believ'd nothing at all. The Devil take me, if I believ'd a syllable then; but ever since I could endure to be crucified for my Religion. Not that I see more reason in it now; but, on the contrary, less than ever: but, for all that, I could suffer my self to be crucified, without knowing why, or wherefore."
"So much the better, my Lord," reply'd the Father, twanging it very devoutly thro' the Nose, "so much the better; these are no human motions; they proceed from God. No Reason! that's the true Religion this: no Reason! What an extraordinary grace, my Lord, has Heaven bestow'd upon you! Estote sicut infantes, be as infants. Infants preserve their innocency; and why? because they have no Reason. Beati pauperes spiritu, blessed are the poor in spirit; they sin not: the reason is, because they have no Reason. No Reason: without knowing why, or wherefore. Oh excellent words! they ought to be written in letters of gold: Not that I see more reason in it now; but, on the contrary, less than ever! in truth, this is divine for them, that have any taste of heavenly things: no Reason! what an extraordinary grace, my Lord, has God bestow'd upon you!"
The Father had carried farther his holy hatred against Reason, if some Letters had not come from Court to the Mareschal, which interrupted so pious a Conversation. The Mareschal read them softly to himself; and afterwards he was pleas'd to tell the Company the contents. "If I affected to be thought a Politician, as others do, I should retire into my Closet, to read Dispatches from the Court: but I always act and speak with an open heart. The Cardinal sends me word, that Stenay's taken[1]; that the Court will be here within
- ↑ Stenay was taken the sixth of August 1654.
