第284章

"`I have spoken.My duty is accomplished.In all this, I have followed the counsels of the man whom I revere and love as the image of God upon earth.

"`The faithful friend, who preserved for me the fifty thousand crowns, the wreck of my fortune, knows the use I mean to make of them.I could not refuse his friendship this mark of confidence.But I have concealed from him the name of Isaac Samuel--for to have mentioned it might have exposed this latter and his descendants to great dangers.

"`In a short time, this friend, who knows not that my resolution to die is so near its accomplishment, will come hither with my notary.Into their hands, after the usual formalities, I shall deliver my sealed testament.

"`Such is my last will.I leave its execution to the superintending care of Providence.God will protect the cause of love, peace, union, and liberty.

"`This mystic testament,[20] having been freely made by me, and written entirely with my own hand, I intend and will its scrupulous execution both in spirit and the letter.

"`This 13th day of February, 1682, at one o'clock in the afternoon."'MARIUS DE RENNEPONT.'"

As the notary had proceeded with the reading of the testament, Gabriel was successively agitated by divers painful impressions.At first, as we have before said, he was struck with the singular fatality which restored this immense fortune, derived from a victim of the Society of Jesus, to the hands of that very association, by the renewal of his deed of gift.

Then, as his charitable and lofty soul began fully to comprehend the admirable tendency of the association so earnestly recommended by Marius de Rennepont, he reflected with bitter remorse, that, in consequence of his act of renunciation, and of the absence of any other heir, this great idea would never be realized, and a fortune, far more considerable than had even been expected, would fall to the share of an ill-omened society, in whose hands it would become a terrible means of action.At the same time, it must be said that the soul of Gabriel was too pure and noble to feel the slightest personal regret, on hearing the great probable value of the property he had renounced.He rejoiced rather in withdrawing his mind, by a touching contrast, from the thought of the wealth he had abandoned, to the humble parsonage, where he hoped to pass the remainder of his life, in the practice of most evangelical virtue.

These ideas passed confusedly through his brain.The sight of that woman's portrait, the dark revelations contained in the testament, the grandeur of the views exhibited in this last will of M.de Rennepont, all these extraordinary incidents had thrown Gabriel into a sort of stupor, in which he was still plunged, when Samuel offered the key of the register to the notary, saying: "You will find, sir, in this register, the exact statement of the sums in my possession, derived from the investment and accumulation of the one hundred and fifty thousand francs, entrusted to my grandfather by M.Marius de Rennepont."

"Your grandfather!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, with the utmost surprise;

"it is then your family that has always had the management of this property."

"Yes, sir; and, in a few minutes, my wife will bring hither the casket which contains the vouchers."

"And to what sum does this property amount?" asked Rodin, with an air of the most complete indifference.

"As M.Notary may convince himself by this statement," replied Samuel, with perfect frankness, and as if he were only talking of the original one hundred and fifty thousand francs, "I have in my possession various current securities to the amount of two hundred and twelve millions, one hundred and seventy--"

"You say, sir'" cried Father d'Aigrigny, without giving Samuel time to finish, for the odd money did not at all interest his reverence.

"Yes, the sum!" added Rodin, in an agitated voice, and, for the first time, perhaps, in his life losing his presence of mind; "the sum--the sum--the sum!"

"I say, sir," resumed the old man, "that I hold securities for two hundred and twelve millions, one hundred and seventy-five thousand francs, payable to self or bearer--as you may soon convince yourself, M.

Notary, for here is my wife with the casket."