The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Grip of Desire, by Hector France, et al

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Title: The Grip of Desire

Author: Hector France

Release Date: February 6, 2004 [eBook #10963]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRIP OF DESIRE***

This file was produced by Carlo Traverso, Relka Bihari, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr.

THE GRIP OF DESIRE

THE STORY OF A PARISH-PRIEST

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF HECTOR FRANCE

[Illustration: Début d'une série de documents en couleur.]

Love is a familiar; love is a devil; there is no evil angel but love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet was Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit.

Love's Labour Lost.

With an engraved portrait of the Author

Other Works in English

By
HECTOR FRANCE

Mansour's Chastisement, the Loves and Intrigues of an Arab Don Juan, done into English by ALFRED ALLINSON, and embellished with Seven fine Engravings by THEVENIN, after Drawings by BAZEILHAC.

Musk, Hashish and Blood, with Twenty-One
Engravings by PAUL AVRIL. (In the Press.)

The Attack on the Brothels, A Realistic
Account of the Civilizing of "Barbarians". With
Illustrations. (In Hand.)

The Daughter of the Christ; The most original and philosophic work of the last twenty years. This work will be sumptuously illustrated by leading French Artists. (In Preparation.)

[Illustration: Fin d'une série de documents en couleur.]

[Illustration: the author.]

[Illustration]

TO THE READER

The truth, the bitter truth.

DANTON.

  Oh, sons and brothers, oh, poets
  When the thing exists, speak the word.

V. HUGO.

I do not assert that all the personages in this story are models of virtue. To some of them has been given a part which severe morality reproves. But I am a realist and not an idealist, and for that I beg the reader a thousand pardons. I have tried to paint what I saw and not that of which I dreamed. If my figures are not chaste, the fault is not mine, but of those who passed before me and whose features I sketched as my pen ran on.

You are warned therefore, Madam, that when you open this book, you will not find a "Treatise on Morality". Here are only the simple and pastoral loves of a poor and obscure village priest. An idyll in the shade of the parsonage limes and under the motionless eye of the weather-cock on the belfry.

If then you come across any word which offends your chaste ears, any picture which distresses your modest eye, blame only your own curiosity.

HECTOR FRANCE.

LIST OF CHAPTERS.

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are Defiled and Unbelieving is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is Defiled. They profess that they know God; but in Works they Deny Him, being Abominable and Disobedient, and unto every good work Reprobate.

ST. PAUL.

LIST OF CHAPTERS.

       I. The Curé
      II. The Confessional
     III. The Parsonage
      IV. Expectation
       V. The Meeting
      VI. The Look
     VII. The Salute
    VIII. The Fever
      IX. During Vespers
       X. In Parenthesis
      XI. The Flesh
     XII. The Temptation
    XIII. The Resolution
     XIV. The Captain
      XV. Memories
     XVI. The Epaulet
    XVII. The Voltairian
   XVIII. The Visit
     XIX. Hard Words
      XX. Kicks
     XXI. The Past
    XXII. The Servant
   XXIII. The Letter
    XXIV. The First Meeting
     XXV. Love
    XXVI. Of Young Girls in General
   XXVII. Of Suzanne in Particular
  XXVIII. The Shadow.
    XXIX. Other Meetings
     XXX. Seraphic Love
    XXXI. The Virgin
   XXXII. The Death's-Head
  XXXIII. Frenzy
   XXXIV. The Prohibition
    XXXV. The Shelter
   XXXVI. The Hot Wine
  XXXVII. Tête-à-Tête
 XXXVIII. The Kiss
   XXXIX. The Devil in Petticoats
      XL. Little Confessions
     XLI. Moral Reflections
    XLII. Memory Looking Back
   XLIII. Espionage
    XLIV. The Garret Window
     XLV. Treacherous Manoeuvre
    XLVI. The Letter
   XLVII. Good News
  XLVIII. Reconcilliation
    XLIX. Confidences
       L. Mammosa Virgo
      LI. Chamber Morality
     LII. The Posset
    LIII. The Leg
     LIV. Mater Saeva Cupidunum
      LV. In the Foot-Path
     LVI. Double Remorse
    LVII. The Explosion
   LVIII. Provocation
     LIX. Acts and Words
      LX. Talks
     LXI. Le Père Hyacinthe
    LXII. The Happy Curé
   LXIII. The Miracles
    LXIV. The Two Augurs
     LXV. Table-Talk
    LXVI. Good Counsel
   LXVII. In A Glass
  LXVIII. The Rose Chamber
    LXIX. The Gust of Wind
     LXX. The Ambuscade
    LXXI. The Breach
   LXXII. The Assault
  LXXIII. Audaces Fortuna Juvat
   LXXIV. Before Mass
    LXXV. During Mass
   LXXVI. Awakening
  LXXVII. Consolations
 LXXVIII. False Alarms
   LXXIX. In the Diligence
    LXXX. An Old Acquaintance
   LXXXI. A Little Confession
  LXXXII. The Church-Woman
 LXXXIII. Conventicle
  LXXXIV. At the Palace
   LXXXV. Little Pastimes
  LXXXVI. Serious Talk
 LXXXVII. The Seminary
LXXXVIII. The Fair One
  LXXXIX. Love Again
      XC. Le Cygne de la Croix
     XCI. The Calves
    XCII. The Scapular
   XCIII. From the Dark to the Fair
    XCIV. The Change
     XCV. The Curé of St. Marie
    XCVI. Finis Coronet Opus

[Illustration]

I.

THE CURÉ.

"I will sing thy praises on the harp, oh Lord. But, my soul,