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 CHAPTER. XIII

"THE MASTER CHRISTIAN"—(Continued)

Of many interesting incidents which mark the Cardinal's stay in Paris, the most sensational is the sermon of the Abbé Vergniaud and the extraordinary scene at its close.

Marie Corelli gives a wonderfully realistic word-picture of the scene in the famous church on a notable occasion. The Abbé's sermon, which appears in its entirety, is scathingly sarcastic. In it he bitterly denounces the hypocrisy alike of people and of churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church, which he attacks for the ban it places upon many things, even discussion; he declares that all the intellectual force of the country is arrayed against priestcraft, and that the spirit of an insolent, witty, domineering atheism and materialism rules us all. "But what I specially wish to advise you—taking myself as an example—is, that none of you, whether inclined to virtue or to vice, should remain such arrant fools as to imagine that your sins will not find you out."