CHAPTER V 



AT THE COLLEGE OF RODEZ 



WE have learned what we may of the 

 schoolboy of Saint-Leons. Let us fol- 

 low him to the Lycee of Rodez, which he 

 entered as a day-boy at the age of ten: 



I come to the time when I was ten years old 

 and at Rodez College. My functions as a serving- 

 boy in the chapel entitled me to free instruction 

 as a day-boarder. There were four of us in white 

 surplices and red skull-caps and cassocks. I was 

 the youngest of the party, and did little more than 

 walk on. I counted as a unit; and that was about 

 all, for I was never certain when to ring the bell 

 or when to move the missal from one side of the 

 altar to the other. I was all of a tremble when 

 we gathered, two on this side, two on that, with 

 genuflexions, in the middle of the sanctuary, to in- 

 tone the Domine, salvum fac regem at the end 

 of mass. Let me make a confession : tongue-tied 

 with shyness, I used to leave it to the others. 



Nevertheless, I was well thought of, for, in the 

 school, I cut a good figure in composition and trans- 

 lation. In that classical atmosphere there was talk 



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