"The poisoner is here, hid in some corner," cried the quarryman. "We must force this parson to give us back the villain."
"He shall answer for him!"
"He took him into the church."
"He shall pay for both, if we do not find the other!"
As the first impression of involuntary respect was effaced from the minds of the crowd, their voices rose the louder, and their faces became the more savage and threatening, because they all felt ashamed of their momentary hesitation and weakness.
"Yes, yes!" cried many voices, trembling with rage, "we must have the life of one or the other!"
"Or of both!"
"So much the worse for this priest, if he wants to prevent us from serving out our poisoner!"
"Death to him! death to him!"
With this burst of ferocious yells, which were fearfully re-echoed from the groined arches of the cathedral, the mob, maddened by rage, rushed towards the choir, at the door of which Gabriel was standing. The young missionary, who, when placed on the cross by the savages of the Rocky Mountains, yet entreated heaven to spare his executioners, had too much courage in his heart, too much charity in his soul, not to risk his life a thousand times over to save Father d"Aigrigny"s--the very man who had betrayed hire by such cowardly and cruel hypocrisy.
CHAPTER XXV. THE MURDERERS.
The quarryman, followed by his gang, ran towards Gabriel, who had advanced a few paces from the choir-railing, and exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with rage: "Where is the poisoner? We will have him!"
"Who has told you, my brethren, that he is a poisoner?" replied Gabriel, with his deep, sonorous voice. "A poisoner! Where are the proofs--witnesses or victims?"
"Enough of that stuff! we are not here for confession," brutally answered the quarryman, advancing towards him in a threatening manner.
"Give up the man to us; he shall be forthcoming, unless you choose to stand in his shoes?"
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several voices; "they are "in" with one another!
One or the other we will have!"
"Very well, then; since it is so," said Gabriel, raising his head, and advancing with calmness, resignation; and fearlessness; "he or me,"
added he;--"it seems to make no difference to you--you are determined to have blood--take mine, and I will pardon you, my friends; for a fatal delusion has unsettled your reason."
These words of Gabriel, his courage, the n.o.bleness of his att.i.tude, the beauty of his countenance, had made an impression on some of the a.s.sailants, when suddenly a voice exclaimed: "Look! there is the poisoner, behind the railing!"
"Where--where?" cried they.
"There--don"t you see?--stretched on the floor."
On hearing this, the mob, which had hitherto formed a compact ma.s.s, in the sort of pa.s.sage separating the two sides of the nave, between the rows of chairs, dispersed in every direction, to reach the railing of the choir, the last and only barrier that now sheltered Father d"Aigrigny. During this manoeuvre the quarryman, Ciboule, and others, advanced towards Gabriel, exclaiming, with ferocious joy: "This time we have him. Death to the poisoner!"
To save Father d"Aigrigny, Gabriel would have allowed himself to be ma.s.sacred at the entrance of the choir; but, a little further on, the railing, not above four feet in height, would in another instant be scaled or broken through. The Missionary lost all hope of saving the Jesuit from a frightful death. Yet he exclaimed: "Stop, poor deluded people!"--and, extending his arms, he threw himself in front of the crowd.
His words, gesture, and countenance, were expressive of an authority at once so affectionate and so fraternal, that there was a momentary hesitation amongst the mob. But to this hesitation soon succeeded the most furious cries of "Death; death!"
"You cry for his death?" cried Gabriel, growing still paler.
"Yes! yes!"
"Well, let him die," cried the missionary, inspired with a sudden thought; "let him die on the instant!"
These words of the young priest struck the crowd with amazement. For a few moments, they all stood mute, motionless, and as it were, paralyzed, looking at Gabriel in stupid astonishment.
"This man is guilty, you say," resumed the young missionary, in a voice trembling with emotion. "You have condemned him without proof, without witnesses--no matter, he must die. You reproach him with being a poisoner; where are his victims? You cannot tell--but no matter; he is condemned. You refuse to hear his defense, the sacred right of every accused person--no matter; the sentence is p.r.o.nounced. You are at once his accusers, judges, and executioners. Be it so!--You have never seen till now this unfortunate man, he has done you no harm, he has perhaps not done harm to any one--yet you take upon yourselves the terrible responsibility of his death--understand me well--of his death. Be it so then! your conscience will absolve you--I will believe it. He must die; the sacredness of G.o.d"s house will not save him--"
"No, no!" cried many furious voices.
"No," resumed Gabriel, with increasing warmth; "no you have determined to shed his blood, and you will shed it, even in the Lord"s temple. It is, you say, your right. You are doing an act of terrible justice. But why then, so many vigorous arms to make an end of one dying man? Why these outcries? this fury? this violence? Is it thus that the people, the strong and equitable people, are wont to execute their judgments?
No, no; when sure of their right, they strike their enemies, it is with the calmness of the judge, who, in freedom of soul and conscience, pa.s.ses sentence. No, the strong and equitable people do not deal their blows like men blind or mad, uttering cries of rage, as if to drown the sense of some cowardly and horrible murder. No, it is not thus that they exercise the formidable right, to which you now lay claim--for you will have it--"
"Yes, we will have it!" shouted the quarryman, Ciboule, and others of the more pitiless portion of the mob; whilst a great number remained silent, struck with the words of Gabriel, who had just painted to them, in such lively colors, the frightful act they were about to commit.
"Yes," resumed the quarryman, "it is our right; we have determined to kill the poisoner!"
So saying, and with bloodshot eyes, and flushed cheek, the wretch advanced at the head of a resolute group, making a gesture as though he would have pushed aside Gabriel, who was still standing in front of the railing. But instead of resisting the bandit, the missionary advanced a couple of steps to meet him, took him by the arm, and said in a firm voice: "Come!"
And dragging, as it were, with him the stupefied quarryman, whose companions did not venture to follow at the moment, struck dumb as they were by this new incident, Gabriel rapidly traversed the s.p.a.ce which separated him from the choir, opened the iron gate, and, still holding the quarryman by the arm, led him up to the prostrate form of Father d"Aigrigny, and said to him: "There is the victim. He is condemned.
Strike!"
"I" cried the quarryman, hesitating; "I--all alone!"
"Oh!" replied Gabriel, with bitterness, "there is no danger. You can easily finish him. Look! he is broken down with suffering; he has hardly a breath of life left; he will make no resistance. Do not be afraid!"
The quarryman remained motionless, whilst the crowd, strangely impressed with this incident, approached a little nearer the railing, without daring to come within the gate.
"Strike then!" resumed Gabriel, addressing the quarryman, whilst he pointed to the crowd with a solemn gesture; "there are the judges; you are the executioner."
"No!" cried the quarryman, drawing back, and turning away his eyes; "I"m not the executioner--not I!"
The crowd remained silent. For a few moments, not a word, not a cry, disturbed the stillness of the solemn cathedral. In a desperate case, Gabriel had acted with a profound knowledge of the human heart. When the mult.i.tude, inflamed with blind rage, rushes with ferocious clamor upon a single victim, and each man strikes his blow, this dreadful species of combined murder appears less horrible to each, because they all share in the common crime; and then the shouts, the sight of blood, the desperate defence of the man they ma.s.sacre, finish by producing a sort of ferocious intoxication; but, amongst all those furious madmen, who take part in the homicide, select one, and place him face to face with the victim, no longer capable of resistance, and say to him, "Strike!"--he will hardly ever dare to do so.
It was thus with the quarryman; the wretch trembled at the idea of committing a murder in cold blood, "all alone." The preceding scene had pa.s.sed very rapidly; amongst the companions of the quarryman, nearest to the railing, some did not understand an impression, which they would themselves have felt as strongly as this bold man, if it had been said to them: "Do the office of executioner!" These, therefore, began to murmur aloud at his weakness. "He dares not finish the poisoner," said one.
"The coward!"
"He is afraid."
"He draws back." Hearing these words, the quarryman ran to the gate, threw it wide open, and, pointing to Father d"Aigrigny, exclaimed: "If there is one here braver than I am, let him go and finish the job--let him be, the executioner--come!"
On this proposal the murmurs ceased. A deep silence reigned once more in the cathedral. All those countenances, but now so furious, became sad, confused, almost frightened.
The deluded mob began to appreciate the ferocious cowardice of the action it had been about to commit. Not one durst go alone to strike the half expiring man. Suddenly, Father d"Aigrigny uttered a dying rattle, his head and one of his arms stirred with a convulsive movement, and then fell back upon the stones as if he had just expired.
Gabriel uttered a cry of anguish, and threw himself on his knees close to Father d"Aigrigny, exclaiming: "Great Heaven! he is dead!"