Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/405



the heart, which is aggravated by want of air and diet of the prison. I wish in the first place that you could put off my affair, since they wish to judge me. I am utterly unable to go before their tribunal. If they wish to shoot me, let them shoot me here. I am not a hero, but it is as well to die that way as another.'

"I hastened to interrupt him.

"'Monseigneur,' I said, 'we have not reached that point yet;' and I related, insisting on all the points that could reassure him, the conversation which I had just had with Rigault. By talking thus, Monseigneur Darboy became animated and almost gay. He developed in a few words the ideas which he judged most useful for his defence.

"'I do not know,' he said, 'what causes their animosity against me. I have incurred, on account of my ideas on certain subjects, the disfavor of the Court of Rome. When, in 1863, I was called to the Archbishopric of Paris, I explained to the Emperor my views regarding the separation of Church and State. I begged him to occupy himself with the clergy as little as possible, and since, I have always avoided speaking in my public acts of the Emperor and his government. After my arrest I was subjected to the most ridiculous interrogatories. This Rigault or Ferré told me that I had taken possession of the people's property,'

"'What property?' I asked.

"'Parbleu, the churches, the vases, the ornaments.'

"'But' I replied, 'you don't know of what you are talking. The vases, the ornaments, everything which serve in the religious worship, belong to persons called fabriques, who have the right to possess them; and if you had taken them, you would expose yourself to penalties written in the laws.'

"The Archbishop then spoke to me of the visits he had