Ah! my heart bounded within me and it is still bleeding!" Pierre in his utter amazement at first made but a gesture of revolt against imbecile social cruelty.

Had the bread left near the unfortunate wretch, and devoured too eagerly, perhaps, after long days of abstinence, been the cause of his death?
Or was not this rather the fatal _denouement_ of an ended life, worn away by labour and privation?
However, what did the cause signify?
Death had come and delivered the poor man.

"It isn't he that I pity," Pierre muttered at last; "it is we--we who witness all that, we who are guilty of these abominations." But good Abbe Rose was already becoming resigned, and would only think of forgiveness and hope.

"No, no, my child, rebellion is evil.

If we are all guilty we can only implore Providence to forget our faults.