Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/400

 assassination of the Archbishop and the five other victims, remarked to his neighbor that the call of the condemned had been made, and would probably be made again, without any attempt to prove their identity; that consequently a substitution of persons was an easy thing, and that if they proceeded by squads, the last survivors would have some chance of being rescued in time by the deliverers whom it was still permitted to expect.

At the moment of his arrest, Father Guerrin had chanced to be dressed in civilian's clothes; since his entrance into prison he had allowed his beard and mustaches to grow, and there was nothing in his exterior to indicate a member of the clergy. Under these circumstances, "heureusement réunies," as he said with touching simplicity. Father Guerrin offered his neighbor to reply for him and take his place, if, at the next call, the name of this father of a family should be called before his own. "You are married," he said; "you have a wife, a child, for whom you ought to save yourself, if possible. Those are ties which it would be too painful to break, and our sacrifice is much less difficult than yours. For me, a priest, a missionary, the martyrdom which I sought in China without finding it, ch bien! I shall find it here. It little matters whether it is to-day instead of to-morrow; above all, if I can render my death useful, and make it contribute in saving your life."

This heroic act of abnegation could not have been proposed more simply or more as a matter of course, and it was only after a violent debate, and an absolute and reiterated refusal to profit by any substitution, that the companion of the holy father could induce him to abandon his design. What commentaries can be made on such an act! While no country is cursed with such a large body of atheists and free-thinkers as France, in no other is to be found a clergy excelling the French in their loving