The Cure preached, as he had always done, with a simple, practical
solicitude; but towards the end of his brief sermon he paused, and, with
a serious tenderness of voice, said:
"My children, vanity is the bane of mankind; it destroys as many souls as
self-sacrifice saves. It is the constant temptation of the human heart. I
have ever warned you against it, as I myself have prayed to be kept from
its devices--alas! how futilely at times. Vanity leads to imposture, and
imposture to the wronging of others. But if a man repent, and yield all
he has, to pay the high price of his bitter mistake, he may thereby
redeem himself even in this world. If he give his life repenting, and if
the giving stays the evil he might have wrought, shall we be less
merciful than God?
"My children" (he did not mention Valmond's name), "his last act was
manly; his death was pious; his sin was forgiven. Those rifle bullets
that brought him down let out all the evil in his blood.
"We, my people, have been delivered from a grave error. Forgetting--save
for our souls' welfare--the misery of this vanity which led us astray,
let us remember with gladness all of him that was commendable in our
eyes: his kindness, eloquence, generous heart, courage, and love of
Mother Church.
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