bend before the blast. Like his predecessor, he could not refuse to
bear the burden of life; he was afraid to die while he bore the yoke
of hell. The torment grew intolerable.

At last, one morning, he bethought himself how that Melmoth (now among
the blessed) had made the proposal of an exchange, and how that he had
accepted it; others, doubtless, would follow his example; for in an
age proclaimed, by the inheritors of the eloquence of the Fathers of
the Church, to be fatally indifferent to religion, it should be easy
to find a man who would accept the conditions of the contract in order
to prove its advantages.

"There is one place where you can learn what kings will fetch in the
market; where nations are weighed in the balance and systems
appraised; where the value of a government is stated in terms of the
five-franc piece; where ideas and beliefs have their price, and
everything is discounted; where God Himself, in a manner, borrows on
the security of His revenue of souls, for the Pope has a running
account there. Is it not there that I should go to traffic in souls?"

Castanier went quite joyously on 'Change, thinking that it would be as
easy to buy a soul as to invest money in the Funds. Any ordinary
person would have feared ridicule, but Castanier knew by experience
that a desperate man takes everything seriously. A prisoner lying
under sentence of death would listen to the madman who should tell him
that by pronouncing some gibberish he could escape through the
keyhole; for suffering is credulous, and clings to an idea until it
fails, as the swimmer borne along by the current clings to the branch
that snaps in his hand.