Storia do Mogor 362.4.1

362.4.1

Thus Father Michel Ange and Father Esprit were forced to return to Madras without having been able to gain in the slightest degree on the mind of Monsignor, having only rendered him more unfeeling towards us. What say you, gentlemen, of the course taken by the Capuchin fathers compared with the line of action adopted by the Lord Bishop, as well as by the reverend Jesuit fathers? Have we been guilty of anything unjust or not conformable to right reason? On their side have they in the slightest point been other than unjust, or acted otherwise than in direct opposition to the precepts of the Gospel? No; I cannot conceive our doing more to make our case a good one, or their doing more to make theirs a bad one. In effect, gentlemen—for, although our cause from the very first was the best in the world—for what is more natural than a demand for justice against violence, for a restoration to our rights after gaining our case?—no one can make us the reproach, still less prove against us, that we have said or done the least thing to disturb the minds of the Lord Bishop and the reverend Jesuit fathers; and that, too, in the face of the cruellest and most harassing treatment that it is possible to conceive. For, after all, I should prefer a great deal to die on the gallows than to find myself publicly excommunicated, damned, and doubly damned of God Omnipotent, of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the other saints in the quire celestial.