Fable, A - William Faulkner [181]
'Come in, my son,' the priest said.
'Good evening, Sergeant,' the corporal said.
'Cant you say Father?' the priest said.
'Of course,' the corporal said.
'Then say it,' the priest said.
'Of course, Father,' the corporal said. He came on into the room, looking quietly and rapidly again at the sacred implements on the desk while the priest watched him.
'Not that,' the priest said. 'Not yet. I came to offer you life,'
'So he sent you,' the corporal said.
'He?' the priest said. What he can you mean, except the Giver of all life? Why should He send me here to offer you what He has already entrusted you with? Because the man you imply, for all his rank and power, can only take it from you. Your life was never his to give you because for all his stars and braid he too is just one more pinch of rotten and ephemeral dust before God. It was neither of them who sent me here: not the One who has already given you life, nor the other who never had yours nor any other life within his gift. It was duty which sent me here. Not this-' for an instant his hand touched the small embroidered cross on his collar '-not my cloth, but my belief in Him; not even as His mouthpiece but as a man-'
'A Frenchman?' the corporal said.
'All right,' the priest said. 'Yes, a Frenchman if you like-com-manded me here to command-not ask, offer: command-you to keep the life which you never had and never will have the refusal of, to save another one,'
'To save another one?' the corporal said.
'The commander of your regiment's division,' the priest said. 'He will die too, for what all the world he knows-the only world he does know because it was the one he dedicated his life to-will call his failure, where you will die for what you anyway will call a victory.'
'So he did send you,' the corporal said. 'For blackmail,'
'Beware,' the priest said.
Then dont tell me this,' the corporal said. Tell him. If I can save Gragnon's life only by not doing something you tell me I Thursday Night already cant and never could do anyway. Tell him then. I dont want to die either,'
'Beware,' the priest said.
'That wasn't who I meant,' the corporal said. 'I meant-'
'I know whom you meant,' the priest said. 'That's why I said beware. Beware Whom you mock by reading your own mortal's pride into Him Who died two thousand years ago in the affirmation that man shall never never never, need never never never, hold suzerainty over another's life and death-absolved you and the man you mean both of that terrible burden: you of the right to and he of the need for, suzerainty over your life; absolved poor mortal man forever of the fear of the oppression, and the anguish of the responsibility, which suzerainty over human fate and destiny would have entailed on him and cursed him with, when He refused in man's name the temptation of that mastery, refused the terrible temptation of that limitless and curbless power when He answered the Tempter: Render unto caesar the things which are caesar's.-I know,' he said quickly before the corporal could have spoken: To Chaulnesmont the things which are Chaulnesmont's. Oh yes, you're right; I'm a Frenchman first. And so now you can even cite the record at me, cant you? All right. Do it,'
The record?' the corporal said.
'The Book,' the priest said. The corporal looked at him. Tou mean you don't even know it?'
'I cant read,' the corporal said.
'Then I'll cite for you, plead for you,' the priest said. 'It wasn't He with his humility and pity and sacrifice that converted the world; it was pagan and bloody Rome which did it with His martyrdom; furious and intractable dreamers had been bringing that same dream out of Asia Minor for three hundred years until at last one found a caesar foolish enough to crucify him. And you are right. But then so is he (I dont mean Him now, I mean the old man in that