442 THE MASS OF THt ATHEIST. 



flew, followed by Bianchon, to the poor sufferer, whom he caused 

 to be transported, under his own direction, to the Maison de Santd, 

 established by the celebrated Dubois, in the faubourg St. Denis. He 

 attended this man himself, and as soon as his health was re-established 

 furnished him with the sum requisite to purchase a water-butt and a 

 horse and cart. This Auvergnat distinguished himself in the follow- 

 ing original manner : One of his friends having fallen ill, he brought 

 him, without a moment's loss of time, to Desplein, merely saying to ' 

 his benefactor, " I could not have borne his going to any body else." 

 Rough as he was, Desplein wrung the hard hand of the water-carrier 

 as he said to him, " Bring me them all." And he ordered that the 

 poor wanderer from the Cantail should be transported to the Hotel- 

 Dieu, where he took the greatest care of him. Bianchon had se- 

 veral times previously remarked in his chief a predilection for the 

 Auvergnats, and especially for the water-carriers ; but, as Desplein 

 carried a sort of pride into his treatment of his patients at the Hotel 

 Dieu, the pupil attached no particular importance to the circum- 

 stance. 



One day, as he was crossing the place St. Sulpice, Bianchon 

 caught a glimpse of his chief, who was just entering the church, it 

 being then near nine o'clock in the morning. Desplein, who was 

 never known at that time to stir a step without his cabriolet, was on 

 foot, and stole into the church, by the rue du Petit Lion, as if he was 

 entering a house of suspicious character. Naturally seized with a 

 feeling of curiosity, the in-door student of the Hotel Dieu, who knew 

 the opinions of his master, and who was Cabaniste en dyuble by an y 

 <;rec (which seems in Rabelais a superiority in devilry), Bianchon slip- 

 ped also into the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great 

 Desplein — this atheist, without pity for the angels, who offer no point 

 of attack to the bistouries of the surgeon, and who are exempt from 

 cholic? and inflammations, in fine, this intrepid scoffer — humbly on 

 his knees, and where ? In the chapel dedicated to the Virgin, be- 

 fore whose image he listened to a mass, gave money towards paying 

 the expenses of the service, and for the poor, remaining all the while 

 as grave as if an operation was in progress. 



" He certainly has not come here to seek to enlighten himself 

 upon any question relative to the Virgin," said Bianchon (whose 

 astonishment exceeded all bounds) to himself " If I had seen him 

 at the Fete Dieu, holding one of the cords of the canopy, it would 

 have been no more than a jest ; but at this hour, alone, without wit- 

 nesses, there is certainly in it something to make one reflect ! " 



Bianchon would not' appear to be acting as a spy upon the first 

 surgeon of the Hotel Dieu, and quitted the place. By chance, 

 Desplein invited him to dine with him the same day, not at his own 

 house, but at a restaurateur's. Between the " pear and the cheese,'' 

 Bianchon contrived, by skilful advances, to lead the conversation 

 upon the subject of the mass, affecting to look upon it himself as a 

 mere farce. 



" A farce," said Desplein, " which has cost Christendom more 

 blood than all the battles of Napoleon, or all Broussais' leeches. The 

 mass is a papal invention, which dates no higher than the sixtli cen- 



