olent passion in a young Turkish
gentleman, but her prudence was long an obstacle to her lover's desires.
At last he went beyond all bounds, and threatened to kill both her and
her husband if she refused to gratify him. Frightened by this threat,
which she knew too well he would carry out, she feigned consent, and
gave the Turk a rendezvous at her house at an hour when she said her
husband would be absent; but by arrangement the husband arrived, and
although the Turk was armed with a sabre and a pair of pistols, it so
befell that they were fortunate enough to kill their enemy, whom they
buried under their dwelling unknown to all the world. But some days
after the event they went to confess to a priest of their nation, and
revealed every detail of the tragic story. This unworthy minister of
the Lord supposed that in a Mahommedan country, where the laws of
the priesthood and the functions of a confessor are either unknown
or disapproved, no examination would be made into the source of his
information, and that his evidence would have the same weight as any
other accuser's. So he resolved to make a profit and gratify his own
avarice. Several times he visited the husband and wife, always borrowing
considerable sums, and threatening to reveal their crime if they refused
him. The first few times the poor creatures gave in to his exactions;
but the moment came at last when, robbed of all their fortune, they
were obliged to refuse the sum he demanded. Faithful to his threat, the
priest, with a view to more reward, at once denounced them to the dead
man's father. He, who had adored his son, went to the vizier, told him
he had identified the murderers through their confessor, and asked for
justice. But this denunciation had by no means the desired effect. The
vizier, on the contrary, felt deep pity for the wretched Armenians, and
indignation against the priest who had betrayed them. He put the accuser
into a room which adjoined the court, and sent for the Armenian bishop
to ask what confession really was, and what punishment was deserved by a
priest who betrayed it, and what was the fate of those whose crimes
were made known in this fashion. The bishop replied that the secrets of
confession are inviolable, that Christians burn the priest who reveals
them, and absolve those whom he accuses, because the avowal made by the
guilty to the priest is proscribed by the Christian religion, on pain
of eternal damnation. The vizier, satisfied