ruler in the
interest of the ruled, resulted only in stirring up the old sediment of
absolutism which generations of feudal power had deposited in the Donnaz
blood.

Only the chaplain perceived what new agencies were at work; but even he
looked on as a watcher from a distant tower, who sees opposing armies
far below him in the night, without being able to follow their movements
or guess which way the battle goes.

"The days," he said to Odo, "are evil. The Church's enemies, the
basilisks and dragons of unbelief and license, are stirring in their old
lairs, the dark places of the human spirit. It is time that a fresh
purification by blood should cleanse the earth of its sins. That hour
has already come in France, where the blood of heretics has lately
fertilised the soil of faith; it will come here, as surely as I now
stand before you; and till it comes the faithful can only weary heaven
with their entreaties, if haply thereby they may mitigate the evil. I
shall remain here," he continued, "while the Marquess needs me; but that
task discharged, I intend to retire to one of the contemplative orders,
and with my soul perpetually uplifted like the arms of Moses, wear out
my life in prayer for those whom the latter days shall overtake."

Odo had listened in silence; but after a moment he said: "My father,
among those who have called in to question the old order of things there
are many animated by no mere desire for change, no idle inclination to
pry into the divine mysteries, but who earnestly long to ease the burden
of mankind and let light into what you have called the dark places of
the spirit. How is it, they ask, that though Christ came to save the
poor and the humble, it is on them that life presses most heavily after
eighteen hundred years of His rule? All cannot be well in a world where
such contradictions exist, and what if some of the worst abuses of the
age have found lodgment in the very ramparts that faith has built
against them?"

Don Gervaso's face grew stern and his eyes rested sadly on Odo. "You
speak," said he, "of bringing light into dark places; but what light is
there on earth save that which is shed by the Cross, and where shall
they find guidance who close their eyes to that divine illumination?"

"But is there not," Odo rejoined, "a divine illumination within each of
us, the light of truth which we must follow at any cost--or have the
worst evils and abuses only to take refuge in the Church to