"`On receipt of the present rescript, the Reverend Father Rodin will deliver up all his powers to the Reverend Father Caboccini, who is alone commissioned, with the Reverend Father d'Aigrigny, to receive the inheritance of the Rennepont family, if, in His eternal justice, the Lord should restore this property, of which our Company has been wronged.
"`Moreover, on receipt of the present rescript, the Reverend Father Rodin, in charge of a person to be named by the Reverend Father Caboccini, shall be conveyed to our house in the Town of Laval, to be kept in strict seclusion in his cell until further orders.'"
Then Father Caboccini handed the rescript to Rodin, that the latter might read the signature of the General of the Company.Samuel, greatly interested by this scene, drew a few steps nearer, leaving the casket half-open.Suddenly, Rodin burst into a loud laugh--a laugh of joy, contempt and triumph, impossible to describe.Father Caboccini looked at him with angry astonishment; when Rodin, growing still more imperious and haughty, and with an air of more sovereign disdain than ever, pushed aside the paper with the back of his dirty hand and said:
"What is the date of that scribble?"
"The eleventh of May," answered Father Caboccini in amazement.
"Here is a brief, that I received last night from Rome, under date of the eighteenth.It informs me that I am appointed GENERAL OF THE ORDER.
Read!"