illustrious pontiff feared that the excessive excitability of my feelings
would cause me to commit some deadly sin at the moment of my death, after
I had received the blessed ointment. He made me a present of a flask of
holy water that gushed forth from a rock in the desert. I kept the secret
of the theft of the Church's treasure, but I am authorized to reveal the
mystery to my son 'in articulo mortis.' You will find the flask in the
drawer of the Gothic table which always stands at my bedside. The precious
crystals may be of service to you also, my dearest Philippe. Will you
swear to me by your eternal salvation that you will carry out my orders
faithfully?"

Philippe looked at his father. Don Juan was too well versed in human
expression not to know that he could die peacefully in perfect faith in
such a look, as his father had died in despair at his own expression.

"You deserve a different father," continued Don Juan. "I must acknowledge
that when the estimable Abbot of San Lucas was administering the viaticum'
I was thinking of the incompatibility of two so wide-spreading powers as
that of the devil and that of God."

"Oh, father!"

"And I said to myself that when Satan makes his peace he will be a great
idiot if he does not bargain for the pardon of his followers. This thought
haunted me. So, my child, I shall go to hell if you do not carry out my
wishes."

"Oh, tell them to me at once, father!"

"As soon as I have closed my eyes," replied Don Juan, "and that may be in