"Seven degrees," pursued Bernard. "I must have all the relationships of the married men throughout the country gone into. This district of Caio to commence with, then go on through the South of Wales--through my diocese. I must have all inquired into; and if any man shall have contracted an union within the forbidden degrees, if he have taken to him a wife related by blood--consanguine, that is the word, chaplain, eh?--or connected by marriage, affine--am I right, chaplain?--or having contracted a spiritual relationship through sponsorship at the font, or legal relation through guardianship--then such marriages must be annulled, made void, and the issue pronounced to be illegitimate." "My good Lord!" gasped Pabo, turning deadly pale. "Understand me," went on the bishop, turning his blear, ringed, birdlike eyes about on the circle of those present, "if it shall chance that persons have stood at the font to a child, then they have thereby contracted a spiritual affinity--I am right, am I not chaplain?--which acts as a barrier to marriage; and, if they have become united, bastardizes their issue. Cousinship by blood, relationship through marriage, all act in the same way to seven degrees--and render unions void." "Are you aware what you are about?" asked Pabo gravely. "In our land, hemmed in by mountains, marriages are usually contracted within the same tribe, and in the same district, so that the whole of our people are more or less bound together into a family. A kinship of some sort subsists between all. If you press this rule--and it is no rule with us--you break up fully three-fourths of the families in this country." "And what if I do?" "What! Separate husband and wife!" "If the union has been unlawful." "It has not been unlawful. Cousins have always among us been allowed to marry. No nearer blood relations; and the rule of affinity has never extended beyond a wife's sister. As to spiritual relationship as a bar, it is a device of man. Why! to inquire into such matters is to pry into every family, to introduce trouble into consciences, to offer opportunity for all kinds of license." "I care not. It is our Canon law." "But we are not, we never have been, subject to your Canon law." "You are so now. I, your head, have taken oath of allegiance to Canterbury. Thereby I have bound you all." Pabo's cheek darkened. "I rely on you," proceeded the bishop. "You, as you say, have lived here always. You can furnish me with particulars as to all the marriages that have been contracted for the last fifty years." "What! does the rule act retrospectively?" "Ay. What is unlawful now was unlawful always." "I will not give up--betray my people." "You will be obedient to your bishop!" Pabo bit his lip and looked down. "This will entail a good deal of shifting of lands from hand to hand, when sons discover that their fathers' wedlock was unlawful, and that they are not qualified to inherit aught." "You will cause incalculable evil!"