La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret.
Serge Mouret, the younger son of Francois Mouret (see _La Conquete de
Plassans_), was ordained to the priesthood and appointed cure of Les
Artaud, a squalid village in Provence, to whose degenerate inhabitants
he ministered with small encouragement. He had inherited the family
taint of the Rougon-Macquarts, which in him took the same form as in the
case of his mother--a morbid religious enthusiasm bordering on hysteria.
Brain fever followed, and bodily recovery left the priest without a
mental past. Dr. Pascal Rougon, his uncle, hoping to save his reason,
removed him from his accustomed surroundings and left him at the
Paradou, the neglected demesne of a ruined mansion-house near Les
Artaud, where he was nursed by Albine, niece of the caretaker. The Abbe
fell in love with Albine, and, oblivious of his vows, broke them. A
meeting with Archangias, a Christian Brother with whom he had been
associated, and a chance glimpse of the world beyond the Paradou, served
to restore his memory, and, filled with horror at himself, he fled from
that enchanted garden. A long mental struggle followed, but in the end
the Church was victorious, and the Abbe returned to her service with
even more feverish devotion than before.
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