Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/252

228 his new ally, "to exorcise and turn again these fanatics, so as to wean them from this sorcerer, this corruptor?"

"Yes, yes! Corruptor is not too harsh!" broke in Landrillon, with an inward laugh, which would have given much cause for suspicion to any other than this pastor, who, though a rigid moralist, was of limited ideas.

"Mind you," he protested, "I have no spite against this wicked nobleman; I am solely moved by zeal for my religion, proper morals, and the triumph of goodness."

"In order to succeed, my Reverend Sir," Landrillon resumed a cunning look, "we must discover in the Count of Kehlmark a transgression which would offend a terrible, and in some sort ineradicable, prejudice in our social and Christian order; you understand what I mean, an abomination which would cry not only for vengeance to heaven but even to the less hardened sinners."

"Yes, but who will furnish us the proof of a crime of this nature?" sighed Bomberg.

"Patience, my Reverend Sir, patience!" snuffled artfully the wicked domestic.

Bomberg kept his ecclesiastical superiors informed as to the more favourable turn which their affairs were taking.