"I am even doubtful, between ourselves, as to whether they will not shoot me." "Why do you stay ?" said Blondet.
"We can't desert God's cause any more than that of an emperor," replied the priest, with a simplicity that affected Blondet.

He took the abbe's hand and shook it cordially.
"You see how it is, therefore, that I know very little of the plots that are going on," continued the abbe.

"Still, I know enough to feel sure that the general is under what in Artois and in Belgium is called an 'evil grudge.'" A few words are here necessary about the curate of Blangy.
This priest, the fourth son of a worthy middle-class family of Autun, was an intelligent man carrying his head high in his collar.

Small and slight, he redeemed his rather puny appearance by the precise and carefully dressed air that belongs to Burgundians.

He accepted the second-rate post of Blangy out of pure devotion, for his religious convictions were joined to political opinions that were equally strong.
There was something of the priest of the olden time about him; he held to the Church and to the clergy passionately; saw the bearings of things, and no selfishness marred his one ambition, which was _to serve_.