ught to
prevent and stem disorder. Now a resuscitation, Monsieur, is a thing so
unheard of as to constitute an actual disorder."

"You will admit, nevertheless, that it is a very happy disorder."

"There's no such thing as a happy disorder. Consider, morever, that the
deceased is not a common sort of a man. If the question concerned a
vagabond without house or home, one could use some tolerance in regard
to it. But this is a soldier, an officer, of high rank and decorated
too; a man who has occupied an exalted position in the army. The _army_,
Monsieur! It will not do to touch the army!"

"Eh! Monsieur, I touch the army like a surgeon who tends its wounds. It
is proposed to restore to the army a colonel. And you, actuated by the
spirit of routine, wish to rob it of one."

"Don't get so excited, Monsieur, I beg of you, and don't talk so loud:
people can hear us. Believe me, I will meet you half way in anything you
want to do for the great and glorious army of my country. But have you
considered the religious question?"

"What religious question?"

"To tell you the truth, Monsieur (but this entirely between ourselves),
what we have spoken of so far is purely accessory and we are now
touching upon the delicate point. People have come to see me and have
made some very judicious remarks to me. The mere announcement of your
project has cast a good deal of trouble into certain consciences. They
fear that the success of an undertaking of this kind may strike a blow
at the faith, may, in a word, scandalize many tranquil spirits. For, if
M. Fougas is dead, of course it is because God has so willed it. Aren't
you afraid of acting contrary to the will of God, in resuscitating him?"

"No, Monsieur: for I am sure not to resuscitate Fougas if God has willed
it otherwise; God permits a man to catch the fever, but God also permits
a doctor to cure him. God permitted a brave soldier of the Emperor to be
captured by four drunken Russians, condemned as a spy, frozen in a
fortress and desiccated under an air-pump by an old German. But God also
permitted me to find this unfortunate man in a junk-shop, to carry him
to Fontainebleau, to examine him with certain men of science and to
agree with them upon a method almost sure to restore him to life. All
this proves one thing--which is that God is more just, more merciful and
more inclined to pity than those who abuse his name in order to excite
you."

"I assure you, Monsieur, that I am