for he was a kind-hearted fellow, ready to do anyone a good turn,
and, though quiet, by no means a fool, as rowdies always are. So the man
of vinegar was hushed down.

The truth was that, as is sometimes the case with consumptive patients,
Gaspard was so sanguine about himself, that he never thought he was going
to die. To the last he believed he would recover. And, happily, his was
not that painful form of the disease where there is a great deal of
suffering, and a literal dying by inches, so that the poor sick one longs
to be released.

The good chaplain noticed this feature of his complaint, but instead of
continually insisting on the fact that he was a dying man, he took the
poor fellow, as it were, on his own ground, and treated him as if he were
going to live.

"Gaspard, my son," the old man would say, "we must all die, and they live
the happiest who are best prepared for it. Religion is not for dying
people only: it is for those who have years before them in this world,
for those who are the busiest of the busy, for strong men as well as more
feeble women, for old and young, for rich and poor alike, for those in
the midst of temptation as well as for men shut up in convents, for the
soldier amidst the excitements of war, and for the husbandman plying his
peaceful occupations. Therefore, Gaspard, let us all have religion."

It would not be becoming to attempt to narrate all that was said in the
intercourse between the minister and his charge. There are many
religions in the world, but only one way in which we can find peace with
God. No mere form will save anybody; and to whatever communion we
belong, there is but one essential mark that distinguishes in God's sight
all who are of the one true spiritual Church--and we have it on the
highest authority--"They shall be all taught of _God_." And for want of
that teaching men go wrong in a thousand different ways!

Gaspard died, and they buried him. The place of interment for the
prisoners of Norman Cross was a large field of several acres about a
quarter of a mile from the corner where the Peterborough and Great North
Roads meet, and on the west side of the latter. It was therefore a very
short distance from the barracks. Why the Government purchased so large
a field for the purpose it is impossible to say, unless they anticipated
a very indefinite duration of the war. Not more than a small quarter of
it has apparently been consecrated by the presence