Their lips moved like those of a Moslemite who says his prayers towards Mecca.

And the words they uttered were indeed prayers of solemnest import.
With his usual devotion at such seasons, Gilles de Retz had attended service thrice that day in his Chapel of the Holy Innocents.

His behaviour had been marked by intense devoutness.

An excessive tenderness of conscience had characterised his confessions to Pere Blouyn, his spiritual director-in-ordinary.

He confessed as his most flagrant sin that his thoughts were overmuch set on the vanities of the world, and that he had even sometimes been tempted of the devil to question the right of Holy Church herself to settle all questions according to the will of her priests and prelates.
Whereupon Pere Blouyn, with suave correctness of judgment, had pointed out wherein his master erred; but also cautioned him against that undue tenderness of conscience natural to one with his exalted position and high views of duty and life.