Like a wise commander, who finds he has
occupied too much ground for the amount of his force, he began to
curtail his outworks. The relics were concealed from profane eyes; his
people were admonished not to speak of miracles before a race that not
only denied their existence, but who had even the desperate hardihood
to challenge their proofs; and even the Bible itself was prohibited,
with terrible denunciations, for the triumphant reason that it was
liable to be misinterpreted.
In the mean time, it became necessary to report to Don Augustin, the
effects his arguments and prayers had produced on the heretical
disposition of the young soldier. No man is prone to confess his
weakness, at the very moment when circumstances demand the utmost
efforts of his strength. By a species of pious fraud, for which no
doubt the worthy priest found his absolution in the purity of his
motives, he declared that, while no positive change was actually
wrought in the mind of Middleton, there was every reason to hope the
entering wedge of argument had been driven to its head, and that in
consequence an opening was left, through which, it might rationally be
hoped, the blessed seeds of a religious fructification would find
their way, especially if the subject was left uninterruptedly to enjoy
the advantage of catholic communion.
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