LETTER VIL

I. In the sixth letter Pascal's Jesuit friend quotes among others cette grande maxime of Father Bauny which permits valets, in certain cases, to supplément an inadéquate wage by appropriating the property of their masters. Pascal thereupon takes occasion to remind the good Father of the story of Jean d'Alba, a domestic in a Jesuit collège, who, being dissatisfied with his wages, practised theft. When brought to justice he declared he had taken, but not stolen, the property of his ma>ters, and he quoted in his defence the maxim of Father Bauny. The judge was of opinion that the trop fidèle serviteur should be whipped

PASCAL vit

before the gâtes of the collège ; that at the same time the pernicious writings of the Jesuits should be burnt ; and that they should be forbidden to preach such a doctrine again on pain of death. Nothing came of it, for the prisoner disappeared mysteriously, and no more was heard of the matter. This story did not amuse Pascal's interlocutor. ■ À quoi vous amusez-vous ? dit le Père. Qu'est-ce que tout cela signifie ? Je vous parle des maximes de nos casuistes ; ... et vous m'interrompez par des histoires hors de propos !' Pascal's account is historically accurate, except as far as the judgment is concerned. Alba was only censured and ordered to return to his own country (Lorraine). Still, as M. Havet has pointed out, the mildness of the judgment was in itself a reflection on the Jesuits (see Havet, Provinciales, vol. i., pp. 138, 139; De Soyres, Provincial Letters of Pascal, Cambridge, 1880, p. 161).