e cloister the baleful
lustre of the name he has already abjured! He is so much swayed by the
spirit of his order, he has conceived such a love for self-denial, for
humility and poverty, that it will need all my efforts and much help
from on high to make him agree to this change of expiations."

"It is you, then, prior, who from sheer goodness of heart are
undertaking to alter this fatal resolution? I admire your zeal, and I
thank you for it; but I do not think there will be any need of all these
negotiations. M. Jean de Mauprat claims his share of the inheritance;
nothing can be more just. Even should the law refuse all civil rights
to a man who owed his safety only to flight (a point which I will pass
over), my relative may rest assured that there would never be the least
dispute between us on this ground, if I were the absolute possessor
of any fortune whatever. But you are doubtless aware that I owe the
enjoyment of this fortune only to the kindness of my great-uncle, the
Chevalier Hubert de Mauprat; that he had enough to do to pay the debts
of the family, which amounted to more than the total value of the
estate; that I can alienate nothing without his permission, and that,
in reality, I am merely the depositary of a fortune which I have not yet
accepted."

The prior stared at me in astonishment, as if dazed by an unexpected
blow. Then he smiled with a crafty expression, and said:

"Very good! It appears that I have been mistaken, and that I must apply
to M. Hubert de Mauprat. I will do so; for I make no doubt that he will
be very grateful to me for saving his family from a scandal which may
have very good results for one of his relatives in the next world, but
which, for a certainty, will have very bad ones for another relation in
the present world."

"I understand, sir," I replied. "This is a threat. I will answer in the
same strain: If M. Jean de Mauprat ventures to importune my uncle and
cousin, it is with me that he will have to deal; and it will not be
before the courts that I shall summon him to answer for certain outrages
which I have by no means forgotten. Tell him that I shall grant no
pardon to the Trappist penitent unless he remains faithful to the role
he has adopted. If M. Jean de Mauprat is without resources, and he asks
my help, I may, out of the income I receive, furnish him with the means
of living humbly and decently, according to the spirit of the vows he
has taken; but if ecclesiastical amb