Soon, however, the last speaker calmed his agitation with the facility of a man accustomed to stifle the emotions that he cannot crush, and advancing to the landholder, took him sorrowfully by the hand.
'I see, Probus, that I have amazed you,' said he; 'but the Church is the only subject on which I have no discretion.

In all other matters I have conquered the rashness of my early manhood; in this I have to wrestle with my hastier nature still.

When I look on the mockeries that are acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a people deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to hope to reform.' 'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your enthusiasm was love.

Your wife--' 'Peace! She deceived me!' 'Your child--' 'Lives with me at Rome.' 'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your neighbour in Gaul.

On my departure from the province, you had just returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother whose absence you were wont so continually to lament.