God forbid, my son, that I, your old tutor, should seek to assail my own work, and attempt to weaken your faith! Preserve ever and everywhere that simple creed of which your noble family has given you the example, which our fathers possessed in a still higher degree than we, and of which the greatest captains of our time are not ashamed.
Always, while you wear a sword, remember that you hold it for the service of God.

But at the same time, when you are among men, avoid being deceived by the hypocrite.

He will encompass you, my son; he will assail you on the vulnerable side of your ingenuous heart, in addressing your religion; and seeing the extravagance of his affected zeal, you will fancy yourself lukewarm as compared with him.

You will think that your conscience cries out against you; but it will not be the voice of conscience that you hear.

And what cries would not that conscience send forth, how fiercely would it not rise upon you, did you contribute to the destruction of innocence by invoking Heaven itself as a false witness against it ?" "Oh, my father! can such things be possible ?" exclaimed Henri d'Effiat, clasping his hands.
"It is but too true," continued the Abbe; "you saw a partial execution of it this morning.