"In the life to which you condemn me, my father, the joys are as terrible as the sorrows."The Count said to Gilbert:
"Console her, calm her emotion.She is yours.I have given her to you.Do not fear that I shall take her back again." Then, turning again to the bed, he exclaimed: "What a terrible thorn death has just drawn from my heart!"In the midst of so many tragic sensations, who was happy? Father Alexis was, and he had no desire to hide it.He went and came, moved the furniture, passed his hand over his beard, struck his chest with all his might, and presently in his excess of joy threw himself upon Stephane and then upon Gilbert, caressing and embracing them.At last, kneeling down by the bed of death, under the eyes of the Count, he took the head of the dead man between his hands and kissed him upon the mouth and cheeks, saying:
"My poor brother, thou hast perhaps been more unfortunate than guilty.May God, in the unfathomable mystery of his infinite mercy, give thee one day, as I have, the kiss of peace! Then raising his clasped hands, he said: "Holy mother of God: blessed be thy name.Thou hast done more than I dared to ask."At that moment Ivan, roused at last from his long lethargy, appeared at the threshold of the door.For some minutes he remained paralyzed by astonishment, and looked around distractedly;then, throwing himself at his master's feet and tearing his hair, he cried:
"Seigneur Pere, I am not a traitor! That man mixed some drug in my tea which put me to sleep.Seigneur Pere, kill me, but do not say that I am a traitor.""Rise," returned the Count gayly, "rise, I say.I shall not kill thee.I am not going to kill anybody.My son, thou'rt a rusty old tool.Dost know what I shall do with thee? I shall slip thee in among the wedding presents of Madame Gilbert Saville."Paul Bourget Andre Cornelis I