"What do you mean?" again inquired the frowning lieutenant, half rising from his chair.
"What do I mean?" repeated Fray Damaso, raising his voice and facing the lieutenant. "I'll tell you what I mean. I, yes I, mean to say that when a priest throws out of his cemetery the corpse of a heretic, no one, not even the King himself, has any right to interfere and much less to impose any punishment! But a little General--a little General Calamity--"
"Padre, his Excellency is the Vice-Regal Patron!" shouted the soldier, rising to his feet.
"Excellency! Vice-Regal Patron! What of that!" retorted the Franciscan, also rising. "In other times he would have been dragged down a staircase as the religious orders once did with the impious Governor Bustamente. [22] Those were indeed the days of faith."
"I warn you that I can't permit this! His Excellency represents his Majesty the King!"
"King or rook! What difference does that make? For us there is no king other than the legitimate [23]--"
"Halt!" shouted the lieutenant in a threatening tone, as if he were commanding his soldiers. "Either you withdraw what you have said or tomorrow I will report it to his Excellency!"
"Go ahead--right now--go on!" was the sarcastic rejoinder of Fray Damaso as he approached the officer with clenched fists. "Do you think that because I wear the cloth, I'm afraid? Go now, while I can lend you my carriage!"
The dispute was taking a ludicrous turn, but fortunately the Dominican intervened. "Gentlemen," he began in an authoritative tone and with the nasal twang that so well becomes the friars, "you must not confuse things or seek for offenses where there are none. We must distinguish in the words of Fray Damaso those of the man from those of the priest. The latter, as such, _per se_, can never give offense, because they spring from absolute truth, while in those of the man there is a secondary distinction to be made: those which he utters _ab irato_, those which he utters _ex ore_, but not _in corde_, and those which he does utter _in corde_. These last are the only ones that can really offend, and only according to whether they preexisted as a motive _in mente_, or arose solely _per accidens_ in the heat of the discussion, if there really exist--"