Raymond continued: "'God will yet do justice, in his time, to the oppressors of the innocent.

Your names, in future ages, will be execrated.

Meantime, keep your pomp, your pleasures, your grandeur, and your luxury; while our possessions are opprobrium and contempt, shame, banishment, and suffering--days without sun, and nights without repose or shelter.

Yes, drive us from you--you know that we are infectious, that we shall contaminate your purity--Away! Room, room for the Cagots!'" And Raymond and Guilhem retired through the crowd, which shrunk back, appalled, to let them pass.
The next day Marie de Lignac received a letter, the contents of which were never seen but by her tear-dimmed eyes; nor ever re-read by her after she entered the convent of Marciniac.
The Lord of Artiguelouve, on his death-bed, was a prey to the most bitter repentance: he implored that some priest of more than common sanctity should hear his last confession; and one was discovered in a holy hermit, who, when he was summoned from his retreat, was found kneeling beside a humble tomb, where he passed all his days in prayer, with rigorous fasting and unwearied penance.

He obeyed the call of the expiring sinner, and received his last sigh.