"I am sorry I can not return the compliment of praying for your forgiveness, but you are so unrepentant. However, I will hear your confession if you wish." "I will confess to God and not the devil." "You might as well begin your confession then." Aglipay paled. But he faced the nuncio and spoke in a calm voice: "How can you profess religion, you who are so cruel, so ambitious, so licentious? Do you really believe, or is it an open mockery with you?" Violeta laughed. "Yes," answered he, "there is a God, and truth, too, in religion. But it is moral to rise to your full height, though you may trample others as you rise; and though it seem a pity to devour the weaker creatures, no one thinks about it. It is a part of feeding, and is right. We eat a woman's flesh as 'twere a fowl's, and take a poor man's life as though a bird's; that is, the great do, those with authority. It is doing this that makes them great. Repression is but failure. Life and success came from expression and experience. I am friendly with you because we must part. Good-bye; Bishop." He extended his hand, but the schismatist, pale and unable to more than move mechanically, stared at him without offering his hand. The nuncio laughed again, and carelessly said, "Oh, as you please." By this time they were in a shady place, secure from observation by a clump of trees, and the other soldier approached with a couple of shovels. "Scoop out a grave there, fellows," said the Jesuit. "You must not take your prisoners to headquarters if you would avoid trouble. We will have a bit of fun by and by." The soldiers were sufficiently drunk to be irresponsible, and of a temperament to receive suggestions. They obeyed the Jesuit without demurring, while he taunted the renegade Romish priest, and then they came to him to inform him that all was ready. "Tie the prisoner," said the Jesuit. They proceeded to pinion his legs and arms, and when this was done the Jesuit continued: "Now take him and throw him in the trench." "Dios Mio! You surely will not bury me alive," plead the leader of the schism, as they lifted him and deposited him in the rude and shallow grave. For answer the Jesuit bade the soldiers seize the shovels and fill up the sand over the body, leaving the head uncovered. Aglipay begged and prayed, as shovelful after shovelful of sand fell upon him, first rendering him powerless to move, and then bearing upon him with a weight intolerable. His face was blanched, his eyes stood out, bloodshot in horror. For answer to his pleading the Jesuit produced a prayer book and began to read in mockery the service of the dead: "From the pains of death, good Lord, deliver me." Aglipay gritted his teeth, but his soul responded in a sincerer prayer than the Jesuit uttered. "From the pains of hell and the agony of the grave"-- "Good Lord, deliver me," plead the man in the grave. "Silence the disturber of our devotions," commanded the Jesuit.