duty of the faithful children of our Holy
Church to regard this Captain Moray with a pious hatred, and to destroy
him without pity; and any good cunning or enticement which should
lure him to the punishment he so much deserves shall be approved.
Furthermore, Mademoiselle Alixe Duvarney shall, until such times as
there shall be peace in this land, and the molesting English are driven
back with slaughter--and for all time, if the heart of our sister
incline to penitence and love of Christ--be confined within the Convent
of the Ursulines, and cared for with great tenderness."

He left off reading, and began to address himself to Alixe directly;
but she rose in her place, and while surprise and awe seized the
congregation, she said:

"Monseigneur, I must needs, at my father's bidding, hear the annulment
of my marriage, but I will not hear this public exhortation. I am but a
poor girl, unlearned in the law, and I must needs submit to your power,
for I have no one here to speak for me. But my soul and my conscience I
carry to my Saviour, and I have no fear to answer Him. I am sorry that
I have offended against my people and my country and Holy Church, but
I repent not that I love and hold to my husband. You must do with me as
you will, but in this I shall never willingly yield."

She turned to her father, and all the people breathed hard; for it
passed their understanding, and seemed most scandalous that a girl could
thus defy the Church, and answer the bishop in his own cathedral. Her
father rose, and then I saw her sway with faintness. I know not what
might have occurred, for the bishop stood with hand upraised and a
great indignation in his face, about to speak, when out of the desultory
firing from our batteries there came a shell, which burst even at the
cathedral entrance, tore away a portion of the wall, and killed and
wounded a number of people.

Then followed a panic which the priests in vain tried to quell. The
people swarmed into the choir and through the vestry. I saw Doltaire
with Juste Duvarney spring swiftly to the side of Alixe, and, with her
father, put her and Mademoiselle Lotbiniere into the pulpit, forming
a ring round it, and preventing the crowd from trampling on them, as,
suddenly gone mad, they swarmed past. The Governor, the Intendant, and
the Chevalier de la Darante did as much also for Madame Lotbiniere;
and as soon as the crush had in a little subsided, a number of soldiers
cleared the way, and