"Some of them will come down from time to time," said Father Jerome,
"and do what little can be done for him, poor old man! His sufferings,
it is to be hoped, will not last many days."
"And will he perform mass next Sunday?" said Marie.
"Indeed he will, if able to walk across the road into the chapel, and
will forget no word of the service, and make no blunder in the ceremony.
To you he seems to be an idiot, but he is not so, though long suffering
has made his mind to wander strangely, when he sees strange faces. There
are many who have been called to a more active sphere of duty for their
King and country than that poor Cure, but none who have suffered more
acutely for the cause, and have born their sufferings with greater
patience."
CHAPTER V
THE VENDEANS AT ST. FLORENT.
The reader, it is hoped, will remember St. Florent; it was here that the
first scene of this tale opened; it was here that Cathelineau first
opposed the exactions of the democratic government and that the
Vendeans, not then rejoicing in that now illustrious name, felt the
first flush of victory.
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