Description
The Story of Gösta Berling
I
THE PRIEST
At last the minister stood in the pulpit. The heads of the congregation
were lifted. Well, there he finally was. There would be no default this
Sunday, as on the last and on many other Sundays before.
The minister was young, tall, slender, and strikingly handsome. With a
helmet on his head, and girt with sword and shirt of mail, he could have
been cut in marble and taken for an ideal of Grecian beauty.
He had a poet’s deep eyes, and a general’s firm, rounded chin; everything
about him was beautiful, noble, full of feeling, glowing with genius and
spiritual life.
The people in the church felt themselves strangely subdued to see him
so. They were more used to see him come reeling out of the public house
with his good friends, Beerencreutz, the Colonel with the thick, white
moustaches, and the stalwart Captain Christian Bergh.
He had drunk so deeply that he had not been able to attend to his duties
for many weeks, and the congregation had been obliged to complain, first
to the dean, and then to the bishop and the chapters. Now the bishop had
come to the parish to make a strict inquiry. He sat in the choir with the
gold cross on his breast; the clergymen of the neighboring parishes sat
round about him.
There was no doubt that the minister’s conduct had gone beyond the
permissible limit. At that time, in the twenties, much in the matter of
drinking was overlooked, but this man had deserted his post for the sake
of drink, and now must lose it.
Product ID: 9781776783069
Sku: 9781776783069
