354 JOINVILLE 8 MEMOIRS OF SAINT LOUIS IX. [pT. I. a mortal sin ? " Bat I, who would not tell a lie, replied " that I would rather have committed thirty deadly sins than be a leper." When the two friars were gone away, he called me to him u alone, making me sit at his feet, and said, How could you dare to make the answer you did to my last question ?" When I replied, "Were I to answer it again, I should repeat the same thing," he instantly said,—"Ah, foul musart!* Musart, you are deceived ; for you must know there can be no leprosy so filthy as deadly sin, and the soul that is guilty of such is like the devil in hell. It is very true," he added, "that when the leprous man is dead, he is cured of that disorder ; but when the man who has committed a deadly sin dies, he is not assured for certain that he had sufficiently repented of it before hie death, to induce the goodness of God to pardon him : for which cause he must have great fears lest this leprosy of sin may endure for a length of time, even so long as God may remain in paradise. " I therefore entreat of you, first for the love of God, and next for the affection yon bear me, that you retain in yonr heart what I have said, and that you would much rather prefer having your body covered with the most filthy leprosy than suffer your soul to commit a single deadly sin, which is of all things the most infamous." He then inquired if I washed the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday. On which I said, "Oh, for shame, no; and never will I wash the feet of such fellows." "This is in1 truths" replied he, " very ill said, for you should never hold in disdain What God did for our instruction ; for He who is lord and master of the universe, on that same day, Holy Thursday, washed the feet of all his apostles, telling them, that he who was their master had thus done, that they, in like manner, might do the same to each other. I therefore beg of you, out of love to him first, and then from your regard to me, that you would accustom yourself to do so." (leper) cannot be heir to any one, since the disorder is visibly increasing, but that he may possess the inheritance he had before he became a leper. * In the Assizes of Jerusalem, ch. 128—" Whoever pleases may challenge and claim at the assizes any male or female slave he had bought, whether leper or not, or afflicted with any other filthy disorder." * Idler, one who amuses himself by doing nothing.