and the strength of a hammer, "if we do not
soon make an end of that thievish rabble!"

"They say that next week they will begin to pull down the cathedral,"
observed Frasquito.

"I suppose they will pull it down with pickaxes and hammers," said the
canon, smiling. "There are artificers who, without those implements, can
build more rapidly than they can pull down. You all know that, according
to holy tradition, our beautiful chapel of the Sagrario was pulled down
by the Moors in a month, and immediately afterward rebuilt by the angels
in a single night. Let them pull it down; let them pull it down!"

"In Madrid, as the curate of Naharilla told us the other night," said
Vejarruco, "there are so few churches left standing that some of the
priests say mass in the middle of the street, and as they are beaten and
insulted and spat upon, there are many who don't wish to say it."

"Fortunately here, my children," observed Don Inocencio, "we have not
yet had scenes of that nature. Why? Because they know what kind of
people you are; because they have heard of your ardent piety and your
valor. I don't envy the first ones who lay hands on our priests and our
religion. Of course it is not necessary to say that, if they are not
stopped in time, they will commit atrocities. Poor Spain, so holy and so
meek and so good! Who would have believed she would ever arrive at such
extremities! But I maintain that impiety will not triumph, no. There are
courageous people still; there are people still like those of old. Am I
not right, Senor Ramos?"

"Yes, senor, that there are," answered the latter.

"I have a blind faith in the triumph of the law of God. Some one must
stand up in defence of it. If not one, it will be another. The palm of
victory, and with it eternal glory, some one must bear. The wicked will
perish, if not to-day, to-morrow. That which goes against the law of
God will fall irremediably. Let it be in this manner or in that, fall it
must. Neither its sophistries, nor its evasions, nor its artifices will
save it. The hand of God is raised against it and will infallibly
strike it. Let us pity them and desire their repentance. As for you, my
children, do not expect that I shall say a word to you about the step
which you are no doubt going to take. I know that you are good; I know
that your generous determination and the noble end which you have in
view will wash away from you all the stain of the sin of shedding blood.
I kno