every variety, in order the
better to be amused. He has invented sickness and accidents in order to
give Him diversion all through the months and the years; and when He
grows tired of this, He has epidemics, the plague, cholera, diphtheria,
smallpox, everything possible! But this does not satisfy Him; all these
things are too similar; and so from time to time He has wars, in order to
see two hun