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+Project Gutenberg’s The Miracle Of The Great St. Nicolas, by Anatole France
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Miracle Of The Great St. Nicolas
+       1920
+
+Author: Anatole France
+
+Editor: James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
+
+Translator: D. B. Stewart
+
+Release Date: May 9, 2008 [EBook #25410]
+Last Updated: October 5, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT ST. NICOLAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRACLE OF THE GREAT ST. NICOLAS
+
+From “The Seven Wives Of Bluebeard & Other Marvellous Tales”
+
+By Anatole France
+
+Translated by D. B. Stewart
+
+Edited By James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
+
+John Lane Company MCMXX
+
+
+ST. NICOLAS, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, lived in the time of Constantine
+the Great. The most ancient and weighty of those authors who have
+mentioned him celebrate his virtues, his labours, and his worth: they
+give abundant proofs of his sanctity; but none of them records the
+miracle of the salting-tub. Nor is it mentioned in the Golden Legend.
+This silence is important: still one does not willingly consent to throw
+doubt upon a fact so widely known, which is attested by the ballad which
+all the world knows:
+
+     “There were three little children
+     In the fields they went to glean.”
+
+This famous text expressly states that a cruel pork-butcher put
+the innocents “like pigs into the salting-vat.” That is to say, he
+apparently preserved them, cut into pieces, in a bath of brine. This is,
+to be sure, how pork is cured: but one is surprised to read further on
+that the three little children remained seven years in pickle, whereas
+it is usual to begin withdrawing the pieces of flesh from the tub, with
+a wooden fork, at the end of about six weeks. The text is explicit:
+according to the elegy, it was seven years after the crime that St.
+Nicolas entered the accursed hostelry. He asked for supper. The landlord
+offered him a piece of ham:
+
+     “‘Wilt eat of ham?   Tis dainty food.’
+     ‘I’ll have no ham: it is not good.
+     ‘Wilt cat a piece of tender veal?
+     ‘I will not make of that my meal.
+     Young salted flesh I want, and that
+     Has lain seven years within the vat.
+     Wheras the butcher heard this said
+     Out of the door full fast he fled.”
+
+The Man of God immediately resuscitated the tender victims by the laying
+of hands on the salting-tub.
+
+Such is, in substance, the story of the old anonymous rhyme. It bears
+the inimitable stamp of honesty and good faith. Scepticism seems
+ill-inspired when it attacks the most vital memories of the popular
+mind. It is not without a lively satisfaction that I have found myself
+able to reconcile the authority of the ballad with the silence of the
+ancient biographers of the Lycian pontiff. I am happy to proclaim the
+result of my long meditations and scholastic researches. The miracle of
+the salting-tub is true, in so far as essentials are concerned, but it
+was not the blessed Bishop of Myra who performed it; it was another St.
+Nicolas, for there were two: one, as we have already stated, Bishop
+of Myra in Lycia; the other more recent, Bishop of Trinqueballe in
+Vervignole. For me was reserved the task of distinguishing between them.
+It was the Bishop of Trinqueballe who rescued the three little boys from
+the salting-tub. I shall establish the fact by authentic documents, and
+no one will have occasion to deplore the end of a legend.
+
+I have been fortunate enough to recover the entire history of the Bishop
+Nicolas and the children whom he resuscitated. I have fashioned it
+into in a narrative which will be read, I hope, with both pleasure and
+profit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+NICOLAS, a scion of an illustrious family of Vervignole, showed marks of
+sanctity from his earliest childhood, and at the age of fourteen vowed
+to consecrate himself to the Lord. Having embraced the ecclesiastical
+profession, he was raised, while still young, by popular acclamation and
+the wish of the Chapter, to the see of St. Cromadaire, the apostle of
+Vervignole, and first Bishop of Trinqueballe. He exercised his pastoral
+ministry with piety, governed his clergy with wisdom, taught the people,
+and feared not to remind the great of Justice and Moderation. He was
+liberal, profuse in almsgiving, and set aside for the poor the greater
+part of his wealth.
+
+His castle proudly lifted its crenelated walls and pepper-pot roofs from
+the summit of a hill overlooking the town. He made of it a refuge where
+all who were pursued by the secular arm might find a place of refuge. In
+the lower hall, the largest to be seen in all Vervignole, the table laid
+for meals was so long that those who sat at one end saw it lose itself
+in the distance in an indistinct point, and when the torches upon
+it were lighted it recalled the tail of the comet which appeared in
+Vervignole to announce the death of King Comus. The holy St. Nicolas sat
+at the upper end. There he entertained the principal folk of the town
+and of the kingdom, and a multitude of clergy and laymen. But on his
+right there was always reserved a seat for the poor man who might come
+begging for his bread at the door.
+
+Children, particularly, aroused the solicitude of the good St. Nicolas.
+He delighted in their innocence, and he felt for them with the heart of
+a father and the bowels of a mother. He had the virtues and the morals
+of an apostle. Yearly, in the dress of a simple monk, with a white staff
+in his hand, he would visit his flock, desirous of seeing everything
+with his own eyes; and in order that no adversity or disorder should
+escape his notice he would traverse, accompanied by a single priest, the
+wildest parts of his diocese, crossing, in winter, the flooded rivers,
+climbing mountains, and plunging into the thick forests. One day, having
+ridden since dawn upon his mule, in company with the Deacon Modernus,
+thorny thickets through which his mount with difficulty forced a winding
+path. The Deacon Modernus followed him with much difficulty on his mule,
+which carried the baggage.
+
+Overcome with hunger and fatigue, the man of God said to Modernus:
+
+“Let us halt here, my son, and if you still have a little bread and wine
+we will sup here, for I feel that I hardly have the strength to proceed
+further, and you, although the younger, must be nearly as tired as I.”
+
+“Monseigneur,” answered Modernus, “there remains neither a drop of wine
+nor a crumb of bread; for, by your orders, I gave all to some people on
+the road, who had less need of it than ourselves.”
+
+“Without a doubt,” replied the Bishop, “had there been a few scraps
+left in your wallet we should have eaten them with pleasure, for it
+is fitting that those who govern the Church should be nourished on the
+leavings of the poor. But since you have nothing left it is because God
+has desired it so, and He has surely desired it for our good and profit.
+It is possible that He will for ever hide from us the reason of this
+favour: perhaps, on the other hand, He will quickly make it manifest.
+Meanwhile, I think the only thing left for us is to push on until we
+find some arbutus berries and blackberries for our own nourishment, and
+some grass for our mules, and, being thus refreshed, to lie down upon a
+bed of leaves.”
+
+“As you please, Monseigneur,” answered Modernus, pricking his mount.
+
+They travelled all night, and a part of the following morning; then,
+having climbed a fairly steep ascent, they suddenly found themselves at
+the border of the wood, and beheld at their feet a plain covered by a
+yellowish sky, and crossed by four white roads, which lost themselves
+in the mist. They took that to the left, an old Roman road, formerly
+frequented by merchants and pilgrims, but deserted since the war had
+laid waste this part of Vervignole. Dense clouds were gathering in the
+sky, across which birds were flying; a stifling atmosphere weighed down
+upon the dumb, livid earth. Lightning flashed on the horizon. They urged
+on their wearied mules. Suddenly a mighty wind bent the tops of the
+trees, making the boughs crack and the battered foliage moan. The
+thunder muttered, and heavy drops of rain began to fall.
+
+As they made their way through the storm, the lightning flashing about
+them, along a road which had become a torrent, they perceived, by the
+light of a flash, a house outside which there hung a branch of holly,
+the sign of hospitality.
+
+The inn appeared deserted; nevertheless, the host advanced towards them,
+a man fierce yet humble, with a great knife at his belt, and asked what
+they wished for.
+
+“A lodging, and a scrap of bread, with a drop of wine,” answered the
+Bishop, “for we are weary and benumbed with cold.”
+
+While the host was fetching wine from the cellar, and Modernus was
+taking the mules to the stable, St. Nicolas, sitting at the hearth
+beside a dying fire, cast a glance round the smoky room. Dust and dirt
+covered the benches and casks; spiders spun their webs between the
+worm-eaten joists, whence hung scanty bunches of onions. In a dark
+corner the salting-tub displayed its iron-hooped belly.
+
+In those days the demons used to take a hand in domestic life in a
+far more intimate fashion than they do to-day. They haunted houses,
+concealed in the salt-box, the butter-tub, or some other hiding-place;
+they spied upon the people of the house, and watched for the opportunity
+to tempt them and lead them into evil. Then, too, the angels made more
+frequent appearances among Christian folk.
+
+Now a devil, as big as a hazel-nut, who was hidden among the burning
+logs, spoke up and said to the holy Bishop:
+
+“Look at that salting-tub, Father; it is well worth a look. It is the
+best salting-tub in the whole of Vervignole. It is, indeed, the model
+and paragon of salting-tubs. When the master here, Seigneur Garum,
+received it from the hands of a skilful cooper he perfumed it with
+juniper, thyme, and rosemary. Seigneur Garum has not his equal
+in bleeding the meat, boning it, and cutting it up, carefully,
+thoughtfully, and lovingly, and steeping it in salted liquors by which
+it is preserved and embalmed. He is without a rival for seasoning,
+concentrating, boiling down, skimming, straining, and decanting the
+pickle. Taste his mild-cured pork, father, and you will lick your
+fingers: taste his mild-cured pork, Nicolas, and you will have something
+to say about it.”
+
+But in these words, and above all in the voice that uttered them (it
+grated like a saw), the holy Bishop recognized an evil spirit. He
+made the sign of the Cross, whereupon the little devil exploded with a
+horrible noise and a very bad smell, just like a chestnut thrown into
+the fire without having had its skin split.
+
+And an angel from Heaven appeared, resplendent in light and said to
+Nicolas:
+
+“Nicolas, beloved of the Lord, you must know that three little children
+have been in that salting-tub for seven years; Garum, the innkeeper,
+cut up these tender infants, and put them in salt and pickle. Arise,
+Nicolas, and pray that they may come to life again. For, if you
+intercede for them, O Pontiff, the Lord, who loves you, will restore
+them to life.”
+
+During this speech Modernus entered the room, but he did not see the
+angel, nor did he hear him, for he was not sufficiently holy to be able
+to communicate with the heavenly spirits.
+
+The angel further said:
+
+“Nicolas, son of God, lay your hands on the salting-tub, and the three
+children will be resuscitated.”
+
+The blessed Nicolas, filled with horror, pity, zeal, and hope, gave
+thanks to God, and when the innkeeper reappeared with a jug in either
+hand, the Saint said to him in a terrible voice:
+
+“Garum, open the salting-tub!”
+
+Whereupon, Garum, overcome by fear, dropped both his jugs.
+
+And the saintly Bishop Nicolas stretched out his hands, and said:
+
+“Children, arise!”
+
+At these words, the lid of the salting-tub was lifted up, and three
+young boys emerged.
+
+“Children,” said the Bishop, “give thanks to God, who through me, has
+raised you from out the salting-tub.”
+
+And turning towards the innkeeper, who was trembling in every limb, he
+said:
+
+“Cruel man, recognize the three children whom you shamefully put to
+death. May you loathe your crime, and repent, that God may pardon you!”
+
+The innkeeper, filled with terror, fled into the storm, amidst the
+thunder and lightning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ST. NICOLAS embraced the three children and gently questioned them about
+the miserable death which they had suffered. They related that Garum,
+having approached them while they were gleaning in the fields, had lured
+them into his inn, had made them drink wine, and had cut their throats
+while they slept.
+
+They still wore the rags in which they had been clothed on the day of
+their death, and they retained, after their resurrection, a wild
+and timid air. The sturdiest of the three, Maxime, was the son of a
+half-witted woman, who followed the soldiers to war, mounted on an ass.
+One night he fell from the pannier in which she carried him, and was
+left abandoned by the roadside. From that time forward he had lived
+solely by theft. The feeblest, Robin, could hardly recall his parents,
+peasants in the highlands, who being too poor or too avaricious to
+support him had deserted him in the forest. The third, Sulpice, knew
+nothing of his birth, but a priest had taught him his alphabet. The
+storm had ceased; in the buoyant, limpid air the birds were calling
+loudly to one another. The smiling earth was green. Modernus having
+fetched the mules, Bishop Nicolas mounted his, and carried Maxime
+wrapped in his cloak: the deacon took Sulpice and Robin upon his
+crupper, and they set off toward the city of Trinqueballe.
+
+The road unfolded itself between fields of corn, vineyards, and meadows.
+As they went along the great Saint Nicolas who already loved the
+children with all his heart, examined them on subjects suitable to their
+age, and asked them easy questions such as: “How much is five times
+five?” or “What is God?” He obtained no satisfactory answers. But, far
+from shaming them for their ignorance, he thought only of gradually
+dissipating it by the application of the best pedagogic methods.
+
+“Modernus,” he said, “we will teach them firstly the truths necessary
+for salvation, and secondly the liberal arts, especially music, so that
+they may sing the praises of the Lord. It will also be expedient to
+teach them rhetoric, philosophy, and the history of men, plants, and
+animals. I desire that they shall study, in their habits and their
+structure, the animals, all of whose organs, in their wonderful
+perfection, attest the glory of the Creator.”
+
+Scarcely had the venerable Pontiff concluded this speech when a peasant
+woman passed along the road, dragging by the halter an old mare so
+heavily laden with branches cut with their leaves on that her knees were
+trembling, and she stumbled at every step.
+
+“Alas,” sighed the great St. Nicolas, “here is a poor horse carrying
+more than its burden. He has unfortunately fallen into the hands of
+unjust and hard-hearted masters. One should not overload any creature,
+not even beasts of burden.”
+
+At these words the three boys burst out laughing. The Bishop having
+asked why they laughed so loudly:
+
+“Because----” said Robin.
+
+“That is----” said Sulpice.
+
+“We laughed,” said Maxime, “because you mistook a mare for a horse.
+Can’t you see the difference? It is very plain to me. Don’t you know
+anything about animals?”
+
+“I think,” said Modernus, “the first thing is to teach these children
+manners.”
+
+At every town, borough, village, hamlet or castle by which he passed,
+St. Nicolas showed the people the children rescued from the salting-tub,
+and related the great miracle performed by God, on his intercession;
+whereupon they were all very joyful, and blessed him. Informed by
+messengers and travellers of so prodigious an occurrence, the entire
+population of Trinqueballe came out to meet their pastor, unrolling
+precious carpets and scattering flowers in his path. The citizens, their
+eyes wet with tears, gazed at the three victims who had escaped from the
+salting-tub, and cried: “The Lord be praised!” But the poor children
+knew no better than to laugh and stick out their tongues; this caused
+further wonder and compassion, as being a palpable proof of their
+innocence and misfortune.
+
+The saintly Bishop Nicolas had an orphan niece, Mirande by name, who had
+just reached her seventh year, and was dearer to him than the light of
+his eyes. A worthy widow by name Basine was rearing her in piety, good
+manners, and ignorance of evil. The three miraculously saved children
+were confided to the care of this lady. She was not lacking in judgment.
+She quickly saw that Maxime had courage, Robin prudence, and Sulpice
+the power of reflection. She devoted herself to confirming these good
+qualities, which, by the corruption common to the whole human race,
+tended unceasingly to become perverted and distorted; for Robin’s
+cautiousness turned easily into hypocrisy, and mostly hid a greedy
+covetousness; Maxime was subject to fits of rage, and Sulpice frequently
+and obstinately expressed false ideas in very important matters.
+However, they were but mere children who went bird’s-nesting, stole the
+garden fruit, tied cooking-pots to dogs’ tails, put ink the holy water
+font, and cow-itch in Modernus’ bed.
+
+At night, wrapped in white sheets and walking on stilts, they would go
+into the gardens, and frighten into a swoon the serving-maids belated
+in their lovers’ arms. They would cover the seat which Madame Basine
+was wont to use with bristling spikes, and when she sat down they would
+delight in her sufferings, observing the confusion with which she openly
+applied a heedful and comforting hand to the damaged spot, for she would
+not for all the world have been lacking in modesty.
+
+In spite of her age and virtues, this lady inspired them with neither
+love nor fear. Robin called her an old goat, Maxime an old she-ass, and
+Sulpice, the ass of Balaam. They teased little Mirande in all sorts
+of ways; they would dirty her pretty clothes by making her fall face
+downward on the stones. Once they pushed her head right up to the neck
+into a barrel of treacle. They taught her to sit astride railings, and
+to climb trees, contrary to the decorum of her sex; they taught her
+words and manners that smacked of the inn and the salting-tub. Following
+their example, she called Madame Bassne “an old goat,” and even, taking
+the part for the whole, “old goat’s rump.” But she remained completely
+innocent. The purity of her soul was unchangeable.
+
+“I am fortunate,” said the holy Bishop Nicolas, “in that I rescued these
+children from the salting-tub, to make them good Christians. They will
+become faithful servants of God, and their merits will be accounted to
+me.”
+
+Now, by the third year after their resurrection, when they were already
+tall and well-made, on a day of spring, as they were all playing in the
+field beside the river, Maxime in a moment of facetiousness and natural
+high spirits, threw the Deacon Modernus into the water. Hanging on to
+the branch of a willow-tree, Modernus called for help. Robin ran up,
+made as though to draw him out by the hand, took off his ring, and fled.
+
+Meanwhile, Sulpice, sitting motionless on the bank with his arms
+crossed, said:
+
+“Modernus is making a bad end. I can see six devils, in the form of
+flittermice, ready to seize his soul as it comes out of his mouth.”
+
+When this serious affair was reported to him by Madame Basine and
+Modernus, the holy Bishop was much afflicted and fell a-sighing.
+
+“These children,” he said, “were reared in suffering, by unworthy
+parents. The excess of their misfortunes has caused the deformity of
+their characters. We must redress their wrongs by enduring patience, and
+persevering kindness.”
+
+“Monseigneur,” answered Modernus, who was chattering with fever in his
+dressing-gown, and sneezing under his nightcap, for his bath had given
+him a cold, “it is possible that their wickedness is derived from the
+wickedness of their parents. But how do you explain, father, the fact
+that neglect has produced in each of them different and, so to speak,
+contrary vices, and that the desertion and destitution into which
+they were thrown before they were put in the salting-tub has made one
+avaricious, a second violent, and the third a visionary? And in your
+place, my Lord, I should feel most uneasy about the last.”
+
+“Each of these children,” answered the Bishop, “has yielded in his weak
+spot. Ill-treatment has deformed their souls in those portions that
+offered the least resistance. Let us straighten them out with a thousand
+precautions, for fear of increasing the evil instead of diminishing it.
+Mildness, clemency, and forbearance are the only means which should ever
+be employed for the improvement of men, heretics of course excepted.”
+
+“No doubt, Monseigneur, no doubt,” said Modernus, sneezing three
+times. “But you cannot have a good education without chastisement, nor
+discipline without discipline. I know what I am about. If you do not
+punish these three little ragamuffins, they will grow up worse than
+Herod. I assure you I am right.”
+
+“Modernus could not be mistaken,” said Madame Basine.
+
+The Bishop did not answer. With the widow and the Deacon, he paced the
+length of a hawthorn hedge, which breathed forth an agreeable fragrance
+of honey and bitter almonds. In a slight hollow, where the soil received
+the water from a neighbouring spring, he stopped before a bush, whose
+twisted, close-packed branches were covered with gleaming, clean-cut
+leaves and white clusters of flowers.
+
+“Look,” he said, “at this leafy, fragrant shrub, this lovely may, this
+noble thorn-bush, so strong and vigorous. Observe that it is in more
+abundant leaf, and more glorious with bloom, than all the other thorns
+in the hedge. But notice also that the pale bark of its branches bears
+only a few thorns, which are weak and soft and blunt. What is the reason
+of this? It is because, growing in a rich, moist soil, quiet and secure
+in the wealth which sustains its life, it has utilized all the juices
+of the earth to augment its power and its glory, and being too strong
+to dream of arming against its feeble enemies, it has devoted itself
+entirely to the joys of its magnificent and delicious fertility. Now
+come a few steps up this rising path, and look at this other hawthorn,
+which having with difficulty issued from a dry, stony soil, languishes,
+deficient in both wood and leaves, and has had no other thought during
+its hard life than to defend itself against the innumerable enemies that
+threaten the weal. It is nothing but a bundle of thorns. It has employed
+the little sap which it received in fashioning innumerable spears, broad
+at the base, hard and sharp, which but ill restore confidence to
+its apprehensive weakness. It has nothing left over for fruitful and
+fragrant blossom. My friends, we are like the hawthorns. The care given
+to our childhood makes us better. Too harsh an up bringing hardens us.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WHEN Maxime was approaching his seventeenth year he filled the holy
+Bishop Nicolas with grief and the diocese with scandal by forming and
+training a company of rogues of his own age, with a view to kidnapping
+the girls of a village called Grosses-Nates, situated at a distance
+of four leagues from Trinqueballe. The expedition was marvellously
+successful. The ravishers entered the village by night, clasping to
+their bosoms the dishevelled virgins, who vainly uplifted to heaven
+their burning eyes and imploring hands. But when the fathers, brothers,
+and betrothed of these ravished maidens sought them out, they refused to
+return to the place of their birth, alleging that they felt too deeply
+shamed, and preferred to hide their dishonour in _the_ arms that
+had caused it. Maxime, who, for his share, had taken the three most
+beautiful, was living in their company in a little manor dependent upon
+the episcopal See. In the absence of their ravisher, the Deacon Modernus
+arrived, by order of the Bishop, to knock at their door, answering that
+he came to set them free. They refused to open; and when he represented
+to them the abomination of their lives they dropped upon his head
+a crockful of dishwater, with the crock, by which his skull was
+fractured.
+
+Armed with a gentle severity, the holy Bishop reproached Maxime for this
+violence and disorder:
+
+“Alas,” he said, “did I draw you from out of the salting-box to the ruin
+of the virgins of Vervignole?”
+
+And he reproached him with the magnitude of his offence. But Maxime
+shrugged his shoulders, and turned his back, without making any reply.
+
+At that moment King Berlu, in the fourteenth year of his reign, was
+assembling a powerful army to fight the Mambournians, the determined
+enemies of his kingdom, who, having entered Vervignole, were ravaging
+and depopulating the richest provinces of that great country.
+
+Maxime left Trinqueballe without saying goodbye to a soul. When he was
+some leagues distant from the town, seeing in a field a mare of moderate
+quality, except that she was blind in one eye and lame, he jumped on her
+back and galloped off. On the following morning, accidentally meeting
+a farm lad who was taking a great plough horse to water, he immediately
+dismounted, bestrode the great horse, and ordered the lad to mount the
+blind mare, and to follow him, saying that he would take him for his
+squire should he prove satisfactory. Thus equipped Maxime presented
+himself to King Berlu, who accepted his services. He became in a very
+short time one of Vervignole’s greatest captains.
+
+Meanwhile, Sulpice was giving the holy Bishop cause for perhaps more
+cruel, and certainly more momentous, uneasiness; for if Maxime sinned
+grievously, he sinned without malice, and offending God without thought,
+and, so to speak, unknowingly. But Sulpice set himself to do evil with a
+greater and more unusual malignity. Being destined from early youth for
+the Church he assiduously studied letters, both sacred and profane; but
+his soul was a corrupted vessel, wherein Truth was turned into Error.
+He sinned in spirit; he erred in matters of faith with surprising
+precocity. At an age when people have as yet no ideas at all, he
+overflowed with wrong ones. A thought occurred to him which was
+doubtless suggested by the devil. In a field belonging to the Bishop he
+gathered a multitude of boys and girls of his own age and, climbing into
+a tree, he exhorted them to leave their fathers and mothers to follow
+Jesus Christ, and to go in, parties through the country-side, burning
+priories and presbyteries in order to lead the Church back into
+evangelical poverty. This youthful mob, led away by emotion, followed
+the sinner along the roads of Vervignole, singing canticles, burning
+barns, pillaging chapels, and devastating the ecclesiastical lands. Many
+of these crazy creatures perished of fatigue, hunger, and cold, or were
+killed by villagers. The episcopal palace re-echoed with the complaints
+of the priesthood and the lamentations of mothers.
+
+The pious Bishop Nicolas sent for the originator of these disorders.
+With extreme mildness, and infinite sadness, he reproached him for
+having misused the Word for the misleading of souls, and reminded him
+that God had not picked him out of the salting-tub in order that he
+should attack the property of our Holy Mother, the Church.
+
+“Consider, my son,” he said, “the greatness of your offence. You appear
+before your pastor charged with turmoil, sedition, and murder.”
+
+But young Sulpice, maintaining a horrid calm, answered with a voice full
+of assurance, that he had not sinned, neither had he offended God; but,
+on the contrary, he had acted in accordance with the bidding of Heaven,
+for the good of the Church. And he professed before the dismayed Bishop
+the false doctrines of the Manicheans, the Arians, the Nestorians, the
+Sabellians, the Vaudois, the Albigenses, and the Bégards. So eager
+was he to embrace these monstrous errors that he did not see how they
+contradicted one another, and were mutually devoured in the bosom that
+cherished and revived them.
+
+The pious Bishop endeavoured to lead Sulpice back into the right path,
+but he failed to overcome the unhappy lad’s obstinacy.
+
+Having dismissed him, he knelt and prayed.
+
+“I thank thee, O Lord, for having sent me this young man, as a whetstone
+on which to sharpen my patience and my charity.”
+
+While two of the children he had rescued from the salting-tub were
+causing him so much pain, St. Nicolas was obtaining some consolation
+from the third. Robin showed himself neither violent in his actions nor
+arrogant in his thoughts. He had not the sturdy, ruddy appearance of
+Maxime; nor the grave, audacious manner of Sulpice. Small, thin, yellow,
+lined, and shrunken, of humble, obsequious and reverential bearing, he
+devoted himself to assisting the Bishop and clergy, helping the clerks
+to keep the accounts of the episcopal revenues, and making complicated
+calculations with the assistance of balls threaded on rods; he even
+multiplied and divided numbers in his head, without the use of slate or
+pencil, with a rapidity and accuracy that would have been admired even
+in a past master of money and finance. For him it was a pleasure to keep
+the books of the Deacon Modernus, who, growing old, used to muddle the
+figures and fall asleep at his desk. To oblige the Bishop, and obtain
+money for him, he spared neither trouble nor fatigue. From the Lombards,
+he learnt how to calculate both the simple and compound interest on a
+sum of money for a day, week, month, or year; he feared not to visit
+the filthy Jews in the black lanes of the Ghetto, in order to learn,
+by mingling with them, the standard of metals, the price of precious
+stones, and the art of clipping coin. Ultimately, with a little store
+which he had accumulated by marvellous industry in Vervignole, in
+Mondousiana, and even in Mambournia, he attended the fairs, tournaments,
+pardons, and jubilees, to which people of all conditions flocked from
+all parts of Christendom: peasants, burghers, clerics, and _seigneurs_;
+there he changed their money, and every time he returned a little richer
+than he had departed. Robin did not spend the money he had made, but
+brought it to the Bishop.
+
+St. Nicolas was extremely hospitable, and very liberal in almsgiving.
+He spent all his property and that of the Church in making gifts to
+pilgrims and assisting the unfortunate. Thus he continually found
+himself short of money; and he was much obliged to Robin for the skill
+and energy with which the young treasurer obtained the sums which he
+required. The condition of penury in which the holy Bishop had placed
+himself owing to his magnificence and liberality was greatly aggravated
+by the condition of the times. The war which was ravaging Vervignole
+also ruined the Church in Trinqueballe. The soldiery who were
+fighting in the country-side about the town pillaged the farms, levied
+contributions on the peasantry, drove out the religious orders, and
+burned the castles and abbeys.
+
+The clergy and the faithful could no longer contribute to the expenses
+of their creed, and thousands of peasants, fleeing from the free-booters
+came daily to beg their bread at the door of the episcopal palace. For
+their sakes, the good St. Nicolas felt the poverty which he had never
+felt for his own. Fortunately, Robin was always ready to lend him money,
+which the holy pontiff naturally agreed to return in more prosperous
+times.
+
+Alas, the war was now raging throughout the kingdom, from north to
+south, from east to west, attended by its two inseparable companions,
+famine and pestilence. The peasantry turned robbers, and the monks
+followed the armies. The inhabitants of Trinqueballe, having neither
+wood for firing, nor bread to eat, died like flies at the approach of
+winter. Wolves entered the outlying parts of the town, devouring little
+children. At this sad juncture, Robin came to inform the Bishop that not
+only was he unable to provide any further sum of money, however small,
+but that being unable to obtain anything from his debtors, and being
+pressed by his creditors, he had been compelled to hand over all his
+assets to the Jews.
+
+He brought this distressing news to his benefactor with the obsequious
+politeness which was usual to him; but he appeared a great deal less
+afflicted than he might have been in this grevions extremity. As a
+matter of fact, he was hard put to it to conceal, under a long face, his
+joyous feelings and his lively satisfaction. The parchment of his dry,
+humble, yellow eyelids ill concealed the light of joy which shone from
+his sharp eyes.
+
+Sadly stricken, St. Nicolas remained quiet and serene under the blow.
+
+“God will soon re-establish our declining affairs,” he said. “He will
+not permit the house which He has built to be overthrown.”
+
+“That is true,” said Modernus, “but you may be sure that Robin, whom you
+drew out of the salting-tub, has made an arrangement with the Lombards
+of Pont-Vieux and the Jews of the Ghetto to despoil you, and that he is
+retaining the lion’s share of the plunder.”
+
+Modernus spoke the truth. Robin had lost no money. He was richer than
+ever, and had just been appointed treasurer to the King.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AT this time Mirande was nearing the close of her seventeenth year.
+She was beautiful, and well grown. An air of purity, innocence, and
+artlessness hung round her like a veil. The length of her eyelashes,
+which barred her blue eyes, and the childlike smallness of her mouth,
+gave the impression that evil could never find means to enter into her.
+Her ears were so tiny, so fine, so finished and so delicate, that the
+least modest of men could never have dared to breathe into them any but
+the most innocent of speeches. In the whole of Ver-vigbole no virgin
+inspired so much respect, and none had greater need to do so, for she
+was marvellously simple, credulous, and defenceless.
+
+The pious Bishop Nicolas, her uncle, cherished her more dearly every
+day, and was more deeply attached to her than one should be to any of
+God’s creatures. He loved her, undoubtedly, in God; but he also loved
+her for herself; he took great delight in her, and he loved to love her;
+it was his only weakness. The Saints themselves are not always able to
+cut through all the ties of the flesh.
+
+St. Nicolas loved his niece, with a pure love, but not without
+gratification of the senses. On the day following that on which he had
+learned of Robin’s bankruptcy, he went to see Mirande in order to hold
+pious converse with her, as was his duty, for he stood in the place of a
+father to her, and had taken charge of her education.
+
+She lived in the upper town, near the Cathedral in a house called “The
+House of the Musicians,” because there were to be seen on its front men
+and animals playing on divers instruments. There were, notably, an ass
+playing a flute, and a philosopher, recognizable by his long beard and
+ink-horn, clashing cymbals. Every one explained these figures according
+to his fancy. It was the finest dwelling-house in the town.
+
+The Bishop found his niece crouching on the floor, with dishevelled
+hair, her eyes glittering with tears, by the side of an empty, open
+coffer, in a room full of confusion.
+
+He inquired of her the reason of this affliction, and of the disorder
+that prevailed around her. Turning upon him her despairing gaze, she
+told him with a thousand sighs that Robin, the Robin who had escaped
+from the salting-tub, the darling Robin, having many a time told her
+that if she ever wanted a dress, an ornament or a jewel, he would gladly
+lend her the money wherewith to buy it, she had frequently had recourse
+to his kindness, which appeared inexhaustible; but that very morning a
+Jew called Seligmann had come to her with four sheriff’s officers, had
+presented the notes, signed by herself, which she had given Robin, and
+as she had not the money to pay them he had taken away all the clothes,
+head-dresses and jewels which she possessed.
+
+“He has taken,” she sobbed, “my bodices and petticoats of velvet,
+brocade and lace; my diamonds, my emeralds, my sapphires, my jacinths,
+my amethysts, my rubies, my garnets, and my turquoises; he has taken my
+great diamond cross, with angels’ heads in enamel, my large necklace,
+consisting of two table diamonds, three cabochons, and six knots each
+of four pearls; he has taken my great collar of thirteen table diamonds,
+and twenty hanging pearls!”
+
+And without saying more she wept bitterly into her handkerchief.
+
+“My daughter,” answered the saintly Bishop, “a Christian virgin is
+sufficiently adorned when she wears modesty for a necklace, and chastity
+for a girdle. None the less, as the scion of a most noble and most
+illustrious family it was right that you should wear diamonds and
+pearls. Your jewels were the treasury of the poor, and I deplore the
+fact that they should have been snatched from you.”
+
+He assured her that she would certainly recover them, either in this
+world or the next; he said everything possible to assuage her regret,
+and soothe her sorrow, and he comforted her. For she had a tender
+soul, which longed for consolation. But he himself left her full of
+affliction.
+
+On the following day, as he was about to celebrate Mass in the
+cathedral, the holy Bishop saw coming towards him, in the sacristy, the
+three Jews, Seligmann, Issachar, and Meyer, who, wearing green hats and
+fillets upon their shoulders, very humbly presented him the notes which
+Robin had made over to them. As the venerable pontiff could not pay
+diem, they called up twenty porters, with baskets, sacks, picklocks,
+carts, cords, and ladders, and commenced to pick the locks of the
+wardrobes, coffers, and tabernacles. The holy man cast on them a look
+which would have destroyed three Christians. He threatened them with the
+penalties of sacrilege, both in this world and the next, he pointed
+out that their mere presence in the house of the God, whom they had
+crucified, called down the fire of heaven upon their heads. They
+listened with the calm of people for whom anathema, reprobation,
+malediction, and execration were their daily bread. He then prayed to
+them, besought them, and promised to pay as soon as he could, twofold,
+threefold, tenfold, a hundredfold, the debt which they had acquired.
+They excused themselves politely for being unable to postpone the little
+transaction. The Bishop threatened to sound the tocsin, to rouse against
+them the people who would kill them like dogs for profaning, violating,
+and stealing the miraculous images and holy relics. They smilingly
+pointed to the sheriff’s officers, who were guarding them. They were
+protected by King Berln, for they lent him money. At this sight the holy
+Bishop, recognizing that resistance would be rebellion, and remembering
+Him who replaced the ear of Malchus, remained inert and speechless, and
+bitter tears dropped from his eyes. Seligmann, Issachar, and Meyer
+took away the golden shrines enriched with precious stones, enamels and
+cabochons, the reliquaries in the form of chalices, lanterns, naves, and
+towers, the portable altars of alabaster encased in gold and silver, the
+coffers enamelled by the skilful craftsmen of Limoges and the Rhine, the
+altar-crosses, the Gospels bound in carved ivory and antique cameos,
+the desks ornamented with festoons of trailing vines, the consular
+registers, the pyxes, the candelabra and candlesticks, the lamp, of
+which they blew out the sacred flame, and spilt the blessed oil on the
+tiles, the chandeliers like enormous crowns, the duplets with beads of
+pearl and amber, the eucharistie doves, the ciboria, the chalices, the
+patens, the kisses of peace, incense boxes and flagons, the innumerable
+ex-votos--hands, arms, legs, eyes, mouths, and hearts, all of
+silver--the nose of King Sidoc, the breast of Queen Blandine, and the
+head in solid gold of Saint Cromadaire, the first apostle of Vervignole,
+and the blessed patron of Trinqueballe. They even carried off the
+miraculous image of St. Gibbosine, whom the people of Vervignole had
+never invoked in vain in time of pestilence, famine, or war. This very
+ancient and venerable image was made of leaves of beaten gold nailed
+upon a core of cedar-wood, and was covered with precious stones of the
+bigness of ducks’ eggs, which emitted fiery rays of red, blue, yellow
+and violet and white. For the past three hundred years her enamelled
+eyes, wide open in her golden face, had compelled such respect from the
+inhabitants of Trinqueballe that they saw her in their dreams, splendid
+and terrible, threatening them with the direst penalties if they
+failed to supply her with sufficient quantities of virgin- wax and
+crown-pieces. St. Gibbosine groaned, trembled, and tottered on her
+pedestal, and allowed herself to be carried away without resistance,
+out of the basilica to which, from time immemorial, she had drawn
+innumerable pilgrims.
+
+After the departure of these sacrilegious thieves the holy Bishop
+Nicolas ascended the steps of the despoiled altar, and consecrated the
+blood of our Lord in an old silver chalice, of German origin, thin and
+deeply dented. He prayed for the afflicted, and in particular for Robin,
+whom, by the will of God, he had rescued from the salting-box.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SHORTLY after this, King Berlu defeated the Mambournians in a great
+battle. He was, at first, unaware of the fact, for armed conflicts
+always present a great confusion, and during the last two hundred years
+the Vervignolians had lost the habit of victory. But the precipitate
+and disordered flight of the Mambournians informed him of his advantage.
+Instead of fighting a rear-guard action he pursued the enemy, and
+regained half his kingdom. The victorious army entered the city of
+Trinqueballe, all beflagged and beflowered in its honour, and in that
+illustrious capital of Vervignole it committed a great number of rapes,
+thefts, murders, and other cruelties, burnt several houses, sacked the
+churches, and took from the cathedral all that the Jews had left there,
+which, truth to tell, was not much.
+
+Maxime, who having become a knight and commander of eighty lances, had
+largely contributed to the victory, was one of the first to enter the
+city, and repaired straightway to the House of the Musicians, where
+dwelt the beautiful Mirande, whom he had not seen since his departure
+for the war. He found her in her bower, plying her distaff, and fell
+upon her with such impetuosity that the young lady lost her innocence
+without, so to speak, realizing that she had done so. And when, having
+recovered from her surprise, she exclaimed: “Is it you, Seigneur Maxime?
+What are you doing here?” and was preparing as in duty bound to resist
+her aggressor, he was quietly walking down the street, readjusting his
+armour and ogling the girls.
+
+Possibly she would have entirely overlooked this offence, had it not
+been that some time later she found that she was about to become a
+mother. Captain Maxime was then fighting in Mambournia. All the town
+knew her shame: she confided it to the great St. Nicolas, who, on
+learning this astonishing news, lifted his eyes to heaven, and said:
+
+“Lord, did you rescue this man from the salting-tub only as a ravening
+wolf to devour my sheep? Your wisdom is adorable; but your ways are
+dark, and your designs mysterious.”
+
+And in that same year, on the Sunday of Mid-Lent, Sulpice threw himself
+at the feet of the holy Bishop, saying:
+
+“From my earliest youth, my keenest wish has been to consecrate myself
+to the Lord. Allow me, father, to embrace the monastic state, and
+to make my profession in the monastery of the mendicant friars of
+Trinqueballe.”
+
+“My son,” answered the good St. Nikolas, “there is no worthier condition
+than that of the monk. Happy is he who in the shade of the cloister
+takes shelter from the tempests of the age. But of what avail to flee
+the storm if the storm is within oneself? Of what avail to affect an
+outward show of humility, if one’s bosom contains a heart full of pride?
+What shall you profit by donning the livery of obedience if your soul
+be in revolt? I have seen you, my son, fall into more errors than
+Sabellius, Alius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Manes, Pelagius, and Pachosius
+combined, and revive, before your twentieth year, twelve centuries of
+peculiar opinions. It is true that you have not been very obstinate
+in any of them, but your successive recantations appear to betray less
+submission to our Holy Mother the Church than eagerness to rush from one
+error to another, to leap from Manicheeism to Sabellianism, and from
+the crime of the Albigenses to the ignominies of the Vaudois.”
+
+Sulpice listened to this discourse with a contrite heart, a simplicity
+of mind and submissiveness, that drew tears from the great St. Nicolas.
+
+“I deplore, repudiate, condemn, reprove, detest, execrate, and abominate
+my errors, past, present, and future,” he said. “I submit myself to the
+Church fully and entirely, totally and generally, purely and simply; and
+I have no belief but her belief, no faith but her faith, no knowledge
+but her knowledge: I neither see, hear, nor feel, save only through her.
+She might tell me that the fly which has but now settled on the nose
+of the Deacon Modernus was a camel, and I should incontinently, without
+dispute, contest, murmur, resistance, hesitation or doubt, believe,
+declare, proclaim, and confess, under torture and unto death, that it
+was a camel that settled on the nose of the Deacon Modernus. For the
+Church is the Fountain of Truth, and I am nought by myself but a vile
+receptacle of Error.”
+
+“Take care, my father,” said Modernus. “Sulpice is capable of overdoing
+submission to the Church even to the point of Heresy. Do you not see
+that he submits with frenzy, in transports and swooning? Is wallowing in
+submission a good way of submitting? He is annihilating himself; he is
+committing suicide.”
+
+But the Bishop reprimanded his deacon for holding such ideas, which
+were contrary to charity, and sent the postulant to the noviciate of the
+mendicant friars of Trinqueballe.
+
+Alas, at the end of a year those priests, till then so quiet and humble,
+were torn by frightful schisms, plunged into a thousand errors against
+the Catholic truth, their days filled with disorder, and their souls
+with sedition! Sulpice inspired the brothers with this poison. He
+sustained against his superiors that there was no longer any true Pope,
+since miracles no longer accompanied the elections of the Sovereign
+Pontiffs; nor, rightly speaking, any Church, since Christians had ceased
+to live the life of the apostles and the first of the faithful; that
+there was no purgatory; that it was not necessary to confess to a priest
+if one confessed to God; that men do wrong in making use of moneys
+of gold and silver, for they should share in common the fruits of
+the earth. These abominable maxims, which he forcibly sustained, were
+combated by some, and adopted by others, causing horrible scandals.
+A little later Sulpice taught the doctrine of perfect purity, which
+nothing can soil, and the good brothers’ monastery became like a cage of
+monkeys. This pestilence did not remain confined within the walls of a
+monastery. Sulpice went preaching through the city; his eloquence, the
+internal fire by which he was consumed, the simplicity of his life, and
+his unshakable courage touched all hearts.
+
+On hearing the voice of the reformer, the ancient city, evangelized by
+St. Cromadaire, and enlightened by St. Gibbosine, fell into disorder and
+dissolution; every sort of extravagance and impiety was committed there,
+by day and by night. In vain did the great St. Nicolas warn his flock by
+exhortations, threats, and fulminations. The evil increased unchecked,
+and it was sad to see the contagion spreading itself among the
+well-to-do townsfolk, the lords, and the clergy, as much as and more
+than among the poor artisans and the small tradesfolk.
+
+One day when the man of God was lamenting the deplorable state of the
+church of Vervignole in the cloister of the cathedral, his meditations
+were disturbed by strange shrieks, and he saw a woman, stark naked,
+walking on all fours, with a peacock’s feather for a tail. As she came
+nearer, she barked, sniffed, and licked the ground. Her fair head
+was covered with mud, and her whole body was a mass of filth. In this
+unhappy creature the holy Bishop Nicolas recognized his niece Mirande.
+
+“What do you there, my daughter?” he cried. “Why are you naked, and
+wherefore do you walk on your hands and knees? Have you no shame?”
+
+“No, uncle, I am not ashamed,” sweetly replied Mirande. “I should, on
+the contrary, be ashamed of any other gesture, or method of progression.
+If one wishes to please God, it is thus that one should behave. The holy
+Brother Sulpice taught me to conduct myself thus, in order to resemble
+the beasts, who are nearer to God than is Man, in that they have not
+sinned. So long as I am in the state in which you see me, there will be
+no danger of my sinning. I have come, uncle, to beg you in all love and
+charity to do likewise; for unless you do you cannot be saved. Remove,
+I beg, your clothes, and adopt the posture of the animals, in whom God
+joyfully sees His image which has not been distorted by sin. I give you
+this advice by order of the holy brother Sulpice, and consequently by
+order of God Himself, for the holy brother is in the Lord’s secrets.
+Strip yourself naked, uncle, and come with me, so that we may show
+ourselves to the people for their edification.”
+
+“Can I believe my eyes and ears?” gasped the holy Bishop, whose voice
+was stifled by sobs. “I had a niece blooming in beauty, virtue, and
+piety; the three children whom I rescued from the salting-tub have
+reduced her to the miserable condition in which I now see her. The first
+has despoiled her of all her property, an abundant source of alms, and
+the patrimony of the poor; the second has robbed her of her honour, and
+the third has turned her into a heretic.”
+
+He threw himself on the flagstones, embracing his niece, begging her to
+renounce so evil a way of life, and adjuring her to reclothe herself,
+and walk on her feet like a human being, ransomed by the blood of Jesus
+Christ.
+
+But she replied only by sharp yelps and lamentable shrieks.
+
+Before long the town of Trinqueballe was filled with naked men and
+women, walking on all fours and barking; they called themselves the
+Edenites, and their ambition was to lead back the world to the times of
+perfect innocence, before the unfortunate creation of Adam and Eve.
+
+The Reverend Father Gilles Caquerole, a Dominican, inquisitor of
+the faith in the city, university, and ecclesiastical province of
+Trinqueballe, became uneasy concerning this novelty, and proceeded to
+look into it minutely. In the most urgent fashion, by letters under his
+seal, he invited the Bishop Nicolas, in co-operation with himself, to
+arrest, imprison, interrogate, and sentence these enemies of God, and
+especially their principal leaders, the Franciscan monk, Sulpice, and
+a dissolute woman named Mirande. The great St. Nicolas burned with an
+ardent zeal for the unity of the Church and the destruction of heresy,
+but he dearly loved his niece. He hid her in the episcopal palace, and
+refused to hand her over to the inquisitor Caquerole, who denounced him
+to the Pope as an abettor of disorder and the propagator of a new and
+very detestable heresy. The Pope enjoined Nicolas to no longer
+withhold the guilty one from her legitimate judges. Nicolas eluded
+the injunction, protested his obedience, and did not obey. The Pope
+fulminated against him in the Bull _Maleficus pastor_, in which the
+venerable pontiff was accused of being a disobedient member of the
+Church, a heretic, or one smelling of heresy, a keeper of concubines,
+a committer of incest, a corrupter of the people, an old woman and a
+meddling old fool, and was passionately admonished.
+
+In this way the Bishop did himself a great deal of harm without any
+benefit to his beloved niece. King Berlu, having been threatened with
+excommunication if he did not lend his secular arm to the Church in
+pursuit of the Edenites, sent some men-at-arms to the episcopal palace
+of Trinqueballe.
+
+They tore Mirande from her asylum: she was brought before the inquisitor
+Caquerole, thrown into a deep dungeon, and fed upon bread which the
+jailers’ dogs had refused; but what afflicted her most was that she was
+forcibly compelled to don an old frock and a hood, and that she could no
+longer be certain of not sinning.
+
+The monk Sulpice escaped the investigations of the Holy Office and
+succeeded in reaching Mambournia, and found an asylum in a monastery of
+that kingdom, where he established new sects even more pernicious than
+the previous one.
+
+Nevertheless, heresy, fortified by persecution, and exulting in danger,
+now spread its ravages over the whole of Vervignole. All over the
+kingdom there were seen in the fields thousands of naked men and women,
+nibbling the grass, bleating, lowing, roaring, neighing, and contending
+at night with sheep, cattle, and horses for the use of stable and
+manger. The inquisitor informed the Holy Father of these horrible
+scandals, and warned him that so long as the Protector of the Edenites,
+the odious Nicolas, remained seated on the throne of St. Cromadaire, the
+evil could only continue to increase. Conformably with this advice the
+Pope hurled against the Bishop, like a thunderbolt, the Bull _Deterrima
+quondam_, by which he deprived him of all his ecclesiastical functions,
+and cut him off from the communion of the faithful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CRUSHED by the Vicar of Jesus Christ, steeped in bitterness, overwhelmed
+by affliction, the holy Nicolas stepped down without regret from his
+illustrious seat, and departed, no more to return thither, from the city
+of Trinqueballe, which for thirty years had witnessed his pontifical
+virtues and apostolic labours. There is in western Vervignole a lofty
+mountain, whose peals are covered with perpetual snow; from its flanks
+there descend, in spring, the foaming sonorous cascades that fill the
+valley torrents with a water as blue as the sky. There, in a region
+where grow the larch, the arbutus, and the hazel, some hermits supported
+themselves on berries and milk. This mountain is called that of the
+Saviour. It was here that St. Nicolas resolved to take refuge, and, far
+from the world, to weep for his sins and those of man.
+
+As he was climbing the mountain in search of some wild spot where he
+might establish his habitation, having emerged above the clouds which
+are almost always gathered about the flanks of the peak, he saw upon the
+threshold of a hut an old man sharing his bread with a tame hind. His
+hair fell over his forehead, and nothing could be perceived of his face
+but the tip of his nose and a long white beard.
+
+The holy Nicolas greeted him with these words:
+
+“Peace be with you, brother.”
+
+“It delights to dwell upon this mountain,” answered the recluse.
+
+“I also,” replied the holy Nicolas, “have come hither to end, in calm,
+days which have been disturbed by the tumult of the times and the
+malignity of men.”
+
+As he was speaking in this wise, the hermit gazed at him attentively.
+
+“Are you not,” he said at length, “the Bishop of Trinqueballe, that
+Nicolas whose work and virtues are extolled by men?”
+
+When, by a sign, the holy pontiff admitted that he was that man, the
+hermit threw himself at his feet.
+
+“Monseigneur, to you I owe the saving of my soul, if, as I hope, my soul
+is saved.”
+
+Nicolas raised him with kindness, and asked him:
+
+“My brother, how have I had the happiness to work for your salvation?”
+
+“Twenty years ago,” replied the recluse, “when I was an innkeeper at
+the edge of a wood, on a deserted road, I saw one day, in a field, three
+little children gleaning. I lured them to my house, gave them wine to
+drink, cut their throats in their sleep, cut them up into small pieces,
+and salted them. On seeing them emerge from the salting-tub I was frozen
+with terror; owing to your exhortations my heart melted; I experienced
+a salutary repentance, and, fleeing from men, I came to this mountain,
+where I consecrated my days to God. He bestowed His peace upon me.”
+
+“What,” cried the holy Bishop, “you are that cruel Garum, guilty of so
+heinous a crime! I praise God that he has accorded you a peaceful
+heart, after the horrible murder of three children, whom you put in the
+salting-tub like pigs; but as for me, alas! for having drawn them out
+of it my life has been filled with tribulation, my soul steeped in
+bitterness, and my Bishopric laid wholly desolate. I have been deposed,
+excommunicated by the common Father of the Faithful. Why have I been so
+cruelly punished for what I did?”
+
+“Let us worship God,” said Garum, “and let us not ask His motives.”
+
+The great St. Nicolas, with his own hands, built a hut near that of
+Garum, and there, in prayer and penitence, he ended his days.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Miracle Of The Great St. Nicolas, by
+Anatole France
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