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6 THE LEPER'S CONFESSION. knowledged not even the slender ties of fellowship.

An hour had scarcely elapsed before all was in readiness for our flight. I put out the light, and we hoped to have escaped unperceived, but as I opened the street door, I beheld several persons standing in front of my house. I recoiled and closed the door, and as I did so, some one knocked and attempted to open it. I resisted, and in an instant it was burst open, and they rushed in and seized me. I demanded the reason of the outrage, and a voice exclaimed, " He is a leper. " I recognized the voice, I turned towards the person who spoke, and beheld my persecutor. My faculties both physical and mental were prostrated.

As they led me away, my wife attempted to follow, but they forced us asunder. He who had betrayed me took charge of her, and I was lodged in a room the windows of which were grated, and the door secured so that it was impossible to escape. My feelings during that night I may not attempt to describe, for they rushed upon me with the rapidity of lightning, until my brain was in a whirl. Nothing was distinct. One thought, however, operated as a nucleus around which all gathered in fearful array: -My wife was in the power of my worst enemy in the power of one who loved her, and the marriage ties between us were dissolved forever.

That night appeared as an age, and I thought day would never break. I wished for it, and yet looked forward to it with undefined terror. At length it came, and as I heard the busy hum of the world around me, I longed for the death like stillness of night again.

In the course of the morning, a priest clothed in his surplice and stole, repaired with the cross, to the place where I was confined. He began by exhorting me to bear, in a spirit of resignation and patience, the incurable affliction with which God had stricken me! -It is easier to offer consolation than to receive it! -He then besprinkled me with holy water, and when he supposed my mind sufficiently prepared, for the appalling ceremony that awaited me, he conducted me to the church, and on the way, the same verses were sung as at burials. There I was divested of my ordinary clothing, and a black habit, prepared for the purpose, was put on me. The priest now commanded me to fall on my knees before the altar, between two trestles, and I remained in that position while mass was said. It was the same as is performed for the dead. The mass being over, I was again sprinkled with holy water, the libera was sung, and I was conducted to the hut prepared for my reception. When we had arrived there, the priest again exhorted and consoled me, and finished by throwing a shovel full of earth on my feet. I was then as one of the dead in the eyes of the world, and, indeed, I had but little more consciousness of what was passing than one of the dead, although during the whole ceremony my hated enemy was malignantly looking on.

The hut was small, and furnished with a bed, a vessel for water, a chest, a table, a lamp and a few other necessaries. I was presented with a cowl, a tunic, and a long robe, a little cask, a rattle, a stick, and a girdle of copper. Before the priest left me, he interdicted me from appearing in public without my leper's habit and with naked feet, from going into churches, mills, or where bread was cooking; from washing my hands and clothes in the wells and brooks; from touching any commodity at market, except with a stick, in order to point out the article I wished to purchase. I was farther enjoined not to draw water but with a proper vessel; never to reply to the questions of any one who might meet me on the road if the wind blew towards him; never to touch children, nor to give them any thing which I had touched; never to appear in public meetings, and never to eat or drink with any but lepers. I felt myself literally one of the dead in the midst of the living.

I was now informed that the marriage ties between myself and wife were dissolved, that she was free to make another choice, but that we could never come together again. She had been removed to her father's house, and strictly watched, lest our correspondence should be renewed. Although I seldom stirred abroad from my living grave, few matters of import occurred to that being, without speedily reaching my ears. Scarcely a month had elapsed before I heard that my hated rival had renewed his overtures. I knew her father to be tyrannical, and I was aware of the influence he maintained over her delicate mind, now enfeebled by a constant succession of anxiety and suffering. I felt that she was still my wife in the eye of heaven, though man had parted us.

Another month elapsed, during which time, that thought was as a burning coal upon my mind day and night. It could neither be kindled to a flame, nor could it be quenched, but there it lay unchanged and unchangeable. I endeavoured to excite my feelings to madness, in hopes of gaining relief, but it was impossible. I had been humbled, my soul had been prostrated, and the dull feeling of despair kept it grovelling in the earth.

The next intelligence I received was, that I was likely to become a father. Under different circumstances that would have been joyful tidings, but now I was thankful only because it procrastinated the fate that awaited my wife. In due time the child was born, and I learnt the time and place fixed for his baptism. I repaired to the spot, to see him; as I drew nigh, I perceived that a few servants of the household had already assembled; I sounded my rattle to forewarn them that a leper approached; they started at the sound, and commanded me to come no nearer. I dared not do otherwise than obey.

The priest soon afterwards appeared, and a nurse followed carrying the infant. The ceremony took place, but they did not baptize him in the font of holy water, for he was the child of a leper, and they dreaded lest the little innocent should poison the whole font, and turn into a