Chapter XII

Abstract

The devout Marquise de Gange, for whom all religious duties had become genuine pleasures, was at the Saint-Agricole parish one day, fulfilling one of those sacred acts by which men and women, with the guidance of the clergy, see before their very eyes the divine mystery of the eternal alliance that, for man’s salvation, the son of the Almighty himself willingly contracted with his Holy Father. An ineffable sacrifice no doubt, as that celestial Being condescends to appear before those he saved in a crude form which, far from diminishing the merit of such a solemn humiliation, renders it all the more noble and sublime for the pure soul who appreciates it.