- On the other hand, Holy Week is drawing near, and
for the past year qualms of conscience have disturbed the
purchasers. Up to March 24, 1791, the sales of national property
had amounted to only 180 millions; but, the Assembly having
prolonged the date of payment and facilitated further sales in
detail, the temptation proves too strong for the peasant; stockings
and buried pots are all emptied of their savings. In seven months
the peasant has bought to the amount of 1,346 millions,[61] and
finally possesses in full and complete ownership the morsel of land
which he has coveted for so many years, and sometimes an unexpected
plot, a wood, a mill, or a meadow. At the present time he has to
settle accounts with the church, and, if the pecuniary settlement is
postponed, the Catholic settlement comes on the appointed day.
According to immemorial tradition he is obliged to take the
communion at Easter,[62] his wife also, and likewise his mother; and
if he, exceptionally, does not think this of consequence, they do.
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