Excerpt: "And is this the pity of God? He has spared mv life. Good men, honorable gentlemen, my friends - I had such friends once - have died like vermin. The Lake of Geneva holds all that is left Of Maligny, 1c beau cadet, as we called him; the Vidame died at the galleys, chained to the scum of man kind. But he died, Maligny died, even Achon died, that merciless priest! And I live as a leper! I have come to know that death is the pity Of God."