seemed to put all his life.

"How is it we do not die of this?" said Denise to her mother as they
passed through the wicket.

It was nearly eight o'clock when this parting took place. At the gate
of the prison the two women met the Abbe de Rastignac, who asked them
news of the prisoner.

"He will no doubt be reconciled with God," said Denise. "If repentance
has not yet begun, he is very near it."

The bishop was soon after informed that the clergy would triumph on
this occasion, and that the criminal would go to the scaffold with the
most edifying religious sentiments. The prelate, with whom was the
attorney-general, expressed a wish to see the rector. Monsieur Bonnet
did not reach the palace before midnight. The Abbe Gabriel, who made
many trips between the palace and the jail, judged it necessary to
fetch the rector in the episcopal coach; for the poor priest was in a
state of exhaustion which almost deprived him of the use of his legs.
The effect of his day, the prospect of the morrow, the sight of the
secret struggle he had witnessed, and the full repentance which had at
last overtaken his stubborn lamb when the great reckoning of eternity
was brought home to him,--all these things had combined to break down
Monsieur Bonnet, whose nervous, electrical nature entered into the
sufferings of others as though they were his own. Souls that resemble
that noble soul espouse so ardently the impressions, miseries,
passions, sufferings of those in whom they are interested, that they
actually feel them, and in a horrible manner, too; for they are able
to measure their extent,--a knowledge which escapes others who are