Religion
had passed into science, into politics, into eloquence, into crimes,
into the flesh of the sick man and the poor man; it mounted thrones;
it was everywhere. These semi-learned observations will serve, perhaps,
to vindicate the truth of this study, certain details of which may
frighten the perfected morals of our age, which are, as everybody
knows, a trifle straitlaced.
At the moment when the chanting ceased and the last notes of the
organ, mingling with the vibrations of the loud "A-men" as it issued
from the strong chests of the intoning clergy, sent a murmuring echo
through the distant arches, and the hushed assembly were awaiting the
beneficent words of the archbishop, a burgher, impatient to get home,
or fearing for his purse in the tumult of the crowd when the
worshippers dispersed, slipped quietly away, at the risk of being
called a bad Catholic. On which, a nobleman, leaning against one of
the enormous columns that surround the choir, hastened to take
possession of the seat abandoned by the worthy Tourainean.
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