That which he had said brought him nearer to him who is in death.
The supreme moment was approaching.
The Bishop understood this; time pressed; it was as a priest that he had come: from extreme coldness he had passed by degrees to extreme emotion; he gazed at those closed eyes, he took that wrinkled, aged and ice-cold hand in his, and bent over the dying man.
"This hour is the hour of God.

Do you not think that it would be regrettable if we had met in vain ?" The conventionary opened his eyes again.

A gravity mingled with gloom was imprinted on his countenance.
"Bishop," said he, with a slowness which probably arose more from his dignity of soul than from the failing of his strength, "I have passed my life in meditation, study, and contemplation.

I was sixty years of age when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its affairs.

I obeyed.