,the ,three ,cities ,,lourdes by mile ,zola ,volume #a4 ,,translated ,,by ,,ernest ,a4 ,,vizetelly ,contents ,,preface ,,the ,,first ,,day ,i4 ,,pilgrims ,,and ,,patients ,,ii4 ,,pierre ,,and ,,marie ,,iii4 ,,poitiers ,,iv4 ,,miracles ,v4 ,,bernadette ,,preface ,,before perusing this work1 it is as well that the reader should understand ,m4 ,zola's aim in writing it1 and his views--as distinct from those of his characters--upon ,lourdes1 its ,grotto1 and its cures4 ,a short time before the book appeared ,m4 ,zola was interviewed upon the subject by his friend and biographer1 ,mr4 ,robert ,h4 ,sherard1 to whom he spoke as follows3 8#8,lourdes' came to be written by mere accident4 ,in #ahia ,i happened to be travelling for my pleasure1 with my wife1 in the ,basque country and by the ,pyrenees1 and being in the neighbourhood of ,lourdes1 included it in my tour4 ,i spent fifteen days there1 and was greatly struck by what ,i saw1 and it then occurred to me that there was material here for just the sort of novel that ,i like to write--a novel in which great masses of men can be shown in motion--_/un grand mouvement de foule_/--a novel the subject of which stirred up my philosophical ideas4 8,it was too late then to study the question1 for ,i had visited ,lourdes late in ,september1 and so had missed seeing the best pilgrimage1 which takes place in ,august1 under the direction of the ,peres de la ,misericorde1 of the ,rue de l',assomption in ,paris--the ,national ,pilgrimage1 as it is called4 ,these ,fathers are very active1 enterprising men1 and have made a great success of this annual national pilgrimage4 ,under their direction thirty thousand pilgrims are transported to ,lourdes1 including over a thousand sick persons4 8,so in the following year ,i went in ,august1 and saw a national pilgrimage1 and followed it during the three days which it lasts1 in addition to the two days given to travelling4 ,after its departure1 ,i stayed on ten or twelve days1 working up the subject in every detail4 ,my book is the story of such a national pilgrimage1 and is1 accordingly1 the story of five days4 ,it is divided into five parts1 each of which parts is limited to one day4 8,there are from ninety to one hundred characters in the story3 sick persons1 pilgrims1 priests1 nuns1 hospitallers1 nurses1 and peasants2 and the book shows ,lourdes under every aspect4 ,there are the piscinas1 the processions1 the ,grotto1 the churches at night1 the people in the streets4 ,it is1 in one word1 ,lourdes in its entirety4 ,in this canvas is worked out a very delicate central intrigue1 as in #8,dr4 ,pascal1' and around this are many little stories or subsidiary plots4 ,there is the story of the sick person who gets well1 of the sick person who is not cured1 and so on4 ,the philosophical idea which pervades the whole book is the idea of human suffering1 the exhibition of the desperate and despairing sufferers who1 abandoned by science and by man1 address themselves to a higher ,power in the hope of relief2 as where parents have a dearly loved daughter dying of consumption1 who has been given up1 and for whom nothing remains but death4 ,a sudden hope1 however1 breaks in upon them3 #8supposing that after all there should be a ,power greater than that of man1 higher than that of science4' ,they will haste to try this last chance of safety4 ,it is the instinctive hankering after the lie which creates human credulity4 8,i will admit that ,i came across some instances of real cure4 ,many cases of nervous disorders have undoubtedly been cured1 and there have also been other cures which may1 perhaps be attributed to errors of diagnosis on the part of doctors who attended the patients so cured4 ,often a patient is described by his doctor as suffering from consumption4 ,he goes to ,lourdes1 and is cured4 ,however1 the probability is that the doctor made a mistake4 ,in my own case ,i was at one time suffering from a violent pain in my chest1 which presented all the symptoms of _/angina pectoris_/1 a mortal malady4 ,it was nothing of the sort4 ,indigestion1 doubtless1 and1 as such1 curable4 ,remember that most of the sick persons who go to ,lourdes come from the country1 and that the country doctors are not usually men of either great skill or great experience4 ,but all doctors mistake symptoms4 ,put three doctors together to discuss a case1 and in nine cases out of ten they will disagree in their diagnosis4 ,look at the quantities of tumours1 swellings1 and sores1 which cannot be properly classified4 ,these cures are based on the ignorance of the medical profession4 ,the sick pretend1 believe1 that they suffer from such and such a desperate malady1 whereas it is from some other malady that they are suffering4 ,and so the legend forms itself4 ,and1 of course1 there must be cures out of so large a number of cases4 ,nature often cures without medical aid4 ,certainly1 many of the workings of ,nature are wonderful1 but they are not supernatural4 ,the ,lourdes miracles can neither be proved nor denied4 ,the miracle is based on human ignorance4 ,and so the doctor who lives at ,lourdes1 and who is commissioned to register the cures and to tabulate the miracles1 has a very careless time of it4 ,a person comes1 and gets cured4 ,he has but to get three doctors together to examine the case4 ,they will disagree as to what was the disease from which the patient suffered1 and the only explanation left which will be acceptable to the public1 with its hankering after the lie1 is that a miracle has been vouchsafed4 8,i interviewed a number of people at ,lourdes1 and could not find one who would declare that he had witnessed a miracle4 ,all the cases which ,i describe in my book are real cases1 in which ,i have only changed the names of the persons concerned4 ,in none of these instances was ,i able to discover any real proof for or against the miraculous nature of the cure4 ,thus1 in the case of ,clementine ,trouve1 who figures in my story as ,sophie--the patient who1 after suffering for a long time from a horrid open sore on her foot1 was suddenly cured1 according to current report1 by bathing her foot in the piscina1 where the bandages fell off1 and her foot was entirely restored to a healthy condition--,i investigated that case thoroughly4 ,i was told that there were three or four ladies living in ,lourdes who could guarantee the facts as stated by little ,clementine4 ,i looked up those ladies4 ,the first said ,no1 she could not vouch for anything4 ,she had seen nothing4 ,i had better consult somebody else4 ,the next answered in the same way1 and nowhere was ,i able to find any corroboration of the girl's story4 ,yet the little girl did not look like a liar1 and ,i believe that she was fully convinced of the miraculous nature of her cure4 ,it is the facts themselves which lie4 8,lourdes1 the ,grotto1 the cures1 the miracles1 are1 indeed1 the creation of that need of the ,lie1 that necessity for credulity1 which is a characteristic of human nature4 ,at first1 when little ,bernadette came with her strange story of what she had witnessed1 everybody was against her4 ,the ,prefect of the ,department1 the ,bishop1 the clergy1 objected to her story4 ,but ,lourdes grew up in spite of all opposition1 just as the ,christian religion did1 because suffering humanity in its despair must cling to something1 must have some hope2 and1 on the other hand1 because humanity thirsts after illusions4 ,in a word1 it is the story of the foundation of all religions40 ,to the foregoing account of 8,lourdes0 as supplied by its author1 it may be added that the present translation1 first made from early proofs of the ,french original whilst the latter was being completed1 has for the purposes of this new ,american edition been carefully and extensively revised by ,mr4 ,e4 ,a4 ,vizetelly1--,m4 ,zola's representative for all ,english-speaking countries4 8,lourdes0 forms the first volume of the 8,trilogy of the ,three ,cities10 the second being 8,rome10 and the third 8,paris40 ,,lourdes ,,the ,,first ,,day ,i ,,pilgrims ,,and ,,patients ,,the pilgrims and patients1 closely packed on the hard seats of a third-class carriage1 were just finishing the 8,ave maris ,stella10 which they had begun to chant on leaving the terminus of the ,orleans line1 when ,marie1 slightly raised on her couch of misery and restless with feverish impatience1 caught sight of the ,paris fortifications through the window of the moving train4 8,ah1 the fortifications60 she exclaimed1 in a tone which was joyous despite her suffering4 8,here we are1 out of ,paris2 we are off at last60 ,her delight drew a smile from her father1 ,m4 de ,guersaint1 who sat in front of her1 whilst ,abbe ,pierre ,froment1 who was looking at her with fraternal affection1 was so carried away by his compassionate anxiety as to say aloud3 8,and now we are in for it till to-morrow morning4 ,we shall only reach ,lourdes at three-forty4 ,we have more than two-and-twenty hours' journey before us40 ,it was half-past five1 the sun had risen1 radiant in the pure sky of a delightful morning4 ,it was a ,friday1 the #aith of ,august4 ,on the horizon1 however1 some small1 heavy clouds already presaged a terrible day of stormy heat4 ,and the oblique sunrays were enfilading the compartments of the railway carriage1 filling them with dancing1 golden dust4 8,yes1 two-and-twenty hours10 murmured ,marie1 relapsing into a state of anguish4 8_/,mon ,dieu_/6 what a long time we must still wait60 ,then her father helped her to lie down again in the narrow box1 a kind of wooden gutter1 in which she had been living for seven years past4 ,making an exception in her favour1 the railway officials had consented to take as luggage the two pairs of wheels which could be removed from the box1 or fitted to it whenever it became necessary to transport her from place to place4 ,packed between the sides of this movable coffin1 she occupied the room of three passengers on the carriage seat2 and for a moment she lay there with eyes closed4 ,although she was three-and-twenty2 her ashen1 emaciated face was still delicately infantile1 charming despite everything1 in the midst of her marvellous fair hair1 the hair of a queen1 which illness had respected4 ,clad with the utmost simplicity in a gown of thin woollen stuff1 she wore1 hanging from her neck1 the card bearing her name and number1 which entitled her to _/hospitalisation_/1 or free treatment4 ,she herself had insisted on _/making the journey in this humble fashion1 not wishing to be a source of expense to her relatives1 who little by little had fallen into very straitened circumstances4 ,and thus it was that she found herself in a third-class carriage of the 8white train10 the train which carried the greatest sufferers1 the most woeful of the fourteen trains going to ,lourdes that day1 the one in which1 in addition to five hundred healthy pilgrims1 nearly three hundred unfortunate wretches1 weak to the point of exhaustion1 racked by suffering1 were heaped together1 and borne at express speed from one to the other end of ,france4 ,sorry that he had saddened her1 ,pierre continued to gaze at her with the air of a compassionate elder brother4 ,he had just completed his thirtieth year1 and was pale and slight1 with a broad forehead4 ,after busying himself with all the arrangements for the journey1 he had been desirous of accompanying her1 and1 having obtained admission among the ,hospitallers of ,our ,lady of ,salvation as an auxiliary member1 wore on his cassock the red1 orange-tipped cross of a bearer4 ,m4 de ,guersaint on his side had simply pinned the little scarlet cross of the pilgrimage on his grey cloth jacket4 ,the idea of travelling appeared to delight him2 although he was over fifty he still looked young1 and1 with his eyes ever wandering over the landscape1 he seemed unable to keep his head still--a bird-like head it was1 with an expression of good nature and absent-mindedness4 ,however1 in spite of the violent shaking of the train1 which constantly drew sighs from ,marie1 ,sister ,hyacinthe had risen to her feet in the adjoining compartment4 ,she noticed that the sun's rays were streaming in the girl's face4 8,pull down the blind1 ,monsieur l',abbe10 she said to ,pierre4 8,come1 come1 we must install ourselves properly1 and set our little household in order40 ,clad in the black robe of a ,sister of the ,assumption1 enlivened by a white coif1 a white wimple1 and a large white apron1 ,sister ,hyacinthe smiled1 the picture of courageous activity4 ,her youth bloomed upon her small1 fresh lips1 and in the depths of her beautiful blue eyes1 whose expression was ever gentle4 ,she was not pretty1 perhaps1 still she was charming1 slender1 and tall1 the bib of her apron covering her flat chest like that of a young man2 one of good heart1 displaying a snowy complexion1 and overflowing with health1 gaiety1 and innocence4 8,but this sun is already roasting us10 said she2 8pray pull down your blind as well1 madame40 ,seated in the corner1 near the ,sister1 was ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who had kept her little bag on her lap4 ,she slowly pulled down the blind4 ,dark1 and well built1 she was still nice-looking1 although she had a daughter1 ,raymonde1 who was four-and-twenty1 and whom for motives of propriety she had placed in the charge of two lady-hospitallers1 ,madame ,desagneaux and ,madame ,volmar1 in a first-class carriage4 ,for her part1 directress as she was of a ward of the ,hospital of ,our ,lady of ,dolours at ,lourdes1 she did not quit her patients2 and outside1 swinging against the door of her compartment1 was the regulation placard bearing under her own name those of the two ,sisters of the ,assumption who accompanied her4 ,the widow of a ruined man1 she lived with her daughter on the scanty income of four or five thousand francs a year1 at the rear of a courtyard in the ,rue ,vanneau4 ,but her charity was inexhaustible1 and she gave all her time to the work of the ,hospitality of ,our ,lady of ,salvation1 an institution whose red cross she wore on her gown of carmelite poplin1 and whose aims she furthered with the most active zeal4 ,of a somewhat proud disposition1 fond of being flattered and loved1 she took great delight in this annual journey1 from which both her heart and her passion derived contentment4 8,you are right1 ,sister10 she said1 8we will organise matters4 ,i really don't know why ,i am encumbering myself with this bag40 ,and thereupon she placed it under the seat1 near her4 8,wait a moment10 resumed ,sister ,hyacinthe2 8you have the water-can between your legs--it is in your way40 8,no1 no1 it isn't1 ,i assure you4 ,let it be4 ,it must always be somewhere40 ,then they both set their house in order as they expressed it1 so that for a day and a night they might live with their patients as comfortably as possible4 ,the worry was that they had not been able to take ,marie into their compartment1 as she wished to have ,pierre and her father near her2 however neighbourly intercourse was easy enough over the low partition4 ,moreover the whole carriage1 with its five compartments of ten seats each1 formed but one moving chamber1 a common room as it were which the eye took in at a glance from end to end4 ,between its wooden walls1 bare and yellow1 under its white-painted panelled roof1 it showed like a hospital ward1 with all the disorder and promiscuous jumbling together of an improvised ambulance4 ,basins1 brooms1 and sponges lay about1 half-hidden by the seats4 ,then1 as the train only carried such luggage as the pilgrims could take with them1 there were valises1 deal boxes1 bonnet boxes1 and bags1 a wretched pile of poor worn-out things mended with bits of string1 heaped up a little bit everywhere2 and overhead the litter began again1 what with articles of clothing1 parcels1 and baskets hanging from brass pegs and swinging to and fro without a pause4 ,amidst all this frippery the more afflicted patients1 stretched on their narrow mattresses1 which took up the room of several passengers1 were shaken1 carried along by the rumbling gyrations of the wheels2 whilst those who were able to remain seated1 leaned against the partitions1 their faces pale1 their heads resting upon pillows4 ,according to the regulations there should have been one lady-hospitaller to each compartment4 ,however1 at the other end of the carriage there was but a second ,sister of the ,assumption1 ,sister ,claire des ,anges4 ,some of the pilgrims who were in good health were already getting up1 eating and drinking4 ,one compartment was entirely occupied by women1 ten pilgrims closely pressed together1 young ones and old ones1 all sadly1 pitifully ugly4 ,and as nobody dared to open the windows on account of the consumptives in the carriage1 the heat was soon felt and an unbearable odour arose1 set free as it were by the jolting of the train as it went its way at express speed4 ,they had said their chaplets at ,juvisy2 and six o'clock was striking1 and they were rushing like a hurricane past the station of ,bretigny1 when ,sister ,hyacinthe stood up4 ,it was she who directed the pious exercises1 which most of the pilgrims followed from small1 blue-covered books4 8,the ,angelus1 my children10 said she with a pleasant smile1 a maternal air which her great youth rendered very charming and sweet4 ,then the 8,aves0 again followed one another1 and were drawing to an end when ,pierre and ,marie began to feel interested in two women who occupied the other corner seats of their compartment4 ,one of them1 she who sat at ,marie's feet1 was a blonde of slender build and _/bourgeoise_/ appearance1 some thirty and odd years of age1 and faded before she had grown old4 ,she shrank back1 scarcely occupying any room1 wearing a dark dress1 and showing colourless hair1 and a long grief-stricken face which expressed unlimited self-abandonment1 infinite sadness4 ,the woman in front of her1 she who sat on the same seat as ,pierre1 was of the same age1 but belonged to the working classes4 ,she wore a black cap and displayed a face ravaged by wretchedness and anxiety1 whilst on her lap she held a little girl of seven1 who was so pale1 so wasted by illness1 that she scarcely seemed four4 ,with her nose contracted1 her eyelids lowered and showing blue in her waxen face1 the child was unable to speak1 unable to give utterance to more than a low plaint1 a gentle moan1 which rent the heart of her mother1 leaning over her1 each time that she heard it4 8,would she eat a few grapes80 timidly asked the lady1 who had hitherto preserved silence4 8,i have some in my basket40 8,thank you1 madame10 replied the woman1 8she only takes milk1 and sometimes not even that willingly4 ,i took care to bring a bottleful with me40 ,then1 giving way to the desire which possesses the wretched to confide their woes to others1 she began to relate her story4 ,her name was ,vincent1 and her husband1 a gilder by trade1 had been carried off by consumption4 ,left alone with her little ,rose1 who was the passion of her heart1 she had worked by day and night at her calling as a dressmaker in order to bring the child up4 ,but disease had come1 and for fourteen months now she had had her in her arms like that1 growing more and more woeful and wasted until reduced almost to nothingness4 ,she1 the mother1 who never went to mass1 entered a church1 impelled by despair to pray for her daughter's cure2 and there she had heard a voice which had told her to take the little one to ,lourdes1 where the ,blessed ,virgin would have pity on her4 ,acquainted with nobody1 not knowing even how the pilgrimages were organised1 she had had but one idea--to work1 save up the money necessary for the journey1 take a ticket1 and start off with the thirty sous remaining to her1 destitute of all supplies save a bottle of milk for the child1 not having even thought of purchasing a crust of bread for herself4 8,what is the poor little thing suffering from80 resumed the lady4 8,oh1 it must be consumption of the bowels1 madame6 ,but the doctors have names they give it4 ,at first she only had slight pains in the stomach4 ,then her stomach began to swell and she suffered1 oh1 so dreadfully6 it made one cry to see her4 ,her stomach has gone down now1 only she's worn out2 she has got so thin that she has no legs left her1 and she's wasting away with continual sweating40 ,then1 as ,rose1 raising her eyelids1 began to moan1 her mother leant over her1 distracted and turning pale4 8,what is the matter1 my jewel1 my treasure80 she asked4 8,are you thirsty80 ,but the little girl was already closing her dim eyes of a hazy sky-blue hue1 and did not even answer1 but relapsed into her torpor1 quite white in the white frock she wore--a last coquetry on the part of her mother1 who had gone to this useless expense in the hope that the ,virgin would be more compassionate and gentle to a little sufferer who was well dressed1 so immaculately white4 ,there was an interval of silence1 and then ,madame ,vincent inquired3 8,and you1 madame1 it's for yourself no doubt that you are going to ,lourdes8 ,one can see very well that you are ill40 ,but the lady1 with a frightened look1 shrank woefully into her corner1 murmuring3 8,no1 no1 ,i am not ill4 ,would to ,god that ,i were6 ,i should suffer less40 ,her name was ,madame ,maze1 and her heart was full of an incurable grief4 ,after a love marriage to a big1 gay fellow with ripe1 red lips1 she had found herself deserted at the end of a twelvemonth's honeymoon4 ,ever travelling1 following the profession of a jeweller's bagman1 her husband1 who earned a deal of money1 would disappear for six months at a stretch1 deceive her from one frontier to the other of ,france1 at times even carrying creatures about with him4 ,and she worshipped him2 she suffered so frightfully from it all that she had sought a remedy in religion1 and had at last made up her mind to repair to ,lourdes1 in order to pray the ,virgin to restore her husband to her and make him amend his ways4 ,although ,madame ,vincent did not understand the other's words1 she realised that she was a prey to great mental affliction1 and they continued looking at one another1 the mother1 whom the sight of her dying daughter was killing1 and the abandoned wife1 whom her passion cast into throes of death-like agony4 ,however1 ,pierre1 who1 like ,marie1 had been listening to the conversation1 now intervened4 ,he was astonished that the dressmaker had not sought free treatment for her little patient4 ,the ,association of ,our ,lady of ,salvation had been founded by the ,augustine ,fathers of the ,assumption after the ,franco-,german war1 with the object of contributing to the salvation of ,france and the defence of the ,church by prayer in common and the practice of charity2 and it was this association which had promoted the great pilgrimage movement1 in particular initiating and unremittingly extending the national pilgrimage which every year1 towards the close of ,august1 set out for ,lourdes4 ,an elaborate organisation had been gradually perfected1 donations of considerable amounts were collected in all parts of the world1 sufferers were enrolled in every parish1 and agreements were signed with the railway companies1 to say nothing of the active help of the ,little ,sisters of the ,assumption and the establishment of the ,hospitality of ,our ,lady of ,salvation1 a widespread brotherhood of the benevolent1 in which one beheld men and women1 mostly belonging to society1 who1 under the orders of the pilgrimage managers1 nursed the sick1 helped to transport them1 and watched over the observance of good discipline4 ,a written request was needed for the sufferers to obtain hospitalisation1 which dispensed them from making the smallest payment in respect either of their journey or their sojourn2 they were fetched from their homes and conveyed back thither2 and they simply had to provide a few provisions for the road4 ,by far the greater number were recommended by priests or benevolent persons1 who superintended the inquiries concerning them and obtained the needful papers1 such as doctors' certificates and certificates of birth4 ,and1 these matters being settled1 the sick ones had nothing further to trouble about1 they became but so much suffering flesh1 food for miracles1 in the hands of the hospitallers of either sex4 8,but you need only have applied to your parish priest1 madame10 ,pierre explained4 8,this poor child is deserving of all sympathy4 ,she would have been immediately admitted40 8,i did not know it1 monsieur l',abbe40 8,then how did you manage80 8,why1 ,monsieur l',abbe1 ,i went to take a ticket at a place which one of my neighbours1 who reads the newspapers1 told me about40 ,she was referring to the tickets1 at greatly reduced rates1 which were issued to the pilgrims possessed of means4 ,and ,marie1 listening to her1 felt great pity for her1 and also some shame2 for she who was not entirely destitute of resources had succeeded in obtaining _/hospitalisation_/1 thanks to ,pierre1 whereas that mother and her sorry child1 after exhausting their scanty savings1 remained without a copper4 ,however1 a more violent jolt of the carriage drew a cry of pain from the girl4 8,oh1 father10 she said1 8pray raise me a little6 ,i can't stay on my back any longer40 ,when ,m4 de ,guersaint had helped her into a sitting posture1 she gave a deep sigh of relief4 ,they were now at ,etampes1 after a run of an hour and a half from ,paris1 and what with the increased warmth of the sun1 the dust1 and the noise1 weariness was becoming apparent already4 ,madame de ,jonquiere had got up to speak a few words of kindly encouragement to ,marie over the partition2 and ,sister ,hyacinthe moreover again rose1 and gaily clapped her hands that she might be heard and obeyed from one to the other end of the carriage4 8,come1 come60 said she1 8we mustn't think of our little troubles4 ,let us pray and sing1 and the ,blessed ,virgin will be with us40 ,she herself then began the rosary according to the rite of ,our ,lady of ,lourdes1 and all the patients and pilgrims followed her4 ,this was the first chaplet--the five joyful mysteries1 the ,annunciation1 the ,visitation1 the ,nativity1 the ,purification1 and ,jesus found in the ,temple4 ,then they all began to chant the canticle3 8,let us contemplate the heavenly ,archangel60 ,their voices were lost amid the loud rumbling of the wheels2 you heard but the muffled surging of that human wave1 stifling within the closed carriage which rolled on and on without a pause4 ,although ,m4 de ,guersaint was a worshipper1 he could never follow a hymn to the end4 ,he got up1 sat down again1 and finished by resting his elbow on the partition and conversing in an undertone with a patient who sat against this same partition in the next compartment4 ,the patient in question was a thick-set man of fifty1 with a good-natured face and a large head1 completely bald4 ,his name was ,sabathier1 and for fifteen years he had been stricken with ataxia4 ,he only suffered pain by fits and starts1 but he had quite lost the use of his legs1 which his wife1 who accompanied him1 moved for him as though they had been dead legs1 whenever they became too heavy1 weighty like bars of lead4 8,yes1 monsieur10 he said1 8such as you see me1 ,i was formerly fifth-class professor at the ,lycee ,charlemagne4 ,at first ,i thought that it was mere sciatica1 but afterwards ,i was seized with sharp1 lightning-like pains1 red-hot sword thrusts1 you know1 in the muscles4 ,for nearly ten years the disease kept on mastering me more and more4 ,i consulted all the doctors1 tried every imaginable mineral spring1 and now ,i suffer less1 but ,i can no longer move from my seat4 ,and then1 after long living without a thought of religion1 ,i was led back to ,god by the idea that ,i was too wretched1 and that ,our ,lady of ,lourdes could not do otherwise than take pity on me40 ,feeling interested1 ,pierre in his turn had leant over the partition and was listening4 8,is it not so1 ,monsieur l',abbe80 continued ,m4 ,sabathier4 8,is not suffering the best awakener of souls8 ,this is the seventh year that ,i am going to ,lourdes without despairing of cure4 ,this year the ,blessed ,virgin will cure me1 ,i feel sure of it4 ,yes1 ,i expect to be able to walk about again2 ,i now live solely in that hope40 ,m4 ,sabathier paused1 he wished his wife to push his legs a little more to the left2 and ,pierre looked at him1 astonished to find such obstinate faith in a man of intellect1 in one of those university professors who1 as a rule1 are such ,voltairians4 ,how could the belief in miracles have germinated and taken root in this man's brain8 ,as he himself said1 great suffering alone explained this need of illusion1 this blossoming of eternal and consolatory hope4 8,and my wife and ,i10 resumed the ex-professor1 8are dressed1 you see1 as poor folks1 for ,i wished to go as a mere pauper this year1 and applied for _/hospitalisation_/ in a spirit of humility in order that the ,blessed ,virgin might include me among the wretched1 her children--only1 as ,i did not wish to take the place of a real pauper1 ,i gave fifty francs to the ,hospitalite1 and this1 as you are aware1 gives one the right to have a patient of one's own in the pilgrimage4 ,i even know my patient4 ,he was introduced to me at the railway station4 ,he is suffering from tuberculosis1 it appears1 and seemed to me very low1 very low40 ,a fresh interval of silence ensued4 8,well10 said ,m4 ,sabathier at last1 8may the ,blessed ,virgin save him also1 she who can do everything4 ,i shall be so happy2 she will have loaded me with favours40 ,then the three men1 isolating themselves from the others1 went on conversing together1 at first on medical subjects1 and at last diverging into a discussion on romanesque architecture1 _/a propos_/ of a steeple which they had perceived on a hillside1 and which every pilgrim had saluted with a sign of the cross4 ,swayed once more by the habits of cultivated intellect1 the young priest and his two companions forgot themselves together in the midst of their fellow-passengers1 all those poor1 suffering1 simple-minded folk1 whom wretchedness stupefied4 ,another hour went by1 two more canticles had just been sung1 and the stations of ,toury and ,les ,aubrais had been left behind1 when1 at ,beaugency1 they at last ceased their chat1 on hearing ,sister ,hyacinthe clap her hands and intonate in her fresh1 sonorous voice3 8_/,parce1 ,domine1 parce populo tuo_/40 ,and then the chant went on2 all voices became mingled in that ever-surging wave of prayer which stilled pain1 excited hope1 and little by little penetrated the entire being1 harassed by the haunting thought of the grace and cure which one and all were going to seek so far away4 ,however1 as ,pierre sat down again1 he saw that ,marie was very pale1 and had her eyes closed4 ,by the painful contraction of her features he could tell that she was not asleep4 8,are you in great suffering80 he asked4 8,yes1 yes1 ,i suffer dreadfully4 ,i shall never last to the end4 ,it is this incessant jolting40 ,she moaned1 raised her eyelids1 and1 half-fainting1 remained in a sitting posture1 her eyes turned on the other sufferers4 ,in the adjoining compartment1 ,la ,grivotte1 hitherto stretched out1 scarce breathing1 like a corpse1 had just raised herself up in front of ,m4 ,sabathier4 ,she was a tall1 slip-shod1 singular-looking creature of over thirty1 with a round1 ravaged face1 which her frizzy hair and flaming eyes rendered almost pretty4 ,she had reached the third stage of phthisis4 8,eh1 mademoiselle10 she said1 addressing herself in a hoarse1 indistinct voice to ,marie1 8how nice it would be if we could only doze off a little4 ,but it can't be managed2 all these wheels keep on whirling round and round in one's head40 ,then1 although it fatigued her to speak1 she obstinately went on talking1 volunteering particulars about herself4 ,she was a mattress-maker1 and with one of her aunts had long gone from yard to yard at ,bercy to comb and sew up mattresses4 ,and1 indeed1 it was to the pestilential wool which she had combed in her youth that she ascribed her malady4 ,for five years she had been making the round of the hospitals of ,paris1 and she spoke familiarly of all the great doctors4 ,it was the ,sisters of ,charity1 at the ,lariboisiere hospital1 who1 finding that she had a passion for religious ceremonies1 had completed her conversion1 and convinced her that the ,virgin awaited her at ,lourdes to cure her4 8,i certainly need it10 said she4 8,the doctors say that ,i have one lung done for1 and that the other one is scarcely any better4 ,there are great big holes you know4 ,at first ,i only felt bad between the shoulders and spat up some froth4 ,but then ,i got thin1 and became a dreadful sight4 ,and now ,i'm always in a sweat1 and cough till ,i think ,i'm going to bring my heart up4 ,and ,i can no longer spit4 ,and ,i haven't the strength to stand1 you see4 ,i can't eat40 ,a stifling sensation made her pause1 and she became livid4 8,all the same ,i prefer being in my skin instead of in that of the ,brother in the compartment behind you4 ,he has the same complaint as ,i have1 but he is in a worse state that ,i am40 ,she was mistaken4 ,in the farther compartment1 beyond ,marie1 there was indeed a young missionary1 ,brother ,isidore1 who was lying on a mattress and could not be seen1 since he was unable to raise even a finger4 ,but he was not suffering from phthisis4 ,he was dying of inflammation of the liver1 contracted in ,senegal4 ,very long and lank1 he had a yellow face1 with skin as dry and lifeless as parchment4 ,the abscess which had formed in his liver had ended by breaking out externally1 and amidst the continuous shivering of fever1 vomiting1 and delirium1 suppuration was exhausting him4 ,his eyes alone were still alive1 eyes full of unextinguishable love1 whose flame lighted up his expiring face1 a peasant face such as painters have given to the crucified ,christ1 common1 but rendered sublime at moments by its expression of faith and passion4 ,he was a ,breton1 the last puny child of an over-numerous family1 and had left his little share of land to his elder brothers4 ,one of his sisters1 ,marthe1 older than himself by a couple of years1 accompanied him4 ,she had been in service in ,paris1 an insignificant maid-of-all-work1 but withal so devoted to her brother that she had left her situation to follow him1 subsisting scantily on her petty savings4 8,i was lying on the platform10 resumed ,la ,grivotte1 8when he was put in the carriage4 ,there were four men carrying him--0 ,but she was unable to speak any further1 for just then an attack of coughing shook her and threw her back upon the seat4 ,she was suffocating1 and the red flush on her cheek-bones turned blue4 ,sister ,hyacinthe1 however1 immediately raised her head and wiped her lips with a linen cloth1 which became spotted with blood4 ,at the same time ,madame de ,jonquiere gave her attention to a patient in front of her1 who had just fainted4 ,she was called ,madame ,vetu1 and was the wife of a petty clockmaker of the ,mouffetard district1 who had not been able to shut up his shop in order to accompany her to ,lourdes4 ,and to make sure that she would be cared for she had sought and obtained _/hospitalisation_/4 ,the fear of death was bringing her back to religion1 although she had not set foot in church since her first communion4 ,she knew that she was lost1 that a cancer in the chest was eating into her2 and she already had the haggard1 orange-hued mark of the cancerous patient4 ,since the beginning of the journey she had not spoken a word1 but1 suffering terribly1 had remained with her lips tightly closed4 ,then all at once1 she had swooned away after an attack of vomiting4 8,it is unbearable60 murmured ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who herself felt faint2 8we must let in a little fresh air40 ,sister ,hyacinthe was just then laying ,la ,grivotte to rest on her pillows1 8,certainly10 said she1 8we will open the window for a few moments4 ,but not on this side1 for ,i am afraid we might have a fresh fit of coughing4 ,open the window on your side1 madame40 ,the heat was still increasing1 and the occupants of the carriage were stifling in that heavy evil-smelling atmosphere4 ,the pure air which came in when the window was opened brought relief however4 ,for a moment there were other duties to be attended to1 a clearance and cleansing4 ,the ,sister emptied the basins out of the window1 whilst the lady-hospitaller wiped the shaking floor with a sponge4 ,next1 things had to be set in order2 and then came a fresh anxiety1 for the fourth patient1 a slender girl whose face was entirely covered by a black fichu1 and who had not yet moved1 was saying that she felt hungry4 ,with quiet devotion ,madame de ,jonquiere immediately tendered her services4 8,don't you trouble1 ,sister10 she said1 8,i will cut her bread into little bits for her40 ,marie1 with the need she felt of diverting her mind from her own sufferings1 had already begun to take an interest in that motionless sufferer whose countenance was so thickly veiled1 for she not unnaturally suspected that it was a case of some distressing facial sore4 ,she had merely been told that the patient was a servant1 which was true1 but it happened that the poor creature1 a native of ,picardy1 named ,elise ,rouquet1 had been obliged to leave her situation1 and seek a home with a sister who ill-treated her1 for no hospital would take her in4 ,extremely devout1 she had for many months been possessed by an ardent desire to go to ,lourdes4 ,while ,marie1 with dread in her heart1 waited for the fichu to be moved aside1 ,madame de ,jonquiere1 having cut some bread into small pieces1 inquired maternally3 8,are they small enough8 ,can you put them into your mouth80 ,thereupon a hoarse voice growled confused words under the black fichu3 8,yes1 yes1 madame40 ,and at last the veil fell and ,marie shuddered with horror4 ,it was a case of lupus which had preyed upon the unhappy woman's nose and mouth4 ,ulceration had spread1 and was hourly spreading--in short1 all the hideous peculiarities of this terrible disease were in full process of development1 almost obliterating the traces of what once were pleasing womanly lineaments4 8,oh1 look1 ,pierre60 ,marie murmured1 trembling4 ,the priest in his turn shuddered as he beheld ,elise ,rouquet cautiously slipping the tiny pieces of bread into her poor shapeless mouth4 ,everyone in the carriage had turned pale at sight of the awful apparition4 ,and the same thought ascended from all those hope-inflated souls4 ,ah6 ,blessed ,virgin1 ,powerful ,virgin1 what a miracle indeed if such an ill were cured6 8,we must not think of ourselves1 my children1 if we wish to get well10 resumed ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who still retained her encouraging smile4 ,and then she made them say the second chaplet1 the five sorrowful mysteries3 ,jesus in the ,garden of ,olives1 ,jesus scourged1 ,jesus crowned with thorns1 ,jesus carrying the cross1 and ,jesus crucified4 ,afterwards came the canticle3 8,in thy help1 ,virgin1 do ,i put my trust40 ,they had just passed through ,blois2 for three long hours they had been rolling onward2 and ,marie1 who had averted her eyes from ,elise ,rouquet1 now turned them upon a man who occupied a corner seat in the compartment on her left1 that in which ,brother ,isidore was lying4 ,she had noticed this man several times already4 ,poorly clad in an old black frock-coat1 he looked still young1 although his sparse beard was already turning grey2 and1 short and emaciated1 he seemed to experience great suffering1 his fleshless1 livid face being covered with sweat4 ,however1 he remained motionless1 ensconced in his corner1 speaking to nobody1 but staring straight before him with dilated eyes4 ,and all at once ,marie noticed that his eyelids were falling1 and that he was fainting away4 ,she thereupon drew ,sister's ,hyacinthe's attention to him3 8,look1 ,sister6 ,one would think that that gentleman is dangerously ill40 8,which one1 my dear child80 8,that one1 over there1 with his head thrown back40 ,general excitement followed1 all the healthy pilgrims rose up to look1 and it occurred to ,madame de ,jonquiere to call to ,marthe1 ,brother ,isidore's sister1 and tell her to tap the man's hands4 8,question him10 she added2 8ask what ails him40 ,marthe drew near1 shook the man1 and questioned him4 ,but instead of an answer only a rattle came from his throat1 and his eyes remained closed4 ,then a frightened voice was heard saying1 8,i think he is going to die40 ,the dread increased1 words flew about1 advice was tendered from one to the other end of the carriage4 ,nobody knew the man4 ,he had certainly not obtained _/hospitalisation_/1 for no white card was hanging from his neck4 _/,somebody related1 however1 that he had seen him arrive1 dragging himself along1 but three minutes or so before the train started2 and that he had remained quite motionless1 scarce breathing1 ever since he had flung himself with an air of intense weariness into that corner1 where he was now apparently dying4 ,his ticket was at last seen protruding from under the band of an old silk hat which was hung from a peg near him4 8,ah1 he is breathing again now60 ,sister ,hyacinthe suddenly exclaimed4 8,ask him his name40 ,however1 on being again questioned by ,marthe1 the man merely gave vent to a low plaint1 an exclamation scarcely articulated1 8,oh1 how ,i suffer60 ,and thenceforward that was the only answer that could be obtained from him4 ,with reference to everything that they wished to know1 who he was1 whence he came1 what his illness was1 what could be done for him1 he gave no information1 but still and ever continued moaning1 8,oh1 how ,i suffer--how ,i suffer60 ,sister ,hyacinthe grew restless with impatience4 ,ah1 if she had only been in the same compartment with him6 ,and she resolved that she would change her seat at the first station they should stop at4 ,only there would be no stoppage for a long time4 ,the position was becoming terrible1 the more so as the man's head again fell back4 8,he is dying1 he is dying60 repeated the frightened voice4 ,what was to be done1 _/mon ,dieu_/8 ,the ,sister was aware that one of the ,fathers of the ,assumption1 ,father ,massias1 was in the train with the ,holy ,oils1 ready to administer extreme unction to the dying2 for every year some of the patients passed away during the journey4 ,but she did not dare to have recourse to the alarm signal4 ,moreover1 in the _/cantine_/ van where ,sister ,saint ,francois officiated1 there was a doctor with a little medicine chest4 ,if the sufferer should survive until they reached ,poitiers1 where there would be half an hour's stoppage1 all possible help might be given to him4 ,but on the other hand he might suddenly expire4 ,however1 they ended by becoming somewhat calmer4 ,the man1 though still unconscious1 began to breathe in a more regular manner1 and seemed to fall asleep4 8,to think of it1 to die before getting there10 murmured ,marie with a shudder1 8to die in sight of the promised land60 ,and as her father sought to reassure her she added3 8,i am suffering--,i am suffering dreadfully myself40 8,have confidence10 said ,pierre2 8the ,blessed ,virgin is watching over you40 ,she could no longer remain seated1 and it became necessary to replace her in a recumbent position in her narrow coffin4 ,her father and the priest had to take every precaution in doing so1 for the slightest hurt drew a moan from her4 ,and she lay there breathless1 like one dead1 her face contracted by suffering1 and surrounded by her regal fair hair4 ,they had now been rolling on1 ever rolling on for nearly four hours4 ,and if the carriage was so greatly shaken1 with an unbearable spreading tendency1 it was from its position at the rear part of the train4 ,the coupling irons shrieked1 the wheels growled furiously2 and as it was necessary to leave the windows partially open1 the dust came in1 acrid and burning2 but it was especially the heat which grew terrible1 a devouring1 stormy heat falling from a tawny sky which large hanging clouds had slowly covered4 ,the hot carriages1 those rolling boxes where the pilgrims ate and drank1 where the sick lay in a vitiated atmosphere1 amid dizzying moans1 prayers1 and hymns1 became like so many furnaces4 ,and ,marie was not the only one whose condition had been aggravated2 others also were suffering from the journey4 ,resting in the lap of her despairing mother1 who gazed at her with large1 tear-blurred eyes1 little ,rose had ceased to stir1 and had grown so pale that ,madame ,maze had twice leant forward to feel her hands1 fearful lest she should find them cold4 ,at each moment also ,madame ,sabathier had to move her husband's legs1 for their weight was so great1 said he1 that it seemed as if his hips were being torn from him4 ,brother ,isidore too had just begun to cry out1 emerging from his wonted torpor2 and his sister had only been able to assuage his sufferings by raising him1 and clasping him in her arms4 ,la ,grivotte seemed to be asleep1 but a continuous hiccoughing shook her1 and a tiny streamlet of blood dribbled from her mouth4 ,madame ,vetu had again vomited1 ,elise ,rouquet no longer thought of hiding the frightful sore open on her face4 ,and from the man yonder1 breathing hard1 there still came a lugubrious rattle1 as though he were at every moment on the point of expiring4 ,in vain did ,madame de ,jonquiere and ,sister ,hyacinthe lavish their attentions on the patients1 they could but slightly assuage so much suffering4 ,at times it all seemed like an evil dream--that carriage of wretchedness and pain1 hurried along at express speed1 with a continuous shaking and jolting which made everything hanging from the pegs--the old clothes1 the worn-out baskets mended with bits of string--swing to and fro incessantly4 ,and in the compartment at the far end1 the ten female pilgrims1 some old1 some young1 and all pitifully ugly1 sang on without a pause in cracked voices1 shrill and dreary4 ,then ,pierre began to think of the other carriages of the train1 that white train which conveyed most1 if not all1 of the more seriously afflicted patients2 these carriages were rolling along1 all displaying similar scenes of suffering among the three hundred sick and five hundred healthy pilgrims crowded within them4 ,and afterwards he thought of the other trains which were leaving ,paris that day1 the grey train and the blue train99 which had preceded the white one1 the green train1 the yellow train1 the pink train1 the orange train which were following it4 ,from hour to hour trains set out from one to the other end of ,france4 ,and he thought1 too1 of those which that same morning had started from ,orleans1 ,le ,mans1 ,poitiers1 ,bordeaux1 ,marseilles1 and ,carcassonne4 ,coming from all parts1 trains were rushing across that land of ,france at the same hour1 all directing their course yonder towards the holy ,grotto1 bringing thirty thousand patients and pilgrims to the ,virgin's feet4 ,and he reflected that other days of the year witnessed a like rush of human beings1 that not a week went by without ,lourdes beholding the arrival of some pilgrimage2 that it was not merely ,france which set out on the march1 but all ,europe1 the whole world2 that in certain years of great religious fervour there had been three hundred thousand1 and even five hundred thousand1 pilgrims and patients streaming to the spot4 99 ,different-coloured tickets are issued for these trains2 it is for this reason that they are called the white1 blue1 and grey trains1 etc4--,trans4 ,pierre fancied that he could hear those flying trains1 those trains from everywhere1 all converging towards the same rocky cavity where the tapers were blazing4 ,they all rumbled loudly amid the cries of pain and snatches of hymns wafted from their carriages4 ,they were the rolling hospitals of disease at its last stage1 of human suffering rushing to the hope of cure1 furiously seeking consolation between attacks of increased severity1 with the ever-present threat of death--death hastened1 supervening under awful conditions1 amidst the mob-like scramble4 ,they rolled on1 they rolled on again and again1 they rolled on without a pause1 carrying the wretchedness of the world on its way to the divine illusion1 the health of the infirm1 the consolation of the afflicted4 ,and immense pity overflowed from ,pierre's heart1 human compassion for all the suffering and all the tears that consumed weak and naked men4 ,he was sad unto death and ardent charity burnt within him1 the unextinguishable flame as it were of his fraternal feelings towards all things and beings4 ,when they left the station of ,saint ,pierre des ,corps at half-past ten1 ,sister ,hyacinthe gave the signal1 and they recited the third chaplet1 the five glorious mysteries1 the ,resurrection of ,our ,lord1 the ,ascension of ,our ,lord1 the ,mission of the ,holy ,ghost1 the ,assumption of the ,most ,blessed ,virgin1 the ,crowning of the ,most ,blessed ,virgin4 ,and afterwards they sang the canticle of ,bernadette1 that long1 long chant1 composed of six times ten couplets1 to which the ever recurring ,angelic ,salutation serves as a refrain--a prolonged lullaby slowly besetting one until it ends by penetrating one's entire being1 transporting one into ecstatic sleep1 in delicious expectancy of a miracle4 ,,ii ,,pierre ,,and ,,marie ,,the green landscapes of ,poitou were now defiling before them1 and ,abbe ,pierre ,froment1 gazing out of the window1 watched the trees fly away till1 little by little1 he ceased to distinguish them4 ,a steeple appeared and then vanished1 and all the pilgrims crossed themselves4 ,they would not reach ,poitiers until twelve-thirty-five1 and the train was still rolling on amid the growing weariness of that oppressive1 stormy day4 ,falling into a deep reverie1 the young priest no longer heard the words of the canticle1 which sounded in his ears merely like a slow1 wavy lullaby4 ,forgetfulness of the present had come upon him1 an awakening of the past filled his whole being4 ,he was reascending the stream of memory1 reascending it to its source4 ,he again beheld the house at ,neuilly1 where he had been born and where he still lived1 that home of peace and toil1 with its garden planted with a few fine trees1 and parted by a quickset hedge and palisade from the garden of the neighbouring house1 which was similar to his own4 ,he was again three1 perhaps four1 years old1 and round a table1 shaded by the big horse-chestnut tree he once more beheld his father1 his mother1 and his elder brother at _/dejeuner_/4 ,to his father1 ,michel ,froment1 he could give no distinct lineaments2 he pictured him but faintly1 vaguely1 renowned as an illustrious chemist1 bearing the title of ,member of the ,institute1 and leading a cloistered life in the laboratory which he had installed in that secluded1 deserted suburb4 ,however he could plainly see his first brother ,guillaume1 then fourteen years of age1 whom some holiday had brought from college that morning1 and then and even more vividly his mother1 so gentle and so quiet1 with eyes so full of active kindliness4 ,later on he learnt what anguish had racked that religious soul1 that believing woman who1 from esteem and gratitude1 had resignedly accepted marriage with an unbeliever1 her senior by fifteen years1 to whom her relatives were indebted for great services4 ,he1 ,pierre1 the tardy offspring of this union1 born when his father was already near his fiftieth year1 had only known his mother as a respectful1 conquered woman in the presence of her husband1 whom she had learnt to love passionately1 with the frightful torment of knowing1 however1 that he was doomed to perdition4 ,and1 all at once1 another memory flashed upon the young priest1 the terrible memory of the day when his father had died1 killed in his laboratory by an accident1 the explosion of a retort4 ,he1 ,pierre1 had then been five years old1 and he remembered the slightest incidents--his mother's cry when she had found the shattered body among the remnants of the chemical appliances1 then her terror1 her sobs1 her prayers at the idea that ,god had slain the unbeliever1 damned him for evermore4 ,not daring to burn his books and papers1 she had contented herself with locking up the laboratory1 which henceforth nobody entered4 ,and from that moment1 haunted by a vision of hell1 she had had but one idea1 to possess herself of her second son1 who was still so young1 to give him a strictly religious training1 and through him to ransom her husband--secure his forgiveness from ,god4 ,guillaume1 her elder boy1 had already ceased to belong to her1 having grown up at college1 where he had been won over by the ideas of the century2 but she resolved that the other1 the younger one1 should not leave the house1 but should have a priest as tutor2 and her secret dream1 her consuming hope1 was that she might some day see him a priest himself1 saying his first mass and solacing souls whom the thought of eternity tortured4 ,then between green1 leafy boughs1 flecked with sunlight1 another figure rose vividly before ,pierre's eyes4 ,he suddenly beheld ,marie de ,guersaint as he had seen her one morning through a gap in the hedge dividing the two gardens4 ,m4 de ,guersaint1 who belonged to the petty ,norman _/noblesse_/1 was a combination of architect and inventor2 and he was at that time busy with a scheme of model dwellings for the poor1 to which churches and schools were to be attached2 an affair of considerable magnitude1 planned none too well1 however1 and in which1 with his customary impetuosity1 the lack of foresight of an imperfect artist1 he was risking the three hundred thousand francs that he possessed4 ,a similarity of religious faith had drawn ,madame de ,guersaint and ,madame ,froment together2 but the former was altogether a superior woman1 perspicuous and rigid1 with an iron hand which alone prevented her household from gliding to a catastrophe2 and she was bringing up her two daughters1 ,blanche and ,marie1 in principles of narrow piety1 the elder one already being as grave as herself1 whilst the younger1 albeit very devout1 was still fond of play1 with an intensity of life within her which found vent in gay peals of sonorous laughter4 ,from their early childhood ,pierre and ,marie played together1 the hedge was ever being crossed1 the two families constantly mingled4 ,and on that clear sunshiny morning1 when he pictured her parting the leafy branches she was already ten years old4 ,he1 who was sixteen1 was to enter the seminary on the following ,tuesday4 ,never had she seemed to him so pretty4 ,her hair1 of a pure golden hue1 was so long that when it was let down it sufficed to clothe her4 ,well did he remember her face as it had been1 with round cheeks1 blue eyes1 red mouth1 and skin of dazzling1 snowy whiteness4 ,she was indeed as gay and brilliant as the sun itself1 a transplendency4 ,yet there were tears at the corners of her eyes1 for she was aware of his coming departure4 ,they sat down together at the far end of the garden1 in the shadow cast by the hedge4 ,their hands mingled1 and their hearts were very heavy4 ,they had1 however1 never exchanged any vows amid their pastimes1 for their innocence was absolute4 ,but now1 on the eve of separation1 their mutual tenderness rose to their lips1 and they spoke without knowing1 swore that they would ever think of one another1 and find one another again1 some day1 even as one meets in heaven to be very1 very happy4 ,then1 without understanding how it happened1 they clasped each other tightly1 to the point of suffocation1 and kissed each other's face1 weeping1 the while1 hot tears4 ,and it was that delightful memory which ,pierre had ever carried with him1 which he felt alive within him still1 after so many years1 and after so many painful renunciations4 ,just then a more violent shock roused him from his reverie4 ,he turned his eyes upon the carriage and vaguely espied the suffering beings it contained--,madame ,maze motionless1 overwhelmed with grief2 little ,rose gently moaning in her mother's lap2 ,la ,grivotte1 whom a hoarse cough was choking4 ,for a moment ,sister ,hyacinthe's gay face shone out amidst the whiteness of her coif and wimple1 dominating all the others4 ,the painful journey was continuing1 with a ray of divine hope still and ever shining yonder4 ,then everything slowly vanished from ,pierre's eyes as a fresh wave of memory brought the past back from afar2 and nothing of the present remained save the lulling hymn1 the indistinct voices of dreamland1 emerging from the invisible4 ,henceforth he was at the seminary4 ,the classrooms1 the recreation ground with its trees1 rose up clearly before him4 ,but all at once he only beheld1 as in a mirror1 the youthful face which had then been his1 and he contemplated it and scrutinised it1 as though it had been the face of a stranger4 ,tall and slender1 he had an elongated visage1 with an unusually developed forehead1 lofty and straight like a tower2 whilst his jaws tapered1 ending in a small refined chin4 ,he seemed1 in fact1 to be all brains2 his mouth1 rather large1 alone retained an expression of tenderness4 ,indeed1 when his usually serious face relaxed1 his mouth and eyes acquired an exceedingly soft expression1 betokening an unsatisfied1 hungry desire to love1 devote oneself1 and live4 ,but immediately afterwards1 the look of intellectual passion would come back again1 that intellectuality which had ever consumed him with an anxiety to understand and know4 ,and it was with surprise that he now recalled those years of seminary life4 ,how was it that he had so long been able to accept the rude discipline of blind faith1 of obedient belief in everything without the slightest examination8 ,it had been required of him that he should absolutely surrender his reasoning faculties1 and he had striven to do so1 had succeeded indeed in stifling his torturing need of truth4 ,doubtless he had been softened1 weakened by his mother's tears1 had been possessed by the sole desire to afford her the great happiness she dreamt of4 ,yet now he remembered certain quiverings of revolt2 he found in the depths of his mind the memory of nights which he had spent in weeping without knowing why1 nights peopled with vague images1 nights through which galloped the free1 virile life of the world1 when ,marie's face incessantly returned to him1 such as he had seen it one morning1 dazzling and bathed in tears1 while she embraced him with her whole soul4 ,and that alone now remained2 his years of religious study with their monotonous lessons1 their ever similar exercises and ceremonies1 had flown away into the same haze1 into a vague half-light1 full of mortal silence4 ,then1 just as the train had passed though a station at full speed1 with the sudden uproar of its rush there arose within him a succession of confused visions4 ,he had noticed a large deserted enclosure1 and fancied that he could see himself within it at twenty years of age4 ,his reverie was wandering4 ,an indisposition of rather long duration had1 however1 at one time interrupted his studies1 and led to his being sent into the country4 ,he had remained for a long time without seeing ,marie2 during his vacations spent at ,neuilly he had twice failed to meet her1 for she was almost always travelling4 ,he knew that she was very ill1 in consequence of a fall from a horse when she was thirteen1 a critical moment in a girl's life2 and her despairing mother1 perplexed by the contradictory advice of medical men1 was taking her each year to a different watering-place4 ,then he learnt the startling news of the sudden tragical death of that mother1 who was so severe and yet so useful to her kin4 ,she had been carried off in five days by inflammation of the lungs1 which she had contracted one evening whilst she was out walking at ,la ,bourboule1 through having taken off her mantle to place it round the shoulders of ,marie1 who had been conveyed thither for treatment4 ,it had been necessary that the father should at once start off to fetch his daughter1 who was mad with grief1 and the corpse of his wife1 who had been so suddenly torn from him4 ,and unhappily1 after losing her1 the affairs of the family went from bad to worse in the hands of this architect1 who1 without counting1 flung his fortune into the yawning gulf of his unsuccessful enterprises4 ,marie no longer stirred from her couch2 only ,blanche remained to manage the household1 and she had matters of her own to attend to1 being busy with the last examinations which she had to pass1 the diplomas which she was obstinately intent on securing1 foreseeing as she did that she would someday have to earn her bread4 ,all at once1 from amidst this mass of confused1 half-forgotten incidents1 ,pierre was conscious of the rise of a vivid vision4 ,ill-health1 he remembered1 had again compelled him to take a holiday4 ,he had just completed his twenty-fourth year1 he was greatly behindhand1 having so far only secured the four minor orders2 but on his return a sub-deaconship would be conferred on him1 and an inviolable vow would bind him for evermore4 ,and the ,guersaints' little garden at ,neuilly1 whither he had formerly so often gone to play1 again distinctly appeared before him4 ,marie's couch had been rolled under the tall trees at the far end of the garden near the hedge1 they were alone together in the sad peacefulness of an autumnal afternoon1 and he saw ,marie1 clad in deep mourning for her mother and reclining there with legs inert2 whilst he1 also clad in black1 in a cassock already1 sat near her on an iron garden chair4 ,for five years she had been suffering4 ,she was now eighteen1 paler and thinner than formerly1 but still adorable with her regal golden hair1 which illness respected4 ,he believed from what he had heard that she was destined to remain infirm1 condemned never to become a woman1 stricken even in her sex4 ,the doctors1 who failed to agree respecting her case1 had abandoned her4 ,doubtless it was she who told him these things that dreary afternoon1 whilst the yellow withered leaves rained upon them4 ,however1 he could not remember the words that they had spoken2 her pale smile1 her young face1 still so charming though already dimmed by regretfulness for life1 alone remained present with him4 ,but he realised that she had evoked the far-off day of their parting1 on that same spot1 behind the hedge flecked with sunlight2 and all that was already as though dead--their tears1 their embrace1 their promise to find one another some day with a certainty of happiness4 ,for although they had found one another again1 what availed it1 since she was but a corpse1 and he was about to bid farewell to the life of the world8 ,as the doctors condemned her1 as she would never be woman1 nor wife1 nor mother1 he1 on his side1 might well renounce manhood1 and annihilate himself1 dedicate himself to ,god1 to whom his mother gave him4 ,and he still felt within him the soft bitterness of that last interview3 ,marie smiling painfully at memory of their childish play and prattle1 and speaking to him of the happiness which he would assuredly find in the service of ,god2 so penetrated indeed with emotion at this thought1 that she had made him promise that he would let her hear him say his first mass4 ,but the train was passing the station of ,sainte-,maure1 and just then a sudden uproar momentarily brought ,pierre's attention back to the carriage and its occupants4 ,he fancied that there had been some fresh seizure or swooning1 but the suffering faces that he beheld were still the same1 ever contracted by the same expression of anxious waiting for the divine succour which was so slow in coming4 ,m4 ,sabathier was vainly striving to get his legs into a comfortable position1 whilst ,brother ,isidore raised a feeble continuous moan like a dying child1 and ,madame ,vetu1 a prey to terrible agony1 devoured by her disease1 sat motionless1 and kept her lips tightly closed1 her face distorted1 haggard1 and almost black4 ,the noise which ,pierre had heard had been occasioned by ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who whilst cleansing a basin had dropped the large zinc water-can4 ,and1 despite their torment1 this had made the patients laugh1 like the simple souls they were1 rendered puerile by suffering4 ,however1 ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who rightly called them her children1 children whom she governed with a word1 at once set them saying the chaplet again1 pending the ,angelus1 which would only be said at ,chatellerault1 in accordance with the predetermined programme4 ,and thereupon the 8,aves0 followed one after the other1 spreading into a confused murmuring and mumbling amidst the rattling of the coupling irons and noisy growling of the wheels4 ,pierre had meantime relapsed into his reverie1 and beheld himself as he had been at six-and-twenty1 when ordained a priest4 ,tardy scruples had come to him a few days before his ordination1 a semi-consciousness that he was binding himself without having clearly questioned his heart and mind4 ,but he had avoided doing so1 living in the dizzy bewilderment of his decision1 fancying that he had lopped off all human ties and feelings with a voluntary hatchet-stroke4 ,his flesh had surely died with his childhood's innocent romance1 that white-skinned girl with golden hair1 whom now he never beheld otherwise than stretched upon her couch of suffering1 her flesh as lifeless as his own4 ,and he had afterwards made the sacrifice of his mind1 which he then fancied even an easier one1 hoping as he did that determination would suffice to prevent him from thinking4 ,besides1 it was too late1 he could not recoil at the last moment1 and if when he pronounced the last solemn vow he felt a secret terror1 an indeterminate but immense regret agitating him1 he forgot everything1 saving a divine reward for his efforts on the day when he afforded his mother the great and long-expected joy of hearing him say his first mass4 ,he could still see the poor woman in the little church of ,neuilly1 which she herself had selected1 the church where the funeral service for his father had been celebrated2 he saw her on that cold ,november morning1 kneeling almost alone in the dark little chapel1 her hands hiding her face as she continued weeping whilst he raised the ,host4 ,it was there that she had tasted her last happiness1 for she led a sad and lonely life1 no longer seeing her elder son1 who had gone away1 swayed by other ideas than her own1 bent on breaking off all family intercourse since his brother intended to enter the ,church4 ,it was said that ,guillaume1 a chemist of great talent1 like his father1 but at the same time a ,bohemian1 addicted to revolutionary dreams1 was living in a little house in the suburbs1 where he devoted himself to the dangerous study of explosive substances2 and folks added that he was living with a woman who had come no one knew whence4 ,this it was which had severed the last tie between himself and his mother1 all piety and propriety4 ,for three years ,pierre had not once seen ,guillaume1 whom in his childhood he had worshipped as a kind1 merry1 and fatherly big brother4 ,but there came an awful pang to his heart--he once more beheld his mother lying dead4 ,this again was a thunderbolt1 an illness of scarce three days' duration1 a sudden passing away1 as in the case of ,madame de ,guersaint4 ,one evening1 after a wild hunt for the doctor1 he had found her motionless and quite white4 ,she had died during his absence2 and his lips had ever retained the icy thrill of the last kiss that he had given her4 ,of everything else--the vigil1 the preparations1 the funeral--he remembered nothing4 ,all that had become lost in the black night of his stupor and grief1 grief so extreme that he had almost died of it--seized with shivering on his return from the cemetery1 struck down by a fever which during three weeks had kept him delirious1 hovering between life and death4 ,his brother had come and nursed him and had then attended to pecuniary matters1 dividing the little inheritance1 leaving him the house and a modest income and taking his own share in money4 ,and as soon as ,guillaume had found him out of danger he had gone off again1 once more vanishing into the unknown4 ,but then through what a long convalescence he1 ,pierre1 had passed1 buried as it were in that deserted house4 ,he had done nothing to detain ,guillaume1 for he realised that there was an abyss between them4 ,at first the solitude had brought him suffering1 but afterwards it had grown very pleasant1 whether in the deep silence of the rooms which the rare noises of the street did not disturb1 or under the screening1 shady foliage of the little garden1 where he could spend whole days without seeing a soul4 ,his favourite place of refuge1 however1 was the old laboratory1 his father's cabinet1 which his mother for twenty years had kept carefully locked up1 as though to immure within it all the incredulity and damnation of the past4 ,and despite the gentleness1 the respectful submissiveness which she had shown in former times1 she would perhaps have some day ended by destroying all her husband's books and papers1 had not death so suddenly surprised her4 ,pierre1 however1 had once more had the windows opened1 the writing-table and the bookcase dusted2 and1 installed in the large leather arm-chair1 he now spent delicious hours there1 regenerated as it were by his illness1 brought back to his youthful days again1 deriving a wondrous intellectual delight from the perusal of the books which he came upon4 ,the only person whom he remembered having received during those two months of slow recovery was ,doctor ,chassaigne1 an old friend of his father1 a medical man of real merit1 who1 with the one ambition of curing disease1 modestly confined himself to the _/role_/ of the practitioner4 ,it was in vain that the doctor had sought to save ,madame ,froment1 but he flattered himself that he had extricated the young priest from grievous danger2 and he came to see him from time to time1 to chat with him and cheer him1 talking with him of his father1 the great chemist1 of whom he recounted many a charming anecdote1 many a particular1 still glowing with the flame of ardent friendship4 ,little by little1 amidst the weak languor of convalescence1 the son had thus beheld an embodiment of charming simplicity1 affection1 and good nature rising up before him4 ,it was his father such as he had really been1 not the man of stern science whom he had pictured whilst listening to his mother4 ,certainly she had never taught him aught but respect for that dear memory2 but had not her husband been the unbeliever1 the man who denied1 and made the angels weep1 the artisan of impiety who sought to change the world that ,god had made8 ,and so he had long remained a gloomy vision1 a spectre of damnation prowling about the house1 whereas now he became the house's very light1 clear and gay1 a worker consumed by a longing for truth1 who had never desired anything but the love and happiness of all4 ,for his part1 ,doctor ,chassaigne1 a ,pyrenean by birth1 born in a far-off secluded village where folks still believed in sorceresses1 inclined rather towards religion1 although he had not set his foot inside a church during the forty years he had been living in ,paris4 ,however1 his conviction was absolute3 if there were a heaven somewhere1 ,michel ,froment was assuredly there1 and not merely there1 but seated upon a throne on the ,divinity's right hand4 ,then ,pierre1 in a few minutes1 again lived through the frightful torment which1 during two long months1 had ravaged him4 ,it was not that he had found controversial works of an anti-religious character in the bookcase1 or that his father1 whose papers he sorted1 had ever gone beyond his technical studies as a _/savant_/4 ,but little by little1 despite himself1 the light of science _/dawned upon him1 an _/ensemble_/ of proven phenomena1 which demolished dogmas and left within him nothing of the things which as a priest he should have believed4 ,it seemed1 in fact1 as though illness had renewed him1 as though he were again beginning to live and learn amidst the physical pleasantness of convalescence1 that still subsisting weakness which lent penetrating lucidity to his brain4 ,at the seminary1 by the advice of his masters1 he had always kept the spirit of inquiry1 his thirst for knowledge1 in check4 ,much of that which was taught him there had surprised him2 however1 he had succeeded in making the sacrifice of his mind required of his piety4 ,but now1 all the laboriously raised scaffolding of dogmas was swept away in a revolt of that sovereign mind which clamoured for its rights1 and which he could no longer silence4 ,truth was bubbling up and overflowing in such an irresistible stream that he realised he would never succeed in lodging error in his brain again4 ,it was indeed the total and irreparable ruin of faith4 ,although he had been able to kill his flesh by renouncing the romance of his youth1 although he felt that he had altogether mastered carnal passion1 he now knew that it would be impossible for him to make the sacrifice of his intelligence4 ,and he was not mistaken2 it was indeed his father again springing to life in the depths of his being1 and at last obtaining the mastery in that dual heredity in which1 during so many years1 his mother had dominated4 ,the upper part of his face1 his straight1 towering brow1 seemed to have risen yet higher1 whilst the lower part1 the small chin1 the affectionate mouth1 were becoming less distinct4 ,however1 he suffered2 at certain twilight hours when his kindliness1 his need of love awoke1 he felt distracted with grief at no longer believing1 distracted with desire to believe again2 and it was necessary that the lighted lamp should be brought in1 that he should see clearly around him and within him1 before he could recover the energy and calmness of reason1 the strength of martyrdom1 the determination to sacrifice everything to the peace of his conscience4 ,then came the crisis4 ,he was a priest and he no longer believed4 ,this had suddenly dawned before him like a bottomless abyss4 ,it was the end of his life1 the collapse of everything4 ,what should he do8 ,did not simple rectitude require that he should throw off the cassock and return to the world8 ,but he had seen some renegade priests and had despised them4 ,a married priest with whom he was acquainted filled him with disgust4 ,all this1 no doubt1 was but a survival of his long religious training4 ,he retained the notion that a priest cannot1 must not1 weaken2 the idea that when one has dedicated oneself to ,god one cannot take possession of oneself again4 ,possibly1 also1 he felt that he was too plainly branded1 too different from other men already1 to prove otherwise than awkward and unwelcome among them4 ,since he had been cut off from them he would remain apart in his grievous pride2 ,and1 after days of anguish1 days of struggle incessantly renewed1 in which his thirst for happiness warred with the energies of his returning health1 he took the heroic resolution to remain a priest1 and an honest one4 ,he would find the strength necessary for such abnegation4 ,since he had conquered the flesh1 albeit unable to conquer the brain1 he felt sure of keeping his vow of chastity1 and that would be unshakable2 therein lay the pure1 upright life which he was absolutely certain of living4 ,what mattered the rest if he alone suffered1 if nobody in the world suspected that his heart was reduced to ashes1 that nothing remained of his faith1 that he was agonising amidst fearful falsehood8 ,his rectitude would prove a firm prop2 he would follow his priestly calling like an honest man1 without breaking any of the vows he had taken2 he would1 in due accordance with the rites1 discharge his duties as a minister of the ,divinity1 whom he would praise and glorify at the altar1 and distribute as the ,bread of ,life to the faithful4 ,who1 then1 would dare to impute his loss of faith to him as a crime1 even if this great misfortune should some day become known8 ,and what more could be asked of him than lifelong devotion to his vow1 regard for his ministry1 and the practice of every charity without the hope of any future reward8 ,in this wise he ended by calming himself1 still upright1 still bearing his head erect1 with the desolate grandeur of the priest who himself no longer believes1 but continues watching over the faith of others4 ,and he certainly was not alone2 he felt that he had many brothers1 priests with ravaged minds1 who had sunk into incredulity1 and who yet1 like soldiers without a fatherland1 remained at the altar1 and1 despite1 everything1 found the courage to make the divine illusion shine forth above the kneeling crowds4 ,on recovering his health ,pierre had immediately resumed his service at the little church of ,neuilly4 ,he said his mass there every morning4 ,but he had resolved to refuse any appointment1 any preferment4 ,months and years went by1 and he obstinately insisted on remaining the least known and the most humble of those priests who are tolerated in a parish1 who appear and disappear after discharging their duty4 ,the acceptance of any appointment would have seemed to him an aggravation of his falsehood1 a theft from those who were more deserving than himself4 ,and he had to resist frequent offers1 for it was impossible for his merits to remain unnoticed4 ,indeed1 his obstinate modesty provoked astonishment at the archbishop's palace1 where there was a desire to utilise the power which could be divined in him4 ,now and again1 it is true1 he bitterly regretted that he was not useful1 that he did not co-operate in some great work1 in furthering the purification of the world1 the salvation and happiness of all1 in accordance with his own ardent1 torturing desire4 ,fortunately his time was nearly all his own1 and to console himself he gave rein to his passion for work by devouring every volume in his father's bookcase1 and then again resuming and considering his studies1 feverishly preoccupied with regard to the history of nations1 full of a desire to explore the depths of the social and religious crisis so that he might ascertain whether it were really beyond remedy4 ,it was at this time1 whilst rummaging one morning in one of the large drawers in the lower part of the bookcase1 that he discovered quite a collection of papers respecting the apparitions of ,lourdes4 ,it was a very complete set of documents1 comprising detailed notes of the interrogatories to which ,bernadette had been subjected1 copies of numerous official documents1 and police and medical reports1 in addition to many private and confidential letters of the greatest interest4 ,this discovery had surprised ,pierre1 and he had questioned1 ,doctor ,chassaigne concerning it4 ,the latter thereupon remembered that his friend1 ,michel ,froment1 had at one time passionately devoted himself to the study of ,bernadette's case2 and he himself1 a native of the village near ,lourdes1 had procured for the chemist a portion of the documents in the collection4 ,pierre1 in his turn1 then became impassioned1 and for a whole month continued studying the affair1 powerfully attracted by the visionary's pure1 upright nature1 but indignant with all that had subsequently sprouted up--the barbarous fetishism1 the painful superstitions1 and the triumphant simony4 ,in the access of unbelief which had come upon him1 this story of ,lourdes was certainly of a nature to complete the collapse of his faith4 ,however1 it had also excited his curiosity1 and he would have liked to investigate it1 to establish beyond dispute what scientific truth might be in it1 and render pure ,christianity the service of ridding it of this scoria1 this fairy tale1 all touching and childish as it was4 ,but he had been obliged to relinquish his studies1 shrinking from the necessity of making a journey to the ,grotto1 and finding that it would be extremely difficult to obtain the information which he still needed2 and of it all there at last only remained within him a tender feeling for ,bernadette1 of whom he could not think without a sensation of delightful charm and infinite pity4 ,the days went by1 and ,pierre led a more and more lonely life4 ,doctor ,chassaigne had just left for the ,pyrenees in a state of mortal anxiety4 ,abandoning his patients1 he had set out for ,cauterets with his ailing wife1 who was sinking more and more each day1 to the infinite distress of both his charming daughter and himself4 ,from that moment the little house at ,neuilly fell into deathlike silence and emptiness4 ,pierre had no other distraction than that of occasionally going to see the ,guersaints1 who had long since left the neighbouring house1 but whom he had found again in a small lodging in a wretched tenement of the district4 ,and the memory of his first visit to them there was yet so fresh within him1 that he felt a pang at his heart as he recalled his emotion at sight of the hapless ,marie4 ,that pang roused him from his reverie1 and on looking round he perceived ,marie stretched on the seat1 even as he had found her on the day which he recalled1 already imprisoned in that gutter-like box1 that coffin to which wheels were adapted when she was taken out-of-doors for an airing4 ,she1 formerly so brimful of life1 ever astir and laughing1 was dying of inaction and immobility in that box4 ,of her old-time beauty she had retained nothing save her hair1 which clad her as with a royal mantle1 and she was so emaciated that she seemed to have grown smaller again1 to have become once more a child4 ,and what was most distressing was the expression on her pale face1 the blank1 frigid stare of her eyes which did not see1 the ever haunting absent look1 as of one whom suffering overwhelmed4 ,however1 she noticed that ,pierre was gazing at her1 and at once desired to smile at him2 but irresistible moans escaped her1 and when she did at last smile1 it was like a poor smitten creature who is convinced that she will expire before the miracle takes place4 ,he was overcome by it1 and1 amidst all the sufferings with which the carriage abounded1 hers were now the only ones that he beheld and heard1 as though one and all were summed up in her1 in the long and terrible agony of her beauty1 gaiety1 and youth4 ,then by degrees1 without taking his eyes from ,marie1 he again reverted to former days1 again lived those hours1 fraught with a mournful and bitter charm1 which he had often spent beside her1 when he called at the sorry lodging to keep her company4 ,m4 de ,guersaint had finally ruined himself by trying to improve the artistic quality of the religious prints so widely sold in ,france1 the faulty execution of which quite irritated him4 ,his last resources had been swallowed up in the failure of a colour-printing firm2 and1 heedless as he was1 deficient in foresight1 ever trusting in ,providence1 his childish mind continually swayed by illusions1 he did not notice the awful pecuniary embarrassment of the household2 but applied himself to the study of aerial navigation1 without even realising what prodigious activity his elder daughter1 ,blanche1 was forced to display1 in order to earn the living of her two children1 as she was wont to call her father and her sister4 ,it was ,blanche who1 by running about ,paris in the dust or the mud from morning to evening in order to give ,french or music lessons1 contrived to provide the money necessary for the unremitting attentions which ,marie required4 ,and ,marie often experienced attacks of despair--bursting into tears and accusing herself of being the primary cause of their ruin1 as for years and years now it had been necessary to pay for medical attendance and for taking her to almost every imaginable spring--,la ,bourboule1 ,aix1 ,lamalou1 ,amelie-les-,bains1 and others4 ,and the outcome of ten years of varied diagnosis and treatment was that the doctors had now abandoned her4 ,some thought her illness to be due to the rupture of certain ligaments1 others believed in the presence of a tumour1 others again to paralysis due to injury to the spinal cord1 and as she1 with maidenly revolt1 refused to undergo any examination1 and they did not even dare to address precise questions to her1 they each contented themselves with their several opinions and declared that she was beyond cure4 ,moreover1 she now solely relied upon the divine help1 having grown rigidly pious since she had been suffering1 and finding her only relief in her ardent faith4 ,every morning she herself read the holy offices1 for to her great sorrow she was unable to go to church4 ,her inert limbs indeed seemed quite lifeless1 and she had sunk into a condition of extreme weakness1 to such a point1 in fact1 that on certain days it became necessary for her sister to place her food in her mouth4 ,pierre was thinking of this when all at once he recalled an evening he had spent with her4 ,the lamp had not yet been lighted1 he was seated beside her in the growing obscurity1 and she suddenly told him that she wished to go to ,lourdes1 feeling certain that she would return cured4 ,he had experienced an uncomfortable sensation on hearing her speak in this fashion1 and quite forgetting himself had exclaimed that it was folly to believe in such childishness4 ,he had hitherto made it a rule never to converse with her on religious matters1 having not only refused to be her confessor1 but even to advise her with regard to the petty uncertainties of her pietism4 ,in this respect he was influenced by feelings of mingled shame and compassion2 to lie to her of all people would have made him suffer1 and1 moreover1 he would have deemed himself a criminal had he even by a breath sullied that fervent pure faith which lent her such strength against pain4 ,and so1 regretting that he had not been able to restrain his exclamation1 he remained sorely embarrassed1 when all at once he felt the girl's cold hand take hold of his own4 ,and then1 emboldened by the darkness1 she ventured in a gentle1 faltering voice1 to tell him that she already knew his secret1 his misfortune1 that wretchedness1 so fearful for a priest1 of being unable to believe4 ,despite himself he had revealed everything during their chats together1 and she1 with the delicate intuition of a friend1 had been able to read his conscience4 ,she felt terribly distressed on his account2 she deemed him1 with that mortal moral malady1 to be more deserving of pity than herself4 ,and then as he1 thunderstruck1 was still unable to find an answer1 acknowledging the truth of her words by his very silence1 she again began to speak to him of ,lourdes1 adding in a low whisper that she wished to confide him as well as herself to the protection of the ,blessed ,virgin1 whom she entreated to restore him to faith4 ,and from that evening forward she did not cease speaking on the subject1 repeating again and again1 that if she went to ,lourdes she would be surely cured4 ,but she was prevented from making the journey by lack of means and she did not even dare to speak to her sister of the pecuniary question4 ,so two months went by1 and day by day she grew weaker1 exhausted by her longing dreams1 her eyes ever turned towards the flashing light of the miraculous ,grotto far away4 ,pierre then experienced many painful days4 ,he had at first told ,marie that he would not accompany her4 ,but his decision was somewhat shaken by the thought that if he made up his mind to go1 he might profit by the journey to continue his inquiries with regard to ,bernadette1 whose charming image lingered in his heart4 ,and at last he even felt penetrated by a delightful feeling1 an unacknowledged hope1 the hope that ,marie was perhaps right1 that the ,virgin might take pity on him and restore to him his former blind faith1 the faith of the child who loves and does not question4 ,oh6 to believe1 to believe with his whole soul1 to plunge into faith for ever6 ,doubtless there was no other possible happiness4 ,he longed for faith with all the joyousness of his youth1 with all the love that he had felt for his mother1 with all his burning desire to escape from the torment of understanding and knowing1 and to slumber forever in the depths of divine ignorance4 ,it was cowardly1 and yet so delightful2 to exist no more1 to become a mere thing in the hands of the ,divinity4 ,and thus he was at last possessed by a desire to make the supreme experiment4 ,a week later the journey to ,lourdes was decided upon4 ,pierre1 however1 had insisted on a final consultation of medical men in order to ascertain if it were really possible for ,marie to travel2 and this again was a scene which rose up before him1 with certain incidents which he ever beheld whilst others were already fading from his mind4 ,two of the doctors who had formerly attended the patient1 and one of whom believed in the rupture of certain ligaments1 whilst the other asserted the case to be one of medullary paralysis1 had ended by agreeing that this paralysis existed1 and that there was also1 possibly1 some ligamentary injury4 ,in their opinion all the symptoms pointed to this diagnosis1 and the nature of the case seemed to them so evident that they did not hesitate to give certificates1 each his own1 agreeing almost word for word with one another1 and so positive in character as to leave no room for doubt4 ,moreover1 they thought that the journey was practicable1 though it would certainly prove an exceedingly painful one4 ,pierre thereupon resolved to risk it1 for he had found the doctors very prudent1 and very desirous to arrive at the truth2 and he retained but a confused recollection of the third medical man who had been called in1 a distant cousin of his named ,de ,beauclair1 who was young1 extremely intelligent1 but little known as yet1 and said by some to be rather strange in his theories4 ,this doctor1 after looking at ,marie for a long time1 had asked somewhat anxiously about her parents1 and had seemed greatly interested by what was told him of ,m4 de ,guersaint1 this architect and inventor with a weak and exuberant mind4 ,then he had desired to measure the sufferer's visual field1 and by a slight discreet touch had ascertained the locality of the pain1 which1 under certain pressure1 seemed to ascend like a heavy shifting mass towards the breast4 ,he did not appear to attach importance to the paralysis of the legs2 but on a direct question being put to him he exclaimed that the girl ought to be taken to ,lourdes and that she would assuredly be cured there1 if she herself were convinced of it4 ,faith sufficed1 said he1 with a smile2 two pious lady patients of his1 whom he had sent thither during the preceding year1 had returned in radiant health4 ,he even predicted how the miracle would come about2 it would be like a lightning stroke1 an awakening1 an exaltation of the entire being1 whilst the evil1 that horrid1 diabolical weight which stifled the poor girl would once more ascend and fly away as though emerging by her mouth4 ,but at the same time he flatly declined to give a certificate4 ,he had failed to agree with his two _/confreres_/1 who treated him coldly1 as though they considered him a wild1 adventurous young fellow4 ,pierre confusedly remembered some shreds of the discussion which had begun again in his presence1 some little part of the diagnosis framed by ,beauclair4 ,first1 a dislocation of the organ1 with a slight laceration of the ligaments1 resulting from the patient's fall from her horse2 then a slow healing1 everything returning to its place1 followed by consecutive nervous symptoms1 so that the sufferer was now simply beset by her original fright1 her attention fixed on the injured part1 arrested there amidst increasing pain1 incapable of acquiring fresh notions unless it were under the lash of some violent emotion4 ,moreover1 he also admitted the probability of accidents due to nutrition1 as yet unexplained1 and on the course and importance of which he himself would not venture to give an opinion4 ,however1 the idea that ,marie _/dreamt_/ her disease1 that the fearful sufferings torturing her came _/from an injury long since healed1 appeared such a paradox to ,pierre when he gazed at her and saw her in such agony1 her limbs already stretched out lifeless on her bed of misery1 that he did not even pause to consider it2 but at that moment felt simply happy in the thought that all three doctors agreed in authorising the journey to ,lourdes4 ,to him it was sufficient that she _/might_/ be cured1 and to attain that result he would have followed her _/to the end of the world4 ,ah6 those last days of ,paris1 amid what a scramble they were spent6 ,the national pilgrimage was about to start1 and in order to avoid heavy expenses1 it had occurred to him to obtain _/hospitalisation_/ for ,marie4 ,then he had been obliged to run about in order to obtain his own admission1 as a helper1 into the ,hospitality of ,our ,lady of ,salvation4 ,m4 de ,guersaint was delighted with the prospect of the journey1 for he was fond of nature1 and ardently desired to become acquainted with the ,pyrenees4 ,moreover1 he did not allow anything to worry him1 but was perfectly willing that the young priest should pay his railway fare1 and provide for him at the hotel yonder as for a child2 and his daughter ,blanche1 having slipped a twenty-franc piece into his hand at the last moment1 he had even thought himself rich again4 ,that poor brave ,blanche had a little hidden store of her own1 savings to the amount of fifty francs1 which it had been absolutely necessary to accept1 for she became quite angry in her determination to contribute towards her sister's cure1 unable as she was to form one of the party1 owing to the lessons which she had to give in ,paris1 whose hard pavements she must continue pacing1 whilst her dear ones were kneeling yonder1 amidst the enchantments of the ,grotto4 ,and so the others had started on1 and were now rolling1 ever rolling along4 ,as they passed the station of ,chatellerault a sudden burst of voices made ,pierre start1 and drove away the torpor into which his reverie had plunged him4 ,what was the matter8 ,were they reaching ,poitiers8 ,but it was only half-past twelve o'clock1 and it was simply ,sister ,hyacinthe who had roused him1 by making her patients and pilgrims say the ,angelus1 the three 8,aves0 thrice repeated4 ,then the voices burst forth1 and the sound of a fresh canticle arose1 and continued like a lamentation4 ,fully five and twenty minutes must elapse before they would reach ,poitiers1 where it seemed as if the half-hour's stoppage would bring relief to every suffering6 ,they were all so uncomfortable1 so roughly shaken in that malodorous1 burning carriage6 ,such wretchedness was beyond endurance4 ,big tears coursed down the cheeks of ,madame ,vincent1 a muttered oath escaped ,m4 ,sabathier usually so resigned1 and ,brother ,isidore1 ,la ,grivotte1 and ,madame ,vetu seemed to have become inanimate1 mere waifs carried along by a torrent4 ,moreover1 ,marie no longer answered1 but had closed her eyes and would not open them1 pursued as she was by the horrible vision of ,elise ,rouquet's face1 that face with its gaping cavities which seemed to her to be the image of death4 ,and whilst the train increased its speed1 bearing all this human despair onward1 under the heavy sky1 athwart the burning plains1 there was yet another scare in the carriage4 ,the strange man had apparently ceased to breathe1 and a voice cried out that he was expiring4 ,,iii ,,poitiers ,,as soon as the train arrived at ,poitiers1 ,sister ,hyacinthe alighted in all haste1 amidst the crowd of porters opening the carriage doors1 and of pilgrims darting forward to reach the platform4 8,wait a moment1 wait a moment10 she repeated1 8let me pass first4 ,i wish to see if all is over40 ,then1 having entered the other compartment1 she raised the strange man's head1 and seeing him so pale1 with such blank eyes1 she did at first think him already dead4 ,at last1 however1 she detected a faint breathing4 8,no1 no10 she then exclaimed1 8he still breathes4 ,quick6 there is no time to be lost40 ,and1 perceiving the other ,sister1 she added3 8,sister ,claire des ,anges1 will you go and fetch ,father ,massias1 who must be in the third or fourth carriage of the train8 ,tell him that we have a patient in very great danger here1 and ask him to bring the ,holy ,oils at once40 ,without answering1 the other ,sister at once plunged into the midst of the scramble4 ,she was small1 slender1 and gentle1 with a meditative air and mysterious eyes1 but withal extremely active4 ,pierre1 who was standing in the other compartment watching the scene1 now ventured to make a suggestion3 8,and would it not be as well to fetch the doctor80 said he4 8,yes1 ,i was thinking of it10 replied ,sister ,hyacinthe1 8and1 ,monsieur l',abbe1 it would be very kind of you to go for him yourself40 ,it so happened that ,pierre intended going to the cantine carriage to fetch some broth for ,marie4 ,now that she was no longer being jolted she felt somewhat relieved1 and had opened her eyes1 and caused her father to raise her to a sitting posture4 ,keenly thirsting for fresh air1 she would have much liked them to carry her out on to the platform for a moment1 but she felt that it would be asking too much1 that it would be too troublesome a task to place her inside the carriage again4 ,so ,m4 de ,guersaint remained by himself on the platform1 near the open door1 smoking a cigarette1 whilst ,pierre hastened to the cantine van1 where he knew he would find the doctor on duty1 with his travelling pharmacy4 ,some other patients1 whom one could not think of removing1 also remained in the carriage4 ,amongst them was ,la ,grivotte1 who was stifling and almost delirious1 in such a state indeed as to detain ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who had arranged to meet her daughter ,raymonde1 with ,madame ,volmar and ,madame ,desagneaux1 in the refreshment-room1 in order that they might all four lunch together4 ,but that unfortunate creature seemed on the point of expiring1 so how could she leave her all alone1 on the hard seat of that carriage8 ,on his side1 ,m4 ,sabathier1 likewise riveted to his seat1 was waiting for his wife1 who had gone to fetch a bunch of grapes for him2 whilst ,marthe had remained with her brother the missionary1 whose faint moan never ceased4 ,the others1 those who were able to walk1 had hustled one another in their haste to alight1 all eager as they were to escape for a moment from that cage of wretchedness where their limbs had been quite numbed by the seven hours' journey which they had so far gone4 ,madame ,maze had at once drawn apart1 straying with melancholy face to the far end of the platform1 where she found herself all alone2 ,madame ,vetu1 stupefied by her sufferings1 had found sufficient strength to take a few steps1 and sit down on a bench1 in the full sunlight1 where she did not even feel the burning heat2 whilst ,elise ,rouquet1 who had had the decency to cover her face with a black wrap1 and was consumed by a desire for fresh water1 went hither and thither in search of a drinking fountain4 ,and meantime ,madame ,vincent1 walking slowly1 carried her little ,rose about in her arms1 trying to smile at her1 and to cheer her by showing her some gaudily coloured picture bills1 which the child gravely gazed at1 but did not see4 ,pierre had the greatest possible difficulty in making his way through the crowd inundating the platform4 ,no effort of imagination could enable one to picture the living torrent of ailing and healthy beings which the train had here set down--a mob of more than a thousand persons just emerging from suffocation1 and bustling1 hurrying hither and thither4 ,each carriage had contributed its share of wretchedness1 like some hospital ward suddenly evacuated2 and it was now possible to form an idea of the frightful amount of suffering which this terrible white train carried along with it1 this train which disseminated a legend of horror wheresoever it passed4 ,some infirm sufferers were dragging themselves about1 others were being carried1 and many remained in a heap on the platform4 ,there were sudden pushes1 violent calls1 innumerable displays of distracted eagerness to reach the refreshment-room and the _/buvette_/4 ,each and all made haste1 going wheresoever their wants called them4 ,this stoppage of half an hour's duration1 the only stoppage there would be before reaching ,lourdes1 was1 after all1 such a short one4 ,and the only gay note1 amidst all the black cassocks and the threadbare garments of the poor1 never of any precise shade of colour1 was supplied by the smiling whiteness of the ,little ,sisters of the ,assumption1 all bright and active in their snowy coifs1 wimples1 and aprons4 ,when ,pierre at last reached the cantine van near the middle of the train1 he found it already besieged4 ,there was here a petroleum stove1 with a small supply of cooking utensils4 ,the broth prepared from concentrated meat-extract was being warmed in wrought-iron pans1 whilst the preserved milk in tins was diluted and supplied as occasion required4 ,there were some other provisions1 such as biscuits1 fruit1 and chocolate1 on a few shelves4 ,but ,sister ,saint-,francois1 to whom the service was entrusted1 a short1 stout woman of five-and-forty1 with a good-natured fresh-coloured face1 was somewhat losing her head in the presence of all the hands so eagerly stretched towards her4 ,whilst continuing her distribution1 she lent ear to ,pierre1 as he called the doctor1 who with his travelling pharmacy occupied another corner of the van4 ,then1 when the young priest began to explain matters1 speaking of the poor unknown man who was dying1 a sudden desire came to her to go and see him1 and she summoned another ,sister to take her place4 8,oh6 ,i wished to ask you1 ,sister1 for some broth for a passenger who is ill10 said ,pierre1 at that moment turning towards her4 8,very well1 ,monsieur l',abbe1 ,i will bring some4 ,go on in front40 ,the doctor and the abbe went off in all haste1 rapidly questioning and answering one another1 whilst behind them followed ,sister ,saint-,francois1 carrying the bowl of broth with all possible caution amidst the jostling of the crowd4 ,the doctor was a dark-complexioned man of eight-and-twenty1 robust and extremely handsome1 with the head of a young ,roman emperor1 such as may still be occasionally met with in the sunburnt land of ,provence4 ,as soon as ,sister ,hyacinthe caught sight of him1 she raised an exclamation of surprise3 8,what6 ,monsieur ,ferrand1 is it you80 ,indeed1 they both seemed amazed at meeting in this manner4 ,it is1 however1 the courageous mission of the ,sisters of the ,assumption to tend the ailing poor1 those who lie in agony in their humble garrets1 and cannot pay for nursing2 and thus these good women spend their lives among the wretched1 installing themselves beside the sufferer's pallet in his tiny lodging1 and ministering to every want1 attending alike to cooking and cleaning1 and living there as servants and relatives1 until either cure or death supervenes4 ,and it was in this wise that ,sister ,hyacinthe1 young as she was1 with her milky face1 and her blue eyes which ever laughed1 had installed herself one day in the abode of this young fellow1 ,ferrand1 then a medical student1 prostrated by typhoid fever1 and so desperately poor that he lived in a kind of loft reached by a ladder1 in the ,rue du ,four4 ,and from that moment she had not stirred from his side1 but had remained with him until she cured him1 with the passion of one who lived only for others1 one who when an infant had been found in a church porch1 and who had no other family than that of those who suffered1 to whom she devoted herself with all her ardently affectionate nature4 ,and what a delightful month1 what exquisite comradeship1 fraught with the pure fraternity of suffering1 had followed6 ,when he called her 8,sister10 it was really to a sister that he was speaking4 ,and she was a mother also1 a mother who helped him to rise1 and who put him to bed as though he were her child1 without aught springing up between them save supreme pity1 the divine1 gentle compassion of charity4 ,she ever showed herself gay1 sexless1 devoid of any instinct excepting that which prompted her to assuage and to console4 ,and he worshipped her1 venerated her1 and had retained of her the most chaste and passionate of recollections4 8,o ,sister ,hyacinthe60 he murmured in delight4 ,chance alone had brought them face to face again1 for ,ferrand was not a believer1 and if he found himself in that train it was simply because he had at the last moment consented to take the place of a friend who was suddenly prevented from coming4 ,for nearly a twelvemonth he had been a house-surgeon at the ,hospital of ,la ,pitie4 ,however1 this journey to ,lourdes1 in such peculiar circumstances1 greatly interested him4 ,the joy of the meeting was making them forget the ailing stranger4 ,and so the ,sister resumed3 8,you see1 ,monsieur ,ferrand1 it is for this man that we want you4 ,at one moment we thought him dead4 ,ever since we passed ,amboise he has been filling us with fear1 and ,i have just sent for the ,holy ,oils4 ,do you find him so very low8 ,could you not revive him a little80 ,the doctor was already examining the man1 and thereupon the sufferers who had remained in the carriage became greatly interested and began to look4 ,marie1 to whom ,sister ,saint-,francois had given the bowl of broth1 was holding it with such an unsteady hand that ,pierre had to take it from her1 and endeavour to make her drink2 but she could not swallow1 and she left the broth scarce tasted1 fixing her eyes upon the man waiting to see what would happen like one whose own existence is at stake4 8,tell me10 again asked ,sister ,hyacinthe1 8how do you find him8 ,what is his illness80 8,what is his illness60 muttered ,ferrand2 8he has every illness40 ,then1 drawing a little phial from his pocket1 he endeavoured to introduce a few drops of the contents between the sufferer's clenched teeth4 ,the man heaved a sigh1 raised his eyelids and let them fall again2 that was all1 he gave no other sign of life4 ,sister ,hyacinthe1 usually so calm and composed1 so little accustomed to despair1 became impatient4 8,but it is terrible10 said she1 8and ,sister ,claire des ,anges does not come back6 ,yet ,i told her plainly enough where she would find ,father ,massias's carriage4 _/,mon ,dieu6_/ what will become of us80 ,sister ,saint-,francois1 seeing that she could render no help1 was now about to return to the cantine van4 ,before doing so1 however1 she inquired if the man were not simply dying of hunger2 for such cases presented themselves1 and indeed she had only come to the compartment with the view of offering some of her provisions4 ,at last1 as she went off1 she promised that she would make ,sister ,claire des ,anges hasten her return should she happen to meet her2 and she had not gone twenty yards when she turned round and waved her arm to call attention to her colleague1 who with discreet short steps was coming back alone4 ,leaning out of the window1 ,sister ,hyacinthe kept on calling to her1 8,make haste1 make haste6 ,well1 and where is ,father ,massias80 8,he isn't there40 8,what6 not there80 8,no4 ,i went as fast as ,i could1 but with all these people about it was not possible to get there quickly4 ,when ,i reached the carriage ,father ,massias had already alighted1 and gone out of the station1 no doubt40 ,she thereupon explained1 that according to what she had heard1 ,father ,massias and the priest of ,sainte-,radegonde had some appointment together4 ,in other years the national pilgrimage halted at ,poitiers for four-and-twenty hours1 and after those who were ill had been placed in the town hospital the others went in procession to ,sainte-,radegonde499 ,that year1 however1 there was some obstacle to this course being followed1 so the train was going straight on to ,lourdes2 and ,father ,massias was certainly with his friend the priest1 talking with him on some matter of importance4 99 ,the church of ,sainte-,radegonde1 built by the saint of that name in the sixth century1 is famous throughout ,poitou4 ,in the crypt between the tombs of ,ste4 ,agnes and ,st4 ,disciole is that of ,ste4 ,radegonde herself1 but it now only contains some particles of her remains1 as the greater portion was burnt by the ,huguenots in #aefb4 ,on a previous occasion 7#adab7 the tomb had been violated by ,jean1 ,duc de ,berry1 who wished to remove both the saint's head and her two rings4 ,whilst he was making the attempt1 however1 the skeleton is said to have withdrawn its hand so that he might not possess himself of the rings4 ,a greater curiosity which the church contains is a footprint on a stone slab1 said to have been left by ,christ when ,he appeared to ,ste4 ,radegonde in her cell4 ,this attracts pilgrims from many parts4--,trans4 8,they promised to tell him and send him here with the ,holy ,oils as soon as they found him10 added ,sister ,claire4 ,however1 this was quite a disaster for ,sister ,hyacinthe4 ,since ,science was powerless1 perhaps the ,holy ,oils would have brought the sufferer some relief4 ,she had often seen that happen4 8,o ,sister1 ,sister1 how worried ,i am60 she said to her companion4 8,do you know1 ,i wish you would go back and watch for ,father ,massias and bring him to me as soon as you see him4 ,it would be so kind of you to do so60 8,yes1 ,sister10 compliantly answered ,sister ,claire des ,anges1 and off she went again with that grave1 mysterious air of hers1 wending her way through the crowd like a gliding shadow4 ,ferrand1 meantime1 was still looking at the man1 sorely distressed at his inability to please ,sister ,hyacinthe by reviving him4 ,and as he made a gesture expressive of his powerlessness she again raised her voice entreatingly3 8,stay with me1 ,monsieur ,ferrand1 pray stay10 she said4 8,wait till ,father ,massias comes--,i shall be a little more at ease with you here40 ,he remained and helped her to raise the man1 who was slipping down upon the seat4 ,then1 taking a linen cloth1 she wiped the poor fellow's face which a dense perspiration was continually covering4 ,and the spell of waiting continued amid the uneasiness of the patients who had remained in the carriage1 and the curiosity of the folks who had begun to assemble on the platform in front of the compartment4 ,all at once however a girl hastily pushed the crowd aside1 and1 mounting on the footboard1 addressed herself to ,madame de ,jonquiere3 8,what is the matter1 mamma80 she said4 8,they are waiting for you in the refreshment-room40 ,it was ,raymonde de ,jonquiere1 who1 already somewhat ripe for her four-and-twenty years1 was remarkably like her mother1 being very dark1 with a pronounced nose1 large mouth1 and full1 pleasant-looking face4 8,but1 my dear1 you can see for yourself4 ,i can't leave this poor woman10 replied the lady-hospitaller2 and thereupon she pointed to ,la ,grivotte1 who had been attacked by a fit of coughing which shook her frightfully4 8,oh1 how annoying1 mamma60 retorted ,raymonde1 8,madame ,desagneaux and ,madame ,volmar were looking forward with so much pleasure to this little lunch together40 8,well1 it can't be helped1 my dear4 ,at all events1 you can begin without waiting for me4 ,tell the ladies that ,i will come and join them as soon as ,i can40 ,then1 an idea occurring to her1 ,madame de ,jonquiere added3 8,wait a moment1 the doctor is here4 ,i will try to get him to take charge of my patient4 ,go back1 ,i will follow you4 ,as you can guess1 ,i am dying of hunger40 ,raymonde briskly returned to the refreshment-room whilst her mother begged ,ferrand to come into her compartment to see if he could do something to relieve ,la ,grivotte4 ,at ,marthe's request he had already examined ,brother ,isidore1 whose moaning never ceased2 and with a sorrowful gesture he had again confessed his powerlessness4 ,however1 he hastened to comply with ,madame de ,jonquiere's appeal1 and raised the consumptive woman to a sitting posture in the hope of thus stopping her cough1 which indeed gradually ceased4 ,and then he helped the lady-hospitaller to make her swallow a spoonful of some soothing draught4 ,the doctor's presence in the carriage was still causing a stir among the ailing ones4 ,m4 ,sabathier1 who was slowly eating the grapes which his wife had been to fetch him1 did not1 however1 question ,ferrand1 for he knew full well what his answer would be1 and was weary1 as he expressed it1 of consulting all the princes of science2 nevertheless he felt comforted as it were at seeing him set that poor consumptive woman on her feet again4 ,and even ,marie watched all that the doctor did with increasing interest1 though not daring to call him herself1 certain as she also was that he could do nothing for her4 ,meantime1 the crush on the platform was increasing4 ,only a quarter of an hour now remained to the pilgrims4 ,madame ,vetu1 whose eyes were open but who saw nothing1 sat like an insensible being in the broad sunlight1 in the hope possibly that the scorching heat would deaden her pains2 whilst up and down1 in front of her1 went ,madame ,vincent ever with the same sleep-inducing step and ever carrying her little ,rose1 her poor ailing birdie1 whose weight was so trifling that she scarcely felt her in her arms4 ,many people meantime were hastening to the water tap in order to fill their pitchers1 cans1 and bottles4 ,madame ,maze1 who was of refined tastes and careful of her person1 thought of going to wash her hands there2 but just as she arrived she found ,elise ,rouquet drinking1 and she recoiled at sight of that disease-smitten face1 so terribly disfigured and robbed of nearly all semblance of humanity4 ,and all the others likewise shuddered1 likewise hesitated to fill their bottles1 pitchers1 and cans at the tap from which she had drunk4 ,a large number of pilgrims had now begun to eat whilst pacing the platform4 ,you could hear the rhythmical taps of the crutches carried by a woman who incessantly wended her way through the groups4 ,on the ground1 a legless cripple was painfully dragging herself about in search of nobody knew what4 ,others1 seated there in heaps1 no longer stirred4 ,all these sufferers1 momentarily unpacked as it were1 these patients of a travelling hospital emptied for a brief half-hour1 were taking the air amidst the bewilderment and agitation of the healthy passengers2 and the whole throng had a frightfully woeful1 poverty-stricken appearance in the broad noontide light4 ,pierre no longer stirred from the side of ,marie1 for ,m4 de ,guersaint had disappeared1 attracted by a verdant patch of landscape which could be seen at the far end of the station4 ,and1 feeling anxious about her1 since she had not been able to finish her broth1 the young priest with a smiling air tried to tempt her palate by offering to go and buy her a peach2 but she refused it2 she was suffering too much1 she cared for nothing4 ,she was gazing at him with her large1 woeful eyes1 on the one hand impatient at this stoppage which delayed her chance of cure1 and on the other terrified at the thought of again being jolted along that hard and endless railroad4 ,just then a stout gentleman whose full beard was turning grey1 and who had a broad1 fatherly kind of face1 drew near and touched ,pierre's arm3 8,excuse me1 ,monsieur l',abbe10 said he1 8but is it not in this carriage that there is a poor man dying80 ,and on the priest returning an affirmative answer1 the gentleman became quite affable and familiar4 8,my name is ,vigneron10 he said2 8,i am the head clerk at the ,ministry of ,finances1 and applied for leave in order that ,i might help my wife to take our son ,gustave to ,lourdes4 ,the dear lad places all his hope in the ,blessed ,virgin1 to whom we pray morning and evening on his behalf4 ,we are in a second-class compartment of the carriage just in front of yours40 ,then1 turning round1 he summoned his party with a wave of the hand4 8,come1 come60 said he1 8it is here4 ,the unfortunate man is indeed in the last throes40 ,madame ,vigneron was a little woman with the correct bearing of a respectable _/bourgeoise_/1 but her long1 livid face denoted impoverished blood1 _/terrible evidence of which was furnished by her son ,gustave4 ,the latter1 who was fifteen years of age1 looked scarcely ten4 ,twisted out of shape1 he was a mere skeleton1 with his right leg so wasted1 so reduced1 that he had to walk with a crutch4 ,he had a small1 thin face1 somewhat awry1 in which one saw little excepting his eyes1 clear eyes1 sparkling with intelligence1 sharpened as it were by suffering1 and doubtless well able to dive into the human soul4 ,an old puffy-faced lady followed the others1 dragging her legs along with difficulty2 and ,m4 ,vigneron1 remembering that he had forgotten her1 stepped back towards ,pierre so that he might complete the introduction4 8,that lady10 said he1 8is ,madame ,chaise1 my wife's eldest sister4 ,she also wished to accompany ,gustave1 whom she is very fond of40 ,and then1 leaning forward1 he added in a whisper1 with a confidential air3 8,she is the widow of ,chaise1 the silk merchant1 you know1 who left such an immense fortune4 ,she is suffering from a heart complaint which causes her much anxiety40 ,the whole family1 grouped together1 then gazed with lively curiosity at what was taking place in the railway carriage4 ,people were incessantly flocking to the spot2 and so that the lad might be the better able to see1 his father took him up in his arms for a moment whilst his aunt held the crutch1 and his mother on her side raised herself on tip-toe4 ,the scene in the carriage was still the same2 the strange man was still stiffly seated in his corner1 his head resting against the hard wood4 ,he was livid1 his eyes were closed1 and his mouth was twisted by suffering2 and every now and then ,sister ,hyacinthe with her linen cloth wiped away the cold sweat which was constantly covering his face4 ,she no longer spoke1 no longer evinced any impatience1 but had recovered her serenity and relied on ,heaven4 ,from time to time she would simply glance towards the platform to see if ,father ,massias were coming4 8,look at him1 ,gustave10 said ,m4 ,vigneron to his son2 8he must be consumptive40 ,the lad1 whom scrofula was eating away1 whose hip was attacked by an abscess1 and in whom there were already signs of necrosis of the vertebrae1 seemed to take a passionate interest in the agony he thus beheld4 ,it did not frighten him1 he smiled at it with a smile of infinite sadness4 8,oh6 how dreadful60 muttered ,madame ,chaise1 who1 living in continual terror of a sudden attack which would carry her off1 turned pale with the fear of death4 8,ah6 well10 replied ,m4 ,vigneron1 philosophically1 8it will come to each of us in turn4 ,we are all mortal40 ,thereupon1 a painful1 mocking expression came over ,gustave's smile1 as though he had heard other words than those--perchance an unconscious wish1 the hope that the old aunt might die before he himself did1 that he would inherit the promised half-million of francs1 and then not long encumber his family4 8,put the boy down now10 said ,madame ,vigneron to her husband4 8,you are tiring him1 holding him by the legs like that40 ,then both she and ,madame ,chaise bestirred themselves in order that the lad might not be shaken4 ,the poor darling was so much in need of care and attention4 ,at each moment they feared that they might lose him4 ,even his father was of opinion that they had better put him in the train again at once4 ,and as the two women went off with the child1 the old gentleman once more turned towards ,pierre1 and with evident emotion exclaimed3 8,ah6 ,monsieur l',abbe1 if ,god should take him from us1 the light of our life would be extinguished--,i don't speak of his aunt's fortune1 which would go to other nephews4 ,but it would be unnatural1 would it not1 that he should go off before her1 especially as she is so ill8 ,however1 we are all in the hands of ,providence1 and place our reliance in the ,blessed ,virgin1 who will assuredly perform a miracle40 ,just then ,madame de ,jonquiere1 having been reassured by ,doctor ,ferrand1 was able to leave ,la ,grivotte4 ,before going off1 however1 she took care to say to ,pierre3 8,i am dying of hunger and am going to the refreshment-room for a moment4 ,but if my patient should begin coughing again1 pray come and fetch me40 ,when1 after great difficulty1 she had managed to cross the platform and reach the refreshment-room1 she found herself in the midst of another scramble4 ,the better-circumstanced pilgrims had taken the tables by assault1 and a great many priests were to be seen hastily lunching amidst all the clatter of knives1 forks1 and crockery4 ,the three or four waiters were not able to attend to all the requirements1 especially as they were hampered in their movements by the crowd purchasing fruit1 bread1 and cold meat at the counter4 ,it was at a little table at the far end of the room that ,raymonde was lunching with ,madame ,desagneaux and ,madame ,volmar4 8,ah6 here you are at last1 mamma60 the girl exclaimed1 as ,madame de ,jonquiere approached4 8,i was just going back to fetch you4 ,you certainly ought to be allowed time to eat60 ,she was laughing1 with a very animated expression on her face1 quite delighted as she was with the adventures of the journey and this indifferent scrambling meal4 8,there10 said she1 8,i have kept you some trout with green sauce1 and there's a cutlet also waiting for you4 ,we have already got to the artichokes40 ,then everything became charming4 ,the gaiety prevailing in that little corner rejoiced the sight4 ,young ,madame ,desagneaux was particularly adorable4 ,a delicate blonde1 with wild1 wavy1 yellow hair1 a round1 dimpled1 milky face1 a gay1 laughing disposition1 and a remarkably good heart1 she had made a rich marriage1 and for three years past had been wont to leave her husband at ,trouville in the fine ,august weather1 in order to accompany the national pilgrimage as a lady-hospitaller4 ,this was her great passion1 an access of quivering pity1 a longing desire to place herself unreservedly at the disposal of the sick for five days1 a real debauch of devotion from which she returned tired to death but full of intense delight4 ,her only regret was that she as yet had no children1 and with comical passion1 she occasionally expressed a regret that she had missed her true vocation1 that of a sister of charity4 8,ah6 my dear10 she hastily said to ,raymonde1 8don't pity your mother for being so much taken up with her patients4 ,she1 at all events1 has something to occupy her40 ,and addressing herself to ,madame de ,jonquiere1 she added3 8,if you only knew how long we find the time in our fine first-class carriage4 ,we cannot even occupy ourselves with a little needlework1 as it is forbidden4 ,i asked for a place with the patients1 but all were already distributed1 so that my only resource will be to try to sleep tonight40 ,she began to laugh1 and then resumed3 8,yes1 ,madame ,volmar1 we will try to sleep1 won't we1 since talking seems to tire you80 ,madame ,volmar1 who looked over thirty1 was very dark1 with a long face and delicate but drawn features4 ,her magnificent eyes shone out like brasiers1 though every now and then a cloud seemed to veil and extinguish them4 ,at the first glance she did not appear beautiful1 but as you gazed at her she became more and more perturbing1 till she conquered you and inspired you with passionate admiration4 ,it should be said though that she shrank from all self-assertion1 comporting herself with much modesty1 ever keeping in the background1 striving to hide her lustre1 invariably clad in black and unadorned by a single jewel1 although she was the wife of a ,parisian diamond-merchant4 8,oh6 for my part10 she murmured1 8as long as ,i am not hustled too much ,i am well pleased40 ,she had been to ,lourdes as an auxiliary lady-helper already on two occasions1 though but little had been seen of her there--at the hospital of ,our ,lady of ,dolours--as1 on arriving1 she had been overcome by such great fatigue that she had been forced1 she said1 to keep her room4 ,however1 ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who managed the ward1 treated her with good-natured tolerance4 8,ah6 my poor friends10 said she1 8there will be plenty of time for you to exert yourselves4 ,get to sleep if you can1 and your turn will come when ,i can no longer keep up40 ,then addressing her daughter1 she resumed3 8,and you would do well1 darling1 not to excite yourself too much if you wish to keep your head clear40 ,raymonde smiled and gave her mother a reproachful glance3 8,mamma1 mamma1 why do you say that8 ,am ,i not sensible80 she asked4 ,doubtless she was not boasting1 for1 despite her youthful1 thoughtless air1 the air of one who simply feels happy in living1 there appeared in her grey eyes an expression of firm resolution1 a resolution to shape her life for herself4 8,it is true10 the mother confessed with a little confusion1 8this little girl is at times more sensible than ,i am myself4 ,come1 pass me the cutlet--it is welcome1 ,i assure you4 ,lord6 how hungry ,i was60 ,the meal continued1 enlivened by the constant laughter of ,madame ,desagneaux and ,raymonde4 ,the latter was very animated1 and her face1 which was already growing somewhat yellow through long pining for a suitor1 again assumed the rosy bloom of twenty4 ,they had to eat very fast1 for only ten minutes now remained to them4 ,on all sides one heard the growing tumult of customers who feared that they would not have time to take their coffee4 ,all at once1 however1 ,pierre made his appearance2 a fit of stifling had again come over ,la ,grivotte2 and ,madame de ,jonquiere hastily finished her artichoke and returned to her compartment1 after kissing her daughter1 who wished her 8good-night0 in a facetious way4 ,the priest1 however1 had made a movement of surprise on perceiving ,madame ,volmar with the red cross of the lady-hospitallers on her black bodice4 ,he knew her1 for he still called at long intervals on old ,madame ,volmar1 the diamond-merchant's mother1 who had been one of his own mother's friends4 ,she was the most terrible woman in the world1 religious beyond all reason1 so harsh and stern1 moreover1 as to close the very window shutters in order to prevent her daughter-in-law from looking into the street4 ,and he knew the young woman's story1 how she had been imprisoned on the very morrow of her marriage1 shut up between her mother-in-law1 who tyrannised over her1 and her husband1 a repulsively ugly monster who went so far as to beat her1 mad as he was with jealousy1 although he himself kept mistresses4 ,the unhappy woman was not allowed out of the house excepting it were to go to mass4 ,and one day1 at ,la ,trinite1 ,pierre had surprised her secret1 on seeing her behind the church exchanging a few hasty words with a well-groomed1 distinguished-looking man4 ,the priest's sudden appearance in the refreshment-room had somewhat disconcerted ,madame ,volmar4 8,what an unexpected meeting1 ,monsieur l',abbe60 she said1 offering him her long1 warm hand4 8,what a long time it is since ,i last saw you60 ,and thereupon she explained that this was the third year she had gone to ,lourdes1 her mother-in-law having required her to join the ,association of ,our ,lady of ,salvation4 8,it is surprising that you did not see her at the station when we started10 she added4 8,she sees me into the train and comes to meet me on my return40 ,this was said in an apparently simple way1 but with such a subtle touch of irony that ,pierre fancied he could guess the truth4 ,he knew that she really had no religious principles at all1 and that she merely followed the rites and ceremonies of the ,church in order that she might now and again obtain an hour's freedom2 and all at once he intuitively realised that someone must be waiting for her yonder1 that it was for the purpose of meeting him that she was thus hastening to ,lourdes with her shrinking yet ardent air and flaming eyes1 which she so prudently shrouded with a veil of lifeless indifference4 8,for my part10 he answered1 8,i am accompanying a friend of my childhood1 a poor girl who is very ill indeed4 ,i must ask your help for her2 you shall nurse her40 ,thereupon she faintly blushed1 and he no longer doubted the truth of his surmise4 ,however1 ,raymonde was just then settling the bill with the easy assurance of a girl who is expert in figures2 and immediately afterwards ,madame ,desagneaux led ,madame ,volmar away4 ,the waiters were now growing more distracted and the tables were fast being vacated2 for1 on hearing a bell ring1 everybody had begun to rush towards the door4 ,pierre1 on his side1 was hastening back to his carriage1 when he was stopped by an old priest4 8,ah6 ,monsieur le ,cure10 he said1 8,i saw you just before we started1 but ,i was unable to get near enough to shake hands with you40 ,thereupon he offered his hand to his brother ecclesiastic1 who was looking and smiling at him in a kindly way4 ,the ,abbe ,judaine was the parish priest of ,saligny1 a little village in the department of the ,oise4 ,tall and sturdy1 he had a broad pink face1 around which clustered a mass of white1 curly hair1 and it could be divined by his appearance that he was a worthy man whom neither the flesh nor the spirit had ever tormented4 ,he believed indeed firmly and absolutely1 with a tranquil godliness1 never having known a struggle1 endowed as he was with the ready faith of a child who is unacquainted with human passions4 ,and ever since the ,virgin at ,lourdes had cured him of a disease of the eyes1 by a famous miracle which folks still talked about1 his belief had become yet more absolute and tender1 as though impregnated with divine gratitude4 8,i am pleased that you are with us1 my friend10 he gently said2 8for there is much in these pilgrimages for young priests to profit by4 ,i am told that some of them at times experience a feeling of rebellion4 ,well1 you will see all these poor people praying1--it is a sight which will make you weep4 ,how can one do otherwise than place oneself in ,god's hands1 on seeing so much suffering cured or consoled80 ,the old priest himself was accompanying a patient2 and he pointed to a first-class compartment1 at the door of which hung a placard bearing the inscription3 8,m4 l',abbe ,judaine1 ,reserved40 ,then lowering his voice1 he said3 8,it is ,madame ,dieulafay1 you know1 the great banker's wife4 ,their chateau1 a royal domain1 is in my parish1 and when they learned that the ,blessed ,virgin had vouchsafed me such an undeserved favour1 they begged me to intercede for their poor sufferer4 ,i have already said several masses1 and most sincerely pray for her4 ,there1 you see her yonder on the ground4 ,she insisted on being taken out of the carriage1 in spite of all the trouble which one will have to place her in it again40 ,on a shady part of the platform1 in a kind of long box1 there was1 as the old priest said1 a woman whose beautiful1 perfectly oval face1 lighted up by splendid eyes1 denoted no greater age than six-and-twenty4 ,she was suffering from a frightful disease4 ,the disappearance from her system of the calcareous salts had led to a softening of the osseous framework1 the slow destruction of her bones4 ,three years previously1 after the advent of a stillborn child1 she had felt vague pains in the spinal column4 ,and then1 little by little1 her bones had rarefied and lost shape1 the vertebrae had sunk1 the bones of the pelvis had flattened1 and those of the arms and legs had contracted4 ,thus shrunken1 melting away as it were1 she had become a mere human remnant1 a nameless1 fluid thing1 which could not be set erect1 but had to be carried hither and thither with infinite care1 for fear lest she should vanish between one's fingers4 ,her face1 a motionless face1 on which sat a stupefied imbecile expression1 still retained its beauty of outline1 and yet it was impossible to gaze at this wretched shred of a woman without feeling a heart-pang1 the keener on account of all the luxury surrounding her2 for not only was the box in which she lay lined with blue quilted silk1 but she was covered with valuable lace1 and a cap of rare valenciennes was set upon her head1 her wealth thus being proclaimed1 displayed1 in the midst of her awful agony4 8,ah6 how pitiable it is10 resumed the ,abbe ,judaine in an undertone4 8,to think that she is so young1 so pretty1 possessed of millions of money6 ,and if you knew how dearly loved she was1 with what adoration she is still surrounded4 ,that tall gentleman near her is her husband1 that elegantly dressed lady is her sister1 ,madame ,jousseur40 ,pierre remembered having often noticed in the newspapers the name of ,madame ,jousseur1 wife of a diplomatist1 and a conspicuous member of the higher spheres of ,catholic society in ,paris4 ,people had even circulated a story of some great passion which she had fought against and vanquished4 ,she also was very prettily dressed1 with marvellously tasteful simplicity1 and she ministered to the wants of her sorry sister with an air of perfect devotion4 ,as for the unhappy woman's husband1 who at the age of five-and-thirty had inherited his father's colossal business1 he was a clear-complexioned1 well-groomed1 handsome man1 clad in a closely buttoned frock-coat4 ,his eyes1 however1 were full of tears1 for he adored his wife1 and had left his business in order to take her to ,lourdes1 placing his last hope in this appeal to the mercy of ,heaven4 ,ever since the morning1 ,pierre had beheld many frightful sufferings in that woeful white train4 ,but none had so distressed his soul as did that wretched female skeleton1 slowly liquefying in the midst of its lace and its millions4 8,the unhappy woman60 he murmured with a shudder4 ,the ,abbe ,judaine1 however1 made a gesture of serene hope4 8,the ,blessed ,virgin will cure her10 said he2 8,i have prayed to her so much40 ,just then a bell again pealed1 and this time it was really the signal for starting4 ,only two minutes remained4 ,there was a last rush1 and folks hurried back towards the train carrying eatables wrapped in paper1 and bottles and cans which they had filled with water4 ,several of them quite lost their heads1 and in their inability to find their carriages1 ran distractedly from one to the other end of the train2 whilst some of the infirm ones dragged themselves about amidst the precipitate tapping of crutches1 and others1 only able to walk with difficulty1 strove to hasten their steps whilst leaning on the arms of some of the lady-hospitallers4 ,it was only with infinite difficulty that four men managed to replace ,madame ,dieulafay in her first-class compartment4 ,the ,vignerons1 who were content with second-class accommodation1 had already reinstalled themselves in their quarters amidst an extraordinary heap of baskets1 boxes1 and valises which scarcely allowed little ,gustave enough room to stretch his poor puny limbs--the limbs as it were of a deformed insect4 ,and then all the women appeared again3 ,madame ,maze gliding along in silence2 ,madame ,vincent raising her dear little girl in her outstretched arms and dreading lest she should hear her cry out2 ,madame ,vetu1 whom it had been necessary to push into the train1 after rousing her from her stupefying torment2 and ,elise ,rouquet1 who was quite drenched through her obstinacy in endeavouring to drink from the tap1 and was still wiping her monstrous face4 ,whilst each returned to her place and the carriage filled once more1 ,marie listened to her father1 who had come back delighted with his stroll to a pointsman's little house beyond the station1 whence a really pleasant stretch of landscape could be discerned4 8,shall we lay you down again at once80 asked ,pierre1 sorely distressed by the pained expression on ,marie's face4 8,oh no1 no1 by-and-by60 she replied4 8,i shall have plenty of time to hear those wheels roaring in my head as though they were grinding my bones40 ,then1 as ,ferrand seemed on the point of returning to the cantine van1 ,sister ,hyacinthe begged him to take another look at the strange man before he went off4 ,she was still waiting for ,father ,massias1 astonished at the inexplicable delay in his arrival1 but not yet without hope1 as ,sister ,claire des ,anges had not returned4 8,pray1 ,monsieur ,ferrand10 said she1 8tell me if this unfortunate man is in any immediate danger40 ,the young doctor again looked at the sufferer1 felt him1 and listened to his breathing4 ,then with a gesture of discouragement he answered in a low voice1 8,i feel convinced that you will not get him to ,lourdes alive40 ,every head was still anxiously stretched forward4 ,if they had only known the man's name1 the place he had come from1 who he was6 ,but it was impossible to extract a word from this unhappy stranger1 who was about to die there1 in that carriage1 without anybody being able to give his face a name6 ,it suddenly occurred to ,sister ,hyacinthe to have him searched4 ,under the circumstances there could certainly be no harm in such a course4 8,feel in his pockets1 ,monsieur ,ferrand10 she said4 ,the doctor thereupon searched the man in a gentle1 cautious way1 but the only things that he found in his pockets were a chaplet1 a knife1 and three sous4 ,and nothing more was ever learnt of the man4 ,at that moment1 however1 a voice announced that ,sister ,claire des ,anges was at last coming back with ,father ,massias4 ,all this while the latter had simply been chatting with the priest of ,sainte-,radegonde in one of the waiting-rooms4 ,keen emotion attended his arrival2 for a moment all seemed saved4 ,but the train was about to start1 the porters were already closing the carriage doors1 and it was necessary that extreme unction should be administered in all haste in order to avoid too long a delay4 8,this way1 reverend ,father60 exclaimed ,sister ,hyacinthe2 8yes1 yes1 pray come in2 our unfortunate patient is here40 ,father ,massias1 who was five years older than ,pierre1 whose fellow-student however he had been at the seminary1 had a tall1 spare figure with an ascetic countenance1 framed round with a light-coloured beard and vividly lighted up by burning eyes1 ,he was neither the priest harassed by doubt1 nor the priest with childlike faith1 but an apostle carried away by his passion1 ever ready to fight and vanquish for the pure glory of the ,blessed ,virgin4 ,in his black cloak with its large hood1 and his broad-brimmed flossy hat1 he shone resplendently with the perpetual ardour of battle4 ,he immediately took from his pocket the silver case containing the ,holy ,oils1 and the ceremony began whilst the last carriage doors were being slammed and belated pilgrims were rushing back to the train2 the station-master1 meantime1 anxiously glancing at the clock1 and realising that it would be necessary for him to grant a few minutes' grace4 8_/,credo in unum ,deum_/10 hastily murmured the ,father4 8_/,amen_/10 replied ,sister ,hyacinthe and the other occupants of the carriage4 ,those who had been able to do so1 had knelt upon the seats1 whilst the others joined their hands1 or repeatedly made the sign of the cross2 and when the murmured prayers were followed by the ,litanies of the ritual1 every voice rose1 an ardent desire for the remission of the man's sins and for his physical and spiritual cure winging its flight heavenward with each successive _/,kyrie eleison_/4 ,might his whole life1 of which they knew nought1 be forgiven him2 might he enter1 stranger though he was1 in triumph into the ,kingdom of ,god6 8_/,christe1 exaudi nos_/40 8_/,ora pro nobis1 sancta ,dei ,genitrix_/40 ,father ,massias had pulled out the silver needle from which hung a drop of ,holy ,oil4 ,in the midst of such a scramble1 with the whole train waiting--many people now thrusting their heads out of the carriage windows in surprise at the delay in starting--he could not think of following the usual practice1 of anointing in turn all the organs of the senses1 those portals of the soul which give admittance to evil4 ,he must content himself1 as the rules authorised him to do in pressing cases1 with one anointment2 and this he made upon the man's lips1 those livid parted lips from between which only a faint breath escaped1 whilst the rest of his face1 with its lowered eyelids1 already seemed indistinct1 again merged into the dust of the earth4 8_/,per istam sanctam unctionem_/10 said the ,father1 8_/et suam piissimam misericordiam indulgeat tibi ,dominus quidquid per visum1 auditum1 odoratum1 gustum1 tactum1 deliquisti4099 99 ,through this holy unction and ,his most tender mercy may the ,lord pardon thee whatever sins thou hast committed by thy sight1 hearing1 etc4 ,the remainder of the ceremony was lost amid the hurry and scramble of the departure4 ,father ,massias scarcely had time to wipe off the oil with the little piece of cotton-wool which ,sister ,hyacinthe held in readiness1 before he had to leave the compartment and get into his own as fast as possible1 setting the case containing the ,holy ,oils in order as he did so1 whilst the pilgrims finished repeating the final prayer4 8,we cannot wait any longer6 ,it is impossible60 repeated the station-master as he bustled about4 8,come1 come1 make haste everybody60 ,at last then they were about to resume their journey4 ,everybody sat down1 returned to his or her corner again4 ,madame de ,jonquiere1 however1 had changed her place1 in order to be nearer ,la ,grivotte1 whose condition still worried her1 and she was now seated in front of ,m4 ,sabathier1 who remained waiting with silent resignation4 ,moreover1 ,sister ,hyacinthe had not returned to her compartment1 having decided to remain near the unknown man so that she might watch over him and help him4 ,by following this course1 too1 she was able to minister to ,brother ,isidore1 whose sufferings his sister ,marthe was at a loss to assuage4 ,and ,marie1 turning pale1 felt the jolting of the train in her ailing flesh1 even before it had resumed its journey under the heavy sun1 rolling onward once more with its load of sufferers stifling in the pestilential atmosphere of the over-heated carriages4 ,at last a loud whistle resounded1 the engine puffed1 and ,sister ,hyacinthe rose up to say3 ,the _/,magnificat_/1 my children6 ,,iv ,,miracles ,,just as the train was beginning to move1 the door of the compartment in which ,pierre and ,marie found themselves was opened and a porter pushed a girl of fourteen inside1 saying3 8,there's a seat here--make haste60 ,the others were already pulling long faces and were about to protest1 when ,sister ,hyacinthe exclaimed3 8,what1 is it you1 ,sophie8 ,so you are going back to see the ,blessed ,virgin who cured you last year60 ,and at the same time ,madame de ,jonquiere remarked3 8,ah6 ,sophie1 my little friend1 ,i am very pleased to see that you are grateful40 8,why1 yes1 ,sister2 why1 yes1 madame10 answered the girl1 in a pretty way4 ,the carriage door had already been closed again1 so that it was necessary that they should accept the presence of this new pilgrim who had fallen from heaven as it were at the very moment when the train1 which she had almost missed1 was starting off again4 ,she was a slender damsel and would not take up much room4 ,moreover these ladies knew her1 and all the patients had turned their eyes upon her on hearing that the ,blessed ,virgin had been pleased to cure her4 ,they had now got beyond the station1 the engine was still puffing1 whilst the wheels increased their speed1 and ,sister ,hyacinthe1 clapping her hands1 repeated3 8,come1 come1 my children1 the _/,magnificat_/40 ,whilst the joyful chant arose amidst the jolting of the train1 ,pierre gazed at ,sophie4 ,she was evidently a young peasant girl1 the daughter of some poor husbandman of the vicinity of ,poitiers1 petted by her parents1 treated in fact like a young lady since she had become the subject of a miracle1 one of the elect1 whom the priests of the district flocked to see4 ,she wore a straw hat with pink ribbons1 and a grey woollen dress trimmed with a flounce4 ,her round face although not pretty was a very pleasant one1 with a beautifully fresh complexion and clear1 intelligent eyes which lent her a smiling1 modest air4 ,when the _/,magnificat_/ had been sung1 ,pierre was unable to resist his desire to question ,sophie4 ,a child of her age1 with so candid an air1 so utterly unlike a liar1 greatly interested him4 8,and so you nearly missed the train1 my child80 he said4 8,i should have been much ashamed if ,i had1 ,monsieur l',abbe10 she replied4 8,i had been at the station since twelve o'clock4 ,and all at once ,i saw his reverence1 the priest of ,sainte-,radegonde1 who knows me well and who called me to him1 to kiss me and tell me that it was very good of me to go back to ,lourdes4 ,but it seems the train was starting and ,i only just had time to run on to the platform4 ,oh6 ,i ran so fast60 ,she paused1 laughing1 still slightly out of breath1 but already repenting that she had been so giddy4 8,and what is your name1 my child80 asked ,pierre4 8,sophie ,couteau1 ,monsieur l',abbe40 8,you do not belong to the town of ,poitiers80 8,oh no6 certainly not4 ,we belong to ,vivonne1 which is seven kilometres away4 ,my father and mother have a little land there1 and things would not be so bad if there were not eight children at home--,i am the fifth1--fortunately the four older ones are beginning to work40 8,and you1 my child1 what do you do80 8,i1 ,monsieur l',abbe6 ,oh6 ,i am no great help4 ,since last year1 when ,i came home cured1 ,i have not been left quiet a single day1 for1 as you can understand1 so many people have come to see me1 and then too ,i have been taken to ,monseigneur's199 and to the convents and all manner of other places4 ,and before all that ,i was a long time ill4 ,i could not walk without a stick1 and each step ,i took made me cry out1 so dreadfully did my foot hurt me40 99 ,the ,bishop's residence4 8,so it was of some injury to the foot that the ,blessed ,virgin cured you80 ,sophie did not have time to reply1 for ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who was listening1 intervened3 8,of caries of the bones of the left heel1 which had been going on for three years10 said she4 8,the foot was swollen and quite deformed1 and there were fistulas giving egress to continual suppuration40 ,on hearing this1 all the sufferers in the carriage became intensely interested4 ,they no longer took their eyes off this little girl on whom a miracle had been performed1 but scanned her from head to foot as though seeking for some sign of the prodigy4 ,those who were able to stand rose up in order that they might the better see her1 and the others1 the infirm ones1 stretched on their mattresses1 strove to raise themselves and turn their heads4 ,amidst the suffering which had again come upon them on leaving ,poitiers1 the terror which filled them at the thought that they must continue rolling onward for another fifteen hours1 the sudden advent of this child1 favoured by ,heaven1 was like a divine relief1 a ray of hope whence they would derive sufficient strength to accomplish the remainder of their terrible journey4 ,the moaning had abated somewhat already1 and every face was turned towards the girl with an ardent desire to believe4 ,this was especially the case with ,marie1 who1 already reviving1 joined her trembling hands1 and in a gentle supplicating voice said to ,pierre1 8,question her1 pray question her1 ask her to tell us everything--cured1 ,o ,god6 cured of such a terrible complaint60 ,madame de ,jonquiere1 who was quite affected1 had leant over the partition to kiss the girl4 8,certainly10 said she1 8our little friend will tell you all about it4 ,won't you1 my darling8 ,you will tell us what the ,blessed ,virgin did for you80 8,oh1 certainly6 madame-as much as you like10 answered ,sophie with her smiling1 modest air1 her eyes gleaming with intelligence4 ,indeed1 she wished to begin at once1 and raised her right hand with a pretty gesture1 as a sign to everybody to be attentive4 ,plainly enough1 she had already acquired the habit of speaking in public4 ,she could not be seen1 however1 from some parts of the carriage1 and an idea came to ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who said3 8,get up on the seat1 ,sophie1 and speak loudly1 on account of the noise which the train makes40 ,this amused the girl1 and before beginning she needed time to become serious again4 8,well1 it was like this10 said she2 8my foot was past cure1 ,i couldn't even go to church any more1 and it had to be kept bandaged1 because there was always a lot of nasty matter coming from it4 ,monsieur ,rivoire1 the doctor1 who had made a cut in it1 so as to see inside it1 said that he should be obliged to take out a piece of the bone2 and that1 sure enough1 would have made me lame for life4 ,but when ,i got to ,lourdes and had prayed a great deal to the ,blessed ,virgin1 ,i went to dip my foot in the water1 wishing so much that ,i might be cured that ,i did not even take the time to pull the bandage off4 ,and everything remained in the water1 there was no longer anything the matter with my foot when ,i took it out40 ,a murmur of mingled surprise1 wonder1 and desire arose and spread among those who heard this marvellous tale1 so sweet and soothing to all who were in despair4 ,but the little one had not yet finished4 ,she had simply paused4 ,and now1 making a fresh gesture1 holding her arms somewhat apart1 she concluded3 8,when ,i got back to ,vivonne and ,monsieur ,rivoire saw my foot again1 he said3 #8,whether it be ,god or the ,devil who has cured this child1 it is all the same to me2 but in all truth she _/is_/ cured4'0 ,this time a burst of laughter rang out4 ,the girl spoke in too recitative a way1 having repeated her story so many times already that she knew it by heart4 ,the doctor's remark was sure to produce an effect1 and she herself laughed at it in advance1 certain as she was that the others would laugh also4 ,however1 she still retained her candid1 touching air4 ,but she had evidently forgotten some particular1 for ,sister ,hyacinthe1 a glance from whom had foreshadowed the doctor's jest1 now softly prompted her 8,and what was it you said to ,madame la ,comtesse1 the superintendent of your ward1 ,sophie80 8,ah6 yes4 ,i hadn't brought many bandages for my foot with me1 and ,i said to her1 #8,it was very kind of the ,blessed ,virgin to cure me the first day1 as ,i should have run out of linen on the morrow4'0 ,this provoked a fresh outburst of delight4 ,they all thought her so nice1 to have been cured like that6 ,and in reply to a question from ,madame de ,jonquiere1 she also had to tell the story of her boots1 a pair of beautiful new boots which ,madame la ,comtesse had given her1 and in which she had run1 jumped1 and danced about1 full of childish delight4 ,boots6 think of it1 she who for three years had not even been able to wear a slipper4 ,pierre1 who had become grave1 waxing pale with the secret uneasiness which was penetrating him1 continued to look at her4 ,and he also asked her other questions4 ,she was certainly not lying1 and he merely suspected a slow distortion of the actual truth1 an easily explained embellishment of the real facts amidst all the joy she felt at being cured and becoming an important little personage4 ,who now knew if the cicatrisation of her injuries1 effected1 so it was asserted1 completely1 instantaneously1 in a few seconds1 had not in reality been the work of days8 ,where were the witnesses8 ,just then ,madame de ,jonquiere began to relate that she had been at the hospital at the time referred to4 8,sophie was not in my ward10 said she1 8but ,i had met her walking lame that very morning--0 ,pierre hastily interrupted the lady-hospitaller4 8,ah6 you saw her foot before and after the immersion80 8,no1 no6 ,i don't think that anybody was able to see it1 for it was bound round with bandages4 ,she told you that the bandages had fallen into the piscina40 ,and1 turning towards the child1 ,madame de ,jonquiere added1 8,but she will show you her foot--won't you1 ,sophie8 ,undo your shoe40 ,the girl took off her shoe1 and pulled down her stocking1 with a promptness and ease of manner which showed how thoroughly accustomed she had become to it all4 ,and she not only stretched out her foot1 which was very clean and very white1 carefully tended indeed1 with well-cut1 pink nails1 but complacently turned it so that the young priest might examine it at his ease4 ,just below the ankle there was a long scar1 whose whity seam1 plainly defined1 testified to the gravity of the complaint from which the girl had suffered4 8,oh6 take hold of the heel1 ,monsieur l',abbe10 said she4 8,press it as hard as you like4 ,i no longer feel any pain at all40 ,pierre made a gesture from which it might have been thought that he was delighted with the power exercised by the ,blessed ,virgin4 ,but he was still tortured by doubt4 ,what unknown force had acted in this case8 ,or rather what faulty medical diagnosis1 what assemblage of errors and exaggerations1 had ended in this fine tale8 ,all the patients1 however1 wished to see the miraculous foot1 that outward and visible sign of the divine cure which each of them was going in search of4 ,and it was ,marie1 sitting up in her box1 and already feeling less pain1 who touched it first4 ,then ,madame ,maze1 quite roused from her melancholy1 passed it on to ,madame ,vincent1 who would have kissed it for the hope which it restored to her4 ,m4 ,sabathier had listened to all the explanations with a beatific air2 ,madame ,vetu1 ,la ,grivotte1 and even ,brother ,isidore opened their eyes1 and evinced signs of interest2 whilst the face of ,elise ,rouquet had assumed an extraordinary expression1 transfigured by faith1 almost beatified4 ,if a sore had thus disappeared1 might not her own sore close and disappear1 her face retaining no trace of it save a slight scar1 and again becoming such a face as other people had8 ,sophie1 who was still standing1 had to hold on to one of the iron rails1 and place her foot on the partition1 now on the right1 now on the left4 ,and she did not weary of it all1 but felt exceedingly happy and proud at the many exclamations which were raised1 the quivering admiration and religious respect which were bestowed on that little piece of her person1 that little foot which had now1 so to say1 become sacred4 8,one must possess great faith1 no doubt10 said ,marie1 thinking aloud4 8,one must have a pure unspotted soul40 ,and1 addressing herself to ,m4 de ,guersaint1 she added3 8,father1 ,i feel that ,i should get well if ,i were ten years old1 if ,i had the unspotted soul of a little girl40 8,but you are ten years old1 my darling6 ,is it not so1 ,pierre8 ,a little girl of ten years old could not have a more spotless soul40 ,possessed of a mind prone to chimeras1 ,m4 de ,guersaint was fond of hearing tales of miracles4 ,as for the young priest1 profoundly affected by the ardent purity which the young girl evinced1 he no longer sought to discuss the question1 but let her surrender herself to the consoling illusions which ,sophie's tale had wafted through the carriage4 ,the temperature had become yet more oppressive since their departure from ,poitiers1 a storm was rising in the coppery sky1 and it seemed as though the train were rushing through a furnace4 ,the villages passed1 mournful and solitary under the burning sun4 ,at ,couhe-,verac they had again said their chaplets1 and sung another canticle4 ,at present1 however1 there was some slight abatement of the religious exercises4 ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who had not yet been able to lunch1 ventured to eat a roll and some fruit in all haste1 whilst still ministering to the strange man whose faint1 painful breathing seemed to have become more regular4 ,and it was only on passing ,ruffec at three o'clock that they said the vespers of the ,blessed ,virgin4 8_/,ora pro nobis1 sancta ,dei ,genitrix_/40 8_/,ut digni efficiamur promissionibus ,christi_/4099 99 8,pray for us1 ,o holy ,mother of ,god1 ,that we may be made worthy of the promises of ,christ40 ,as they were finishing1 ,m4 ,sabathier1 who had watched little ,sophie while she put on her shoe and stocking1 turned towards ,m4 de ,guersaint4 8,this child's case is interesting1 no doubt10 he remarked4 8,but it is a mere nothing1 monsieur1 for there have been far more marvellous cures than that4 ,do you know the story of ,pierre de ,rudder1 a ,belgian working-man80 ,everybody had again begun to listen4 8,this man10 continued ,m4 ,sabathier1 8had his leg broken by the fall of a tree4 ,eight years afterwards the two fragments of the bone had not yet joined together again--the two ends could be seen in the depths of a sore which was continually suppurating2 and the leg hung down quite limp1 swaying in all directions4 ,well1 it was sufficient for this man to drink a glassful of the miraculous water1 and his leg was made whole again4 ,he was able to walk without crutches1 and the doctor said to him3 #8,your leg is like that of a new-born child4' ,yes1 indeed1 a perfectly new leg40 ,nobody spoke1 but the listeners exchanged glances of ecstasy4 8,and1 by the way10 resumed ,m4 ,sabathier1 8it is like the story of ,louis ,bouriette1 a quarryman1 one of the first of the ,lourdes miracles4 ,do you know it8 ,bouriette had been injured by an explosion during some blasting operations4 ,the sight of his right eye was altogether destroyed1 and he was even threatened with the loss of the left one4 ,well1 one day he sent his daughter to fetch a bottleful of the muddy water of the source1 which then scarcely bubbled up to the surface4 ,he washed his eye with this muddy liquid1 and prayed fervently4 ,and1 all at once1 he raised a cry1 for he could see1 monsieur1 see as well as you and ,i4 ,the doctor who was attending him drew up a detailed narrative of the case1 and there cannot be the slightest doubt about its truth40 8,it is marvellous10 murmured ,m4 de ,guersaint in his delight4 8,would you like another example1 monsieur8 ,i can give you a famous one1 that of ,francois ,macary1 the carpenter of ,lavaur4 ,during eighteen years he had suffered from a deep varicose ulcer1 with considerable enlargement of the tissues in the mesial part of the left leg4 ,he had reached such a point that he could no longer move1 and science decreed that he would forever remain infirm4 ,well1 one evening he shuts himself up with a bottle of ,lourdes water4 ,he takes off his bandages1 washes both his legs1 and drinks what little water then remains in the bottle4 ,then he goes to bed and falls asleep2 and when he awakes1 he feels his legs and looks at them4 ,there is nothing left2 the varicose enlargement1 the ulcers1 have all disappeared4 ,the skin of his knee1 monsieur1 had become as smooth1 as fresh as it had been when he was twenty40 ,this time there was an explosion of surprise and admiration4 ,the patients and the pilgrims were entering into the enchanted land of miracles1 where impossibilities are accomplished at each bend of the pathways1 where one marches on at ease from prodigy to prodigy4 ,and each had his or her story to tell1 burning with a desire to contribute a fresh proof1 to fortify faith and hope by yet another example4 ,that silent creature1 ,madame ,maze1 was so transported that she spoke the first4 8,i have a friend10 said she1 8who knew the ,widow ,rizan1 that lady whose cure also created so great a stir4 ,for four-and-twenty years her left side had been entirely paralysed4 ,her stomach was unable to retain any solid food1 and she had become an inert bag of bones which had to be turned over in bed1 ,the friction of the sheets1 too1 had ended by rubbing her skin away in parts4 ,well1 she was so low one evening that the doctor announced that she would die during the night4 ,an hour later1 however1 she emerged from her torpor and asked her daughter in a faint voice to go and fetch her a glass of ,lourdes water from a neighbour's4 ,but she was only able to obtain this glass of water on the following morning2 and she cried out to her daughter3 #8,oh6 it is life that ,i am drinking--rub my face with it1 rub my arm and my leg1 rub my whole body with it6' ,and when her daughter obeyed her1 she gradually saw the huge swelling subside1 and the paralysed1 tumefied limbs recover their natural suppleness and appearance4 ,nor was that all1 for ,madame ,rizan cried out that she was cured and felt hungry1 and wanted bread and meat--she who had eaten none for four-and-twenty years6 ,and she got out of bed and dressed herself1 whilst her daughter1 who was so overpowered that the neighbours thought she had become an orphan1 replied to them3 #8,no1 no1 mamma isn't dead1 she has come to life again6'0 ,this narrative had brought tears to ,madame ,vincent's eyes4 ,ah6 if she had only been able to see her little ,rose recover like that1 eat with a good appetite1 and run about again6 ,at the same time1 another case1 which she had been told of in ,paris and which had greatly influenced her in deciding to take her ailing child to ,lourdes1 returned to her memory4 8,and ,i1 too10 said she1 8know the story of a girl who was paralysed4 ,her name was ,lucie ,druon1 and she was an inmate of an orphan asylum4 ,she was quite young and could not even kneel down4 ,her limbs were bent like hoops4 ,her right leg1 the shorter of the two1 had ended by becoming twisted round the left one2 and when any of the other girls carried her about you saw her feet hanging down quite limp1 like dead ones4 ,please notice that she did not even go to ,lourdes4 ,she simply performed a novena2 but she fasted during the nine days1 and her desire to be cured was so great that she spent her nights in prayer4 ,at last1 on the ninth day1 whilst she was drinking a little ,lourdes water1 she felt a violent commotion in her legs4 ,she picked herself up1 fell down1 picked herself up again and walked4 ,all her little companions1 who were astonished1 almost frightened at the sight1 began to cry out #8,lucie can walk6 ,lucie can walk6' ,it was quite true4 ,in a few seconds her legs had become straight and strong and healthy4 ,she crossed the courtyard and was able to climb up the steps of the chapel1 where the whole sisterhood1 transported with gratitude1 chanted the _/,magnificat_/4 ,ah6 the dear child1 how happy1 how happy she must have been60 ,as ,madame ,vincent finished1 two tears fell from her cheeks on to the pale face of her little girl1 whom she kissed distractedly4 ,the general interest was still increasing1 becoming quite impassioned4 ,the rapturous joy born of these beautiful stories1 in which ,heaven invariably triumphed over human reality1 transported these childlike souls to such a point that those who were suffering the most grievously sat up in their turn1 and recovered the power of speech4 ,and with the narratives of one and all was blended a thought of the sufferer's own ailment1 a belief that he or she would also be cured1 since a malady of the same description had vanished like an evil dream beneath the breath of the ,divinity4 8,ah60 stammered ,madame ,vetu1 her articulation hindered by her sufferings1 8there was another one1 ,antoinette ,thardivail1 whose stomach was being eaten away like mine4 ,you would have said that dogs were devouring it1 and sometimes there was a swelling in it as big as a child's head4 ,tumours indeed were ever forming in it1 like fowl's eggs1 so that for eight months she brought up blood4 ,and she also was at the point of death1 with nothing but her skin left on her bones1 and dying of hunger1 when she drank some water of ,lourdes and had the pit of her stomach washed with it4 ,three minutes afterwards1 her doctor1 who on the previous day had left her almost in the last throes1 scarce breathing1 found her up and sitting by the fireside1 eating a tender chicken's wing with a good appetite4 ,she had no more tumours1 she laughed as she had laughed when she was twenty1 and her face had regained the brilliancy of youth4 ,ah6 to be able to eat what one likes1 to become young again1 to cease suffering60 8,and the cure of ,sister ,julienne60 then exclaimed ,la ,grivotte1 raising herself on one of her elbows1 her eyes glittering with fever4 8,in her case it commenced with a bad cold as it did with me1 and then she began to spit blood4 ,and every six months she fell ill again and had to take to her bed4 ,the last time everybody said that she wouldn't leave it alive4 ,the doctors had vainly tried every remedy1 iodine1 blistering1 and cauterising4 ,in fact1 hers was a real case of phthisis1 certified by half a dozen medical men4 ,well1 she comes to ,lourdes1 and ,heaven alone knows amidst what awful suffering--she was so bad1 indeed1 that at ,toulouse they thought for a moment that she was about to die6 ,the ,sisters had to carry her in their arms1 and on reaching the piscina the lady-hospitallers wouldn't bathe her4 ,she was dead1 they said4 ,no matter6 she was undressed at last1 and plunged into the water1 quite unconscious and covered with perspiration4 ,and when they took her out she was so pale that they laid her on the ground1 thinking that it was certainly all over with her at last4 ,but1 all at once1 colour came back to her cheeks1 her eyes opened1 and she drew a long breath4 ,she was cured2 she dressed herself without any help and made a good meal after she had been to the ,grotto to thank the ,blessed ,virgin4 ,there6 there's no gainsaying it1 that was a real case of phthisis1 completely cured as though by medicine60 ,thereupon ,brother ,isidore in his turn wished to speak2 but he was unable to do so at any length1 and could only with difficulty manage to say to his sister3 8,marthe1 tell them the story of ,sister ,dorothee which the priest of ,saint-,sauveur related to us40 8,sister ,dorothee10 began the peasant girl in an awkward way1 8felt her leg quite numbed when she got up one morning1 and from that time she lost the use of it1 for it got as cold and as heavy as a stone4 ,besides which she felt a great pain in the back4 ,the doctors couldn't understand it4 ,she saw half a dozen of them1 who pricked her with pins and burnt her skin with a lot of drugs4 ,but it was just as if they had sung to her4 ,sister ,dorothee had well understood that only the ,blessed ,virgin could find the right remedy for her1 and so she went off to ,lourdes1 and had herself dipped in the piscina4 ,she thought at first that the water was going to kill her1 for it was so bitterly cold4 ,but by-and-by it became so soft that she fancied it was warm1 as nice as milk4 ,she had never felt so nice before1 it seemed to her as if her veins were opening and the water were flowing into them4 ,as you will understand1 life was returning into her body since the ,blessed ,virgin was concerning herself in the case4 ,she no longer had anything the matter with her when she came out1 but walked about1 ate the whole of a pigeon for her dinner1 and slept all night long like the happy woman she was4 ,glory to the ,blessed ,virgin1 eternal gratitude to the most ,powerful ,mother and her ,divine ,son60 ,elise ,rouquet would also have liked to bring forward a miracle which she was acquainted with4 ,only she spoke with so much difficulty owing to the deformity of her mouth1 that she had not yet been able to secure a turn4 ,just then1 however1 there was a pause1 and drawing the wrap1 which concealed the horror of her sore1 slightly on one side1 she profited by the opportunity to begin4 8,for my part1 ,i wasn't told anything about a great illness1 but it was a very funny case at all events10 she said4 8,it was about a woman1 ,celestine ,dubois1 as she was called1 who had run a needle right into her hand while she was washing4 ,it stopped there for seven years1 for no doctor was able to take it out4 ,her hand shrivelled up1 and she could no longer open it4 ,well1 she got to ,lourdes1 and dipped her hand into the piscina4 ,but as soon as she did so she began to shriek1 and took it out again4 ,then they caught hold of her and put her hand into the water by force1 and kept it there while she continued sobbing1 with her face covered with sweat4 ,three times did they plunge her hand into the piscina1 and each time they saw the needle moving along1 till it came out by the tip of the thumb4 ,she shrieked1 of course1 because the needle was moving though her flesh just as though somebody had been pushing it to drive it out4 ,and after that ,celestine never suffered again1 and only a little scar could be seen on her hand as a mark of what the ,blessed ,virgin had done40 ,this anecdote produced a greater effect than even the miraculous cures of the most fearful illnesses4 ,a needle which moved as though somebody were pushing it6 ,this peopled the ,invisible1 showed each sufferer his ,guardian ,angel standing behind him1 only awaiting the orders of ,heaven in order to render him assistance4 ,and besides1 how pretty and childlike the story was--this needle which came out in the miraculous water after obstinately refusing to stir during seven long years4 ,exclamations of delight resounded from all the pleased listeners2 they smiled and laughed with satisfaction1 radiant at finding that nothing was beyond the power of ,heaven1 and that if it were ,heaven's pleasure they themselves would all become healthy1 young1 and superb4 ,it was sufficient that one should fervently believe and pray in order that nature might be confounded and that the ,incredible might come to pass4 ,apart from that there was merely a question of good luck1 since ,heaven seemed to make a selection of those sufferers who should be cured4 8,oh6 how beautiful it is1 father10 murmured ,marie1 who1 revived by the passionate interest which she took in the momentous subject1 had so far contented herself with listening1 dumb with amazement as it were4 8,do you remember10 she continued1 8what you yourself told me of that poor woman1 ,joachine ,dehaut1 who came from ,belgium and made her way right across ,france with her twisted leg eaten away by an ulcer1 the awful smell of which drove everybody away from her8 ,first of all the ulcer was healed2 you could press her knee and she felt nothing1 only a slight redness remained to mark where it had been4 ,and then came the turn of the dislocation4 ,she shrieked while she was in the water1 it seemed to her as if somebody were breaking her bones1 pulling her leg away from her2 and1 at the same time1 she and the woman who was bathing her1 saw her deformed foot rise and extend into its natural shape with the regular movement of a clock hand4 ,her leg also straightened itself1 the muscles extended1 the knee replaced itself in its proper position1 all amidst such acute pain that ,joachine ended by fainting4 ,but as soon as she recovered consciousness1 she darted off1 erect and agile1 to carry her crutches to the ,grotto40 ,m4 de ,guersaint in his turn was laughing with wonderment1 waving his hand to confirm this story1 which had been told him by a ,father of the ,assumption4 ,he could have related a score of similar instances1 said he1 each more touching1 more extraordinary than the other4 ,he even invoked ,pierre's testimony1 and the young priest1 who was unable to believe1 contented himself with nodding his head4 ,at first1 unwilling as he was to afflict ,marie1 he had striven to divert his thoughts by gazing though the carriage window at the fields1 trees1 and houses which defiled before his eyes4 ,they had just passed ,angouleme1 and meadows stretched out1 and lines of poplar trees fled away amidst the continuous fanning of the air1 which the velocity of the train occasioned4 ,they were late1 no doubt1 for they were hastening onward at full speed1 thundering along under the stormy sky1 through the fiery atmosphere1 devouring kilometre after kilometre in swift succession4 ,however1 despite himself1 ,pierre heard snatches of the various narratives1 and grew interested in these extravagant stories1 which the rough jolting of the wheels accompanied like a lullaby1 as though the engine had been turned loose and were wildly bearing them away to the divine land of dreams1 ,they were rolling1 still rolling along1 and ,pierre at last ceased to gaze at the landscape1 and surrendered himself to the heavy1 sleep-inviting atmosphere of the carriage1 where ecstasy was growing and spreading1 carrying everyone far from the world of reality across which they were so rapidly rushing1 ,the sight of ,marie's face with its brightened look filled the young priest with sincere joy1 and he let her retain his hand1 which she had taken in order to acquaint him1 by the pressure of her fingers1 with all the confidence which was reviving in her soul4 ,and why should he have saddened her by his doubts1 since he was so desirous of her cure8 ,so he continued clasping her small1 moist hand1 feeling infinite affection for her1 a dolorous brotherly love which distracted him1 and made him anxious to believe in the pity of the spheres1 in a superior kindness which tempered suffering to those who were plunged in despair1 8,oh60 she repeated1 8how beautiful it is1 ,pierre6 ,how beautiful it is6 ,and what glory it will be if the ,blessed ,virgin deigns to disturb herself for me6 ,do you really think me worthy of such a favour80 8,assuredly ,i do10 he exclaimed2 8you are the best and the purest1 with a spotless soul as your father said2 there are not enough good angels in ,paradise to form your escort40 ,but the narratives were not yet finished4 ,sister ,hyacinthe and ,madame de ,jonquiere were now enumerating all the miracles with which they were acquainted1 the long1 long series of miracles which for more than thirty years had been flowering at ,lourdes1 like the uninterrupted budding of the roses on the ,mystical ,rose-tree4 ,they could be counted by thousands1 they put forth fresh shoots every year with prodigious verdancy of sap1 becoming brighter and brighter each successive season4 ,and the sufferers who listened to these marvellous stories with increasing feverishness were like little children who1 after hearing one fine fairy tale1 ask for another1 and another1 and yet another4 ,oh6 that they might have more and more of those stories in which evil reality was flouted1 in which unjust nature was cuffed and slapped1 in which the ,divinity intervened as the supreme healer1 ,he who laughs at science and distributes happiness according to ,his own good pleasure4 ,first of all there were the deaf and the dumb who suddenly heard and spoke2 such as ,aurelie ,bruneau1 who was incurably deaf1 with the drums of both ears broken1 and yet was suddenly enraptured by the celestial music of a harmonium2 such also as ,louise ,pourchet1 who on her side had been dumb for five-and-twenty years1 and yet1 whilst praying in the ,grotto1 suddenly exclaimed1 8,hail1 ,mary1 full of grace60 ,and there were others and yet others who were completely cured by merely letting a few drops of water fall into their ears or upon their tongues4 ,then came the procession of the blind3 ,father ,hermann1 who felt the ,blessed ,virgin's gentle hand removing the veil which covered his eyes2 ,mademoiselle de ,pontbriant1 who was threatened with a total loss of sight1 but after a simple prayer was enabled to see better than she had ever seen before2 then a child twelve years old whose corneas resembled marbles1 but who1 in three seconds1 became possessed of clear1 deep eyes1 bright with an angelic smile4 ,however1 there was especially an abundance of paralytics1 of lame people suddenly enabled to walk upright1 of sufferers for long years powerless to stir from their beds of misery and to whom the voice said3 8,arise and walk60 ,delannoy199 afflicted with ataxia1 vainly cauterised and burnt1 fifteen times an inmate of the ,paris hospitals1 whence he had emerged with the concurring diagnosis of twelve doctors1 feels a strange force raising him up as the ,blessed ,sacrament goes by1 and he begins to follow it1 his legs strong and healthy once more4 ,marie ,louise ,delpon1 a girl of fourteen1 suffering from paralysis which had stiffened her legs1 drawn back her hands1 and twisted her mouth on one side1 sees her limbs loosen and the distortion of her mouth disappear as though an invisible hand were severing the fearful bonds which had deformed her4 ,marie ,vachier1 riveted to her arm-chair during seventeen years by paraplegia1 not only runs and flies on emerging from the piscina1 but finds no trace even of the sores with which her long-enforced immobility had covered her body4 ,and ,georges ,hanquet1 attacked by softening of the spinal marrow1 passes without transition from agony to perfect health2 while ,leonie ,charton1 likewise afflicted with softening of the medulla1 and whose vertebrae bulge out to a considerable extent1 feels her hump melting away as though by enchantment1 and her legs rise and straighten1 renovated and vigorous4 99 ,this was one of the most notorious of the recorded cases and had a very strange sequel subsequent to the first publication of this work4 ,pierre ,delannoy had been employed as a ward-assistant in one of the large ,paris hospitals from #ahgg to #ahha1 when he came to the conclusion that the life of an in-patient was far preferable to the one he was leading4 ,he1 therefore1 resolved to pass the rest of his days inside different hospitals in the capacity of invalid4 ,he started by feigning locomotor ataxia1 and for six years deceived the highest medical experts in ,paris1 so curiously did he appear to suffer4 ,he stayed in turn in all the hospitals in the city1 being treated with every care and consideration1 until at last he met with a doctor who insisted on cauterisation and other disagreeable remedies4 ,delannoy thereupon opined that the time to be cured had arrived1 and cured he became1 and was discharged4 ,he next appeared at ,lourdes1 supported by crutches1 and presenting every symptom of being hopelessly crippled4 ,with other infirm and decrepid people he was dipped in the piscina and so efficacious did this treatment prove that he came out another man1 threw his crutches to the ground and walked1 as an onlooker expressed it1 8like a rural postman40 ,all ,lourdes rang with the fame of the miracle1 and the ,church1 after starring ,delannoy round the country as a specimen of what could be done at the holy spring1 placed him in charge of a home for invalids4 ,but this was too much like hard work1 and he soon decamped with all the money he could lay his hands on4 ,returning to ,paris he was admitted to the ,hospital of ,ste4 ,anne as suffering from mental debility1 but this did not prevent him from running off one night with about #cjj belonging to a dispenser4 ,the police were put on his track and arrested him in ,may1 #ahie1 when he tried to pass himself off as a lunatic2 but he had become by this time too well known1 and was indicted in due course4 ,at his trial he energetically denied that he had ever shammed1 but the ,court would not believe him1 and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment with hard labour4 --,trans4 ,then came all sorts of ailments4 ,first those brought about by scrofula--a great many more legs long incapable of service and made anew4 ,there was ,margaret ,gehier1 who had suffered from coxalgia for seven-and-twenty years1 whose hip was devoured by the disease1 whose left knee was anchylosed1 and who yet was suddenly able to fall upon her knees to thank the ,blessed ,virgin for healing her4 ,there was also ,philomene ,simonneau1 the young ,vendeenne1 whose left leg was perforated by three horrible sores in the depths of which her carious bones were visible1 and whose bones1 whose flesh1 and whose skin were all formed afresh4 ,next came the dropsical ones3 ,madame ,ancelin1 the swelling of whose feet1 hands1 and entire body subsided without anyone being able to tell whither all the water had gone2 ,mademoiselle ,montagnon1 from whom1 on various occasions1 nearly twenty quarts of water had been drawn1 and who1 on again swelling1 was entirely rid of the fluid by the application of a bandage which had been dipped in the miraculous source4 ,and1 in her case also1 none of the water could be found1 either in her bed or on the floor4 ,in the same way1 not a complaint of the stomach resisted1 all disappeared with the first glass of water4 ,there was ,marie ,souchet1 who vomited black blood1 who had wasted to a skeleton1 and who devoured her food and recovered her flesh in two days' time6 ,there was ,marie ,jarlaud1 who had burnt herself internally through drinking a glass of a metallic solution used for cleansing and brightening kitchen utensils1 and who felt the tumour which had resulted from her injuries melt rapidly away4 ,moreover1 every tumour disappeared in this fashion1 in the piscina1 without leaving the slightest trace behind4 ,but that which caused yet greater wonderment was the manner in which ulcers1 cancers1 all sorts of horrible1 visible sores were cicatrised as by a breath from on high4 ,a ,jew1 an actor1 whose hand was devoured by an ulcer1 merely had to dip it in the water and he was cured4 ,a very wealthy young foreigner1 who had a wen as large as a hen's egg1 on his right wrist1 _/beheld_/ it dissolve4 ,rose ,duval1 who1 as a result of a white tumour1 had a hole in her left elbow1 large enough to accommodate a walnut1 was able to watch and follow the prompt action of the new flesh in filling up this cavity6 ,the ,widow ,fromond1 with a lip half decoyed by a cancerous formation1 merely had to apply the miraculous water to it as a lotion1 and not even a red mark remained4 ,marie ,moreau1 who experienced fearful sufferings from a cancer in the breast1 fell asleep1 after laying on it a linen cloth soaked in some water of ,lourdes1 and when she awoke1 two hours later1 the pain had disappeared1 and her flesh was once more smooth and pink and fresh4 ,at last ,sister ,hyacinthe began to speak of the immediate and complete cures of phthisis1 and this was the triumph1 the healing of that terrible disease which ravages humanity1 which unbelievers defied the ,blessed ,virgin to cure1 but which she did cure1 it was said1 by merely raising her little finger4 ,a hundred instances1 more extraordinary one than the other1 pressed forward for citation4 ,marguerite ,coupel1 who had suffered from phthisis for three years1 and the upper part of whose lungs is destroyed by tuberculosis1 rises up and goes off1 radiant with health4 ,madame de la ,riviere1 who spits blood1 who is ever covered with a cold perspiration1 whose nails have already acquired a violet tinge1 who is indeed on the point of drawing her last breath1 requires but a spoonful of the water to be administered to her between her teeth1 and lo6 the rattles cease1 she sits up1 makes the responses to the litanies1 and asks for some broth4 ,julie ,jadot requires four spoonfuls2 but then she could no longer hold up her head1 she was of such a delicate constitution that disease had reduced her to nothing2 and yet1 in a few days1 she becomes quite fat4 ,anna ,catry1 who is in the most advanced stage of the malady1 with her left lung half destroyed by a cavity1 is plunged five times into the cold water1 contrary to all the dictates of prudence1 and she is cured1 her lung is healthy once more4 ,another consumptive girl1 condemned by fifteen doctors1 has asked nothing1 has simply fallen on her knees in the ,grotto1 by chance as it were1 and is afterwards quite surprised at having been cured _/au passage_/1 through the lucky circumstance of having been there1 no doubt1 at the hour when the ,blessed ,virgin1 moved to pity1 allows miracles to fall from her invisible hands4 ,miracles and yet more miracles6 ,they rained down like the flowers of dreams from a clear and balmy sky4 ,some of them were touching1 some of them were childish4 ,an old woman1 who1 having her hand anchylosed1 had been incapable of moving it for thirty years1 washes it in the water and is at once able to make the sign of the ,cross4 ,sister ,sophie1 who barked like a dog1 plunges into the piscina and emerges from it with a clear1 pure voice1 chanting a canticle4 ,mustapha1 a ,turk1 invokes the ,white ,lady and recovers the use of his right eye by applying a compress to it4 ,an officer of ,turcos was protected at ,sedan2 a cuirassier of ,reichsoffen would have died1 pierced in the heart by a bullet1 if this bullet after passing though his pocket-book had not stayed its flight on reaching a little picture of ,our ,lady of ,lourdes6 ,and1 as with the men and women1 so did the children1 the poor1 suffering little ones1 find mercy2 a paralytic boy of five rose and walked after being held for five minutes under the icy jet of the spring2 another one1 fifteen years of age1 who1 lying in bed1 could only raise an inarticulate cry1 sprang out of the piscina1 shouting that he was cured2 another one1 but two years old1 a poor tiny fellow who had never been able to walk1 remained for a quarter of an hour in the cold water and then1 invigorated and smiling1 took his first steps like a little man6 ,and for all of them1 the little ones as well as the adults1 the pain was acute whilst the miracle was being accomplished2 for the work of repair could not be effected without causing an extraordinary shock to the whole human organism2 the bones grew again1 new flesh was formed1 and the disease1 driven away1 made its escape in a final convulsion4 ,but how great was the feeling of comfort which followed6 ,the doctors could not believe their eyes1 their astonishment burst forth at each fresh cure1 when they saw the patients whom they had despaired of run and jump and eat with ravenous appetites4 ,all these chosen ones1 these women cured of their ailments1 walked a couple of miles1 sat down to roast fowl1 and slept the soundest of sleeps for a dozen hours4 ,moreover1 there was no convalescence1 it was a sudden leap from the death throes to complete health4 ,limbs were renovated1 sores were filled up1 organs were reformed in their entirety1 plumpness returned to the emaciated1 all with the velocity of a lightning flash6 ,science was completely baffled4 ,not even the most simple precautions were taken1 women were bathed at all times and seasons1 perspiring consumptives were plunged into the icy water1 sores were left to their putrefaction without any thought of employing antiseptics4 ,and then what canticles of joy1 what shouts of gratitude and love arose at each fresh miracle6 ,the favoured one falls upon her knees1 all who are present weep1 conversions are effected1 ,protestants and ,jews alike embrace ,catholicism--other miracles these1 miracles of faith1 at which ,heaven triumphs4 ,and when the favoured one1 chosen for the miracle1 returns to her village1 all the inhabitants crowd to meet her1 whilst the bells peal merrily2 and when she is seen springing lightly from the vehicle which has brought her home1 shouts and sobs of joy burst forth and all intonate the _/,magnificat_/3 ,glory to the ,blessed ,virgin6 ,gratitude and love for ever6 ,indeed1 that which was more particularly evolved from the realisation of all these hopes1 from the celebration of all these ardent thanksgivings1 was gratitude--gratitude to the ,mother most pure and most admirable4 ,she was the great passion of every soul1 she1 the ,virgin most powerful1 the ,virgin most merciful1 the ,mirror of ,justice1 the ,seat of ,wisdom499 ,all hands were stretched towards her1 ,mystical ,rose in the dim light of the chapels1 ,tower of ,ivory on the horizon of dreamland1 ,gate of ,heaven leading into the ,infinite4 ,each day at early dawn she shone forth1 bright ,morning ,star1 gay with juvenescent hope4 ,and was she not also the ,health of the weak1 the ,refuge of sinners1 the ,comforter of the afflicted8 ,france had ever been her well-loved country1 she was adored there with an ardent worship1 the worship of her womanhood and her motherhood1 the soaring of a divine affection2 and it was particularly in ,france that it pleased her to show herself to little shepherdesses4 ,she was so good to the little and the humble2 she continually occupied herself with them2 and if she was appealed to so willingly it was because she was known to be the intermediary of love betwixt ,earth and ,heaven4 ,every evening she wept tears of gold at the feet of her divine ,son to obtain favours from ,him1 and these favours were the miracles which ,he permitted her to work1--these beautiful1 flower-like miracles1 as sweet-scented as the roses of ,paradise1 so prodigiously splendid and fragrant4 99 ,for the information of ,protestant and other non-,catholic readers it may be mentioned that all the titles enumerated in this passage are taken from the ,litany of the ,blessed ,virgin4--,trans4 ,but the train was still rolling1 rolling onward4 ,they had just passed ,contras1 it was six o'clock1 and ,sister ,hyacinthe1 rising to her1 feet1 clapped her hands together and once again repeated3 8,the ,angelus1 my children60 ,never had 8,aves0 impregnated with greater faith1 inflamed with a more fervent desire to be heard by ,heaven1 winged their flight on high4 ,and ,pierre suddenly understood everything1 clearly realised the meaning of all these pilgrimages1 of all these trains rolling along through every country of the civilised world1 of all these eager crowds1 hastening towards ,lourdes1 which blazed over yonder like the abode of salvation for body and for mind4 ,ah6 the poor wretches whom1 ever since morning1 he had heard groaning with pain1 the poor wretches who exposed their sorry carcasses to the fatigues of such a journey6 ,they were all condemned1 abandoned by science1 weary of consulting doctors1 of having tried the torturing effects of futile remedies4 ,and how well one could understand that1 burning with a desire to preserve their lives1 unable to resign themselves to the injustice and indifference of ,nature1 they should dream of a superhuman power1 of an almighty ,divinity who1 in their favour1 would perchance annul the established laws1 alter the course of the planets1 and reconsider ,his creation6 ,for if the world failed them1 did not the ,divinity remain to them8 ,in their cases reality was too abominable1 and an immense need of illusion and falsehood sprang up within them4 ,oh6 to believe that there is a supreme ,justiciar somewhere1 one who rights the apparent wrongs of things and beings2 to believe that there is a ,redeemer1 a consoler who is the real master1 who can carry the torrents back to their source1 who can restore youth to the aged1 and life to the dead6 ,and when you are covered with sores1 when your limbs are twisted1 when your stomach is swollen by tumours1 when your lungs are destroyed by disease1 to be able to say that all this is of no consequence1 that everything may disappear and be renewed at a sign from the ,blessed ,virgin1 that it is sufficient that you should pray to her1 touch her heart1 and obtain the favour of being chosen by her4 ,and then what a heavenly fount of hope appeared with the prodigious flow of those beautiful stories of cure1 those adorable fairy tales which lulled and intoxicated the feverish imaginations of the sick and the infirm4 ,since little ,sophie ,couteau1 with her white1 sound foot1 had climbed into that carriage1 opening to the gaze of those within it the limitless heavens of the ,divine and the ,supernatural1 how well one could understand the breath of resurrection that was passing over the world1 slowly raising those who despaired the most from their beds of misery1 and making their eyes shine since life was itself a possibility for them1 and they were1 perhaps1 about to begin it afresh4 ,yes1 't was indeed that4 ,if that woeful train was rolling1 rolling on1 if that carriage was full1 if the other carriages were full also1 if ,france and the world1 from the uttermost limits of the earth1 were crossed by similar trains1 if crowds of three hundred thousand believers1 bringing thousands of sick along with them1 were ever setting out1 from one end of the year to the other1 it was because the ,grotto yonder was shining forth in its glory like a beacon of hope and illusion1 like a sign of the revolt and triumph of the ,impossible over inexorable materiality4 ,never had a more impassionating romance been devised to exalt the souls of men above the stern laws of life4 ,to dream that dream1 this was the great1 the ineffable happiness4 ,if the ,fathers of the ,assumption had seen the success of their pilgrimages increase and spread from year to year1 it was because they sold to all the flocking peoples the bread of consolation and illusion1 the delicious bread of hope1 for which suffering humanity ever hungers with a hunger that nothing will ever appease4 ,and it was not merely the physical sores which cried aloud for cure1 the whole of man's moral and intellectual being likewise shrieked forth its wretchedness1 with an insatiable yearning for happiness4 ,to be happy1 to place the certainty of life in faith1 to lean till death should come upon that one strong staff of travel--such was the desire exhaled by every breast1 the desire which made every moral grief bend the knee1 imploring a continuance of grace1 the conversion of dear ones1 the spiritual salvation of self and those one loved4 ,the mighty cry spread from pole to pole1 ascended and filled all the regions of space3 ,to be happy1 happy for evermore1 both in life and in death6 ,and ,pierre saw the suffering beings around him lose all perception of the jolting and recover their strength as league by league they drew nearer to the miracle4 ,even ,madame ,maze grew talkative1 certain as she felt that the ,blessed ,virgin would restore her husband to her4 ,with a smile on her face ,madame ,vincent gently rocked her little ,rose in her arms1 thinking that she was not nearly so ill as those all but lifeless children who1 after being plunged in the icy water1 sprang out and played4 ,m4 ,sabathier jested with ,m4 de ,guersaint1 and explained to him that1 next ,october1 when he had recovered the use of his legs1 he should go on a trip to ,rome--a journey which he had been postponing for fifteen years and more4 ,madame ,vetu1 quite calmed1 feeling nothing but a slight twinge in the stomach1 imagined that she was hungry1 and asked ,madame de ,jonquiere to let her dip some strips of bread in a glass of milk2 whilst ,elise ,rouquet1 forgetting her sores1 ate some grapes1 with face uncovered4 ,and in ,la ,grivotte who was sitting up and ,brother ,isidore who had ceased moaning1 all those fine stories had left a pleasant fever1 to such a point that1 impatient to be cured1 they grew anxious to know the time4 ,for a minute also the man1 the strange man1 resuscitated4 ,whilst ,sister ,hyacinthe was again wiping the cold sweat from his brow1 he raised his eyelids1 and a smile momentarily brightened his pallid countenance4 ,yet once again he1 also1 had hoped4 ,marie was still holding ,pierre's fingers in her own small1 warm hand4 ,it was seven o'clock1 they were not due at ,bordeaux till half-past seven2 and the belated train was quickening its pace yet more and more1 rushing along with wild speed in order to make up for the minutes it had lost4 ,the storm had ended by coming down1 and now a gentle light of infinite purity fell from the vast clear heavens4 8,oh6 how beautiful it is1 ,pierre--how beautiful it is60 ,marie again repeated1 pressing his hand with tender affection4 ,and leaning towards him1 she added in an undertone3 8,i beheld the ,blessed ,virgin a little while ago1 ,pierre1 and it was your cure that ,i implored and shall obtain40 ,the priest1 who understood her meaning1 was thrown into confusion by the divine light which gleamed in her eyes as she fixed them on his own4 ,she had forgotten her own sufferings2 that which she had asked for was his conversion2 and that prayer of faith1 emanating1 pure and candid1 from that dear1 suffering creature1 upset his soul4 ,yet why should he not believe some day8 ,he himself had been distracted by all those extraordinary narratives4 ,the stifling heat of the carriage had made him dizzy1 the sight of all the woe heaped up there caused his heart to bleed with pity4 ,and contagion was doing its work2 he no longer knew where the real and the possible ceased1 he lacked the power to disentangle such a mass of stupefying facts1 to explain such as admitted of explanation and reject the others4 ,at one moment1 indeed1 as a hymn once more resounded and carried him off with its stubborn importunate rhythm1 he ceased to be master of himself1 and imagined that he was at last beginning to believe amidst the hallucinatory vertigo which reigned in that travelling hospital1 rolling1 ever rolling onward at full speed4 ,v ,,bernadette ,,the train left ,bordeaux after a stoppage of a few minutes1 during which those who had not dined hastened to purchase some provisions4 ,moreover1 the ailing ones were constantly drinking milk1 and asking for biscuits1 like little children4 ,and1 as soon as they were off again1 ,sister ,hyacinthe clapped her hands1 and exclaimed3 8,come1 let us make haste2 the evening prayer40 ,thereupon1 during a quarter of an hour came a confused murmuring1 made up of 8,paters0 and 8,aves10 self-examinations1 acts of contrition1 and vows of trustful reliance in ,god1 the ,blessed ,virgin1 and the ,saints1 with thanksgiving for protection and preservation that day1 and1 at last1 a prayer for the living and for the faithful departed4 8,in the name of the ,father1 the ,son1 and the ,holy ,ghost4 ,amen40 ,it was ten minutes past eight o'clock1 the shades of night were already bedimming the landscape--a vast plain which the evening mist seemed to prolong into the infinite1 and where1 far away1 bright dots of light shone out from the windows of lonely1 scattered houses4 ,in the carriage1 the lights of the lamps were flickering1 casting a subdued yellow glow on the luggage and the pilgrims1 who were sorely shaken by the spreading tendency of the train's motion4 8,you know1 my children10 resumed ,sister ,hyacinthe1 who had remained standing1 8,i shall order silence when we get to ,lamothe1 in about an hour's time4 ,so you have an hour to amuse yourselves1 but you must be reasonable and not excite yourselves too much4 ,and when we have passed ,lamothe1 you hear me1 there must not be another word1 another sound1 you must all go to sleep40 ,this made them laugh4 8,oh6 but it is the rule1 you know10 added the ,sister1 8and surely you have too much sense not to obey me40 ,since the morning they had punctually fulfilled the programme of religious exercises specified for each successive hour4 ,and now that all the prayers had been said1 the beads told1 the hymns chanted1 the day's duties were over1 and a brief interval for recreation was allowed before sleeping4 ,they were1 however1 at a loss as to what they should do4 8,sister10 suddenly said ,marie1 8if you would allow ,monsieur l',abbe to read to us--he reads extremely well1--and as it happens ,i have a little book with me--a history of ,bernadette which is so interesting--0 ,the others did nor let her finish1 but with the suddenly awakened desire of children to whom a beautiful story has been promised1 loudly exclaimed3 8,oh6 yes1 ,sister4 ,oh6 yes1 ,sister--0 8,of course ,i will allow it10 replied ,sister ,hyacinthe1 8since it is a question of reading something instructive and edifying40 ,pierre was obliged to consent4 ,but to be able to read the book he wished to be under the lamp1 and it was necessary that he should change seats with ,m4 de ,guersaint1 whom the promise of a story had delighted as much as it did the ailing ones4 ,and when the young priest1 after changing seats and declaring that he would be able to see well enough1 at last opened the little book1 a quiver of curiosity sped from one end of the carriage to the other1 and every head was stretched out1 lending ear with rapt attention4 ,fortunately1 ,pierre had a clear1 powerful voice and made himself distinctly heard above the wheels1 which1 now that the train travelled across a vast level plain1 gave out but a subdued1 rumbling sound4 ,before beginning1 however1 the young priest had examined the book4 ,it was one of those little works of propaganda issued from the ,catholic printing-presses and circulated in profusion throughout all ,christendom4 ,badly printed1 on wretched paper1 it was adorned on its blue cover with a little wood-cut of ,our ,lady of ,lourdes1 a naive design alike stiff and awkward4 ,the book itself was short1 and half an hour would certainly suffice to read it from cover to cover without hurrying4 ,accordingly1 in his fine1 clear voice1 with its penetrating1 musical tones1 he began his perusal as follows3-- 8,it happened at ,lourdes1 a little town near the ,pyrenees1 on a ,thursday1 ,february #aa1 #aheh4 ,the weather was cold1 and somewhat cloudy1 and in the humble home of a poor but honest miller named ,francois ,soubirous there was no wood to cook the dinner4 ,the miller's wife1 ,louise1 said to her younger daughter ,marie1 #8,go and gather some wood on the bank of the ,gave or on the common-land4' ,the ,gave is a torrent which passes through ,lourdes4 8,marie had an elder sister1 named ,bernadette1 who had lately arrived from the country1 where some worthy villagers had employed her as a shepherdess4 ,she was a slender1 delicate1 extremely innocent child1 and knew nothing except her rosary4 ,louise ,soubirous hesitated to send her out with her sister1 on account of the cold1 but at last1 yielding to the entreaties of ,marie and a young girl of the neighbourhood called ,jeanne ,abadie1 she consented to let her go4 8,following the bank of the torrent and gathering stray fragments of dead wood1 the three maidens at last found themselves in front of the ,grotto1 hollowed out in a huge mass of rock which the people of the district called ,massabielle40 ,pierre had reached this point and was turning the page when he suddenly paused and let the little book fall on his knees4 ,the childish character of the narrative1 its ready-made1 empty phraseology1 filled him with impatience4 ,he himself possessed quite a collection of documents concerning this extraordinary story1 had passionately studied even its most trifling details1 and in the depths of his heart retained a feeling of tender affection and infinite pity for ,bernadette4 ,he had just reflected1 too1 that on the very next day he would be able to begin that decisive inquiry which he had formerly dreamt of making at ,lourdes4 ,in fact1 this was one of the reasons which had induced him to accompany ,marie on her journey4 ,and he was now conscious of an awakening of all his curiosity respecting the ,visionary1 whom he loved because he felt that she had been a girl of candid soul1 truthful and ill-fated1 though at the same time he would much have liked to analyse and explain her case4 ,assuredly1 she had not lied1 she had indeed beheld a vision and heard voices1 like ,joan of ,arc2 and like ,joan of ,arc also1 she was now1 in the opinion of the devout1 accomplishing the deliverance of ,france--from sin if not from invaders4 ,pierre wondered what force could have produced her--her and her work4 ,how was it that the visionary faculty had become developed in that lowly girl1 so distracting believing souls as to bring about a renewal of the miracles of primitive times1 as to found almost a new religion in the midst of a ,holy ,city1 built at an outlay of millions1 and ever invaded by crowds of worshippers more numerous and more exalted in mind than had ever been known since the days of the ,crusades8 ,and so1 ceasing to read the book1 ,pierre began to tell his companions all that he knew1 all that he had divined and reconstructed of that story which is yet so obscure despite the vast rivers of ink which it has already caused to flow4 ,he knew the country and its manners and customs1 through his long conversations with his friend ,doctor ,chassaigne4 ,and he was endowed with charming fluency of language1 an emotional power of exquisite purity1 many remarkable gifts well fitting him to be a pulpit orator1 which he never made use of1 although he had known them to be within him ever since his seminary days4 ,when the occupants of the carriage perceived that he knew the story1 far better and in far greater detail than it appeared in ,marie's little book1 and that he related it also in such a gentle yet passionate way1 there came an increase of attention1 and all those afflicted souls hungering for happiness went forth towards him4 ,first came the story of ,bernadette's childhood at ,bartres1 where she had grown up in the abode of her foster-mother1 ,madame ,lagues1 who1 having lost an infant of her own1 had rendered those poor folks1 the ,soubirouses1 the service of suckling and keeping their child for them4 ,bartres1 a village of four hundred souls1 at a league or so from ,lourdes1 lay as it were in a desert oasis1 sequestered amidst greenery1 and far from any frequented highway4 ,the road dips down1 the few houses are scattered over grassland1 divided by hedges and planted with walnut and chestnut trees1 whilst the clear rivulets1 which are never silent1 follow the sloping banks beside the pathways1 and nothing rises on high save the small ancient romanesque church1 which is perched on a hillock1 covered with graves4 ,wooded slopes undulate upon all sides4 ,bartres lies in a hollow amidst grass of delicious freshness1 grass of intense greenness1 which is ever moist at the roots1 thanks to the eternal subterraneous expanse of water which is fed by the mountain torrents4 ,and ,bernadette1 who1 since becoming a big girl1 had paid for her keep by tending lambs1 was wont to take them with her1 season after season1 through all the greenery where she never met a soul4 ,it was only now and then1 from the summit of some slope1 that she saw the far-away mountains1 the ,pic du ,midi1 the ,pic de ,viscos1 those masses which rose up1 bright or gloomy1 according to the weather1 and which stretched away to other peaks1 lightly and faintly coloured1 vaguely and confusedly outlined1 like apparitions seen in dreams4 ,then came the home of the ,lagueses1 where her cradle was still preserved1 a solitary1 silent house1 the last of the village4 ,a meadow planted with pear and apple trees1 and only separated from the open country by a narrow stream which one could jump across1 stretched out in front of the house4 ,inside the latter1 a low and damp abode1 there were1 on either side of the wooden stairway leading to the loft1 but two spacious rooms1 flagged with stones1 and each containing four or five beds4 ,the girls1 who slept together1 fell asleep at even1 gazing at the fine pictures affixed to the walls1 whilst the big clock in its pinewood case gravely struck the hours in the midst of the deep silence4 ,ah6 those years at ,bartres2 in what sweet peacefulness did ,bernadette live them6 ,yet she grew up very thin1 always in bad health1 suffering from a nervous asthma which stifled her in the least veering of the wind2 and on attaining her twelfth year she could neither read nor write1 nor speak otherwise than in dialect1 having remained quite infantile1 behindhand in mind as in body4 ,she was a very good little girl1 very gentle and well behaved1 and but little different from other children1 except that instead of talking she preferred to listen4 ,limited as was her intelligence1 she often evinced much natural common-sense1 and at times was prompt in her _/reparties_/1 with a kind of simple gaiety which made one smile4 ,it was only with infinite trouble that she was taught her rosary1 and when she knew it she seemed bent on carrying her knowledge no further1 but repeated it all day long1 so that whenever you met her with her lambs1 she invariably had her chaplet between her fingers1 diligently telling each successive 8,pater0 and 8,ave40 ,for long1 long hours she lived like this on the grassy slopes of the hills1 hidden away and haunted as it were amidst the mysteries of the foliage1 seeing nought of the world save the crests of the distant mountains1 which1 for an instant1 every now and then1 would soar aloft in the radiant light1 as ethereal as the peaks of dreamland4 ,days followed days1 and ,bernadette roamed1 dreaming her one narrow dream1 repeating the sole prayer she knew1 which gave her amidst her solitude1 so fresh and naively infantile1 no other companion and friend than the ,blessed ,virgin4 ,but what pleasant evenings she spent in the winter-time in the room on the left1 where a fire was kept burning6 ,her foster-mother had a brother1 a priest1 who occasionally read some marvellous stories to them--stories of saints1 prodigious adventures of a kind to make one tremble with mingled fear and joy1 in which ,paradise appeared upon earth1 whilst the heavens opened and a glimpse was caught of the splendour of the angels4 ,the books he brought with him were often full of pictures--,god the ,father enthroned amidst ,his glory2 ,jesus1 so gentle and so handsome with ,his beaming face2 the ,blessed ,virgin1 who recurred again and again1 radiant with splendour1 clad now in white1 now in azure1 now in gold1 and ever so amiable that ,bernadette would see her again in her dreams4 ,but the book which was read more than all others was the ,bible1 an old ,bible which had been in the family for more than a hundred years1 and which time and usage had turned yellow4 ,each winter evening ,bernadette's foster-father1 the only member of the household who had learnt to read1 would take a pin1 pass it at random between the leaves of the book1 open the latter1 and then start reading from the top of the right-hand page1 amidst the deep attention of both the women and the children1 who ended by knowing the book by heart1 and could have continued reciting it without a single mistake4 ,however1 ,bernadette1 for her part1 preferred the religious works in which the ,blessed ,virgin constantly appeared with her engaging smile4 ,true1 one reading of a different character amused her1 that of the marvellous story of the ,four ,brothers ,aymon4 ,on the yellow paper cover of the little book1 which had doubtless fallen from the bale of some peddler who had lost his way in that remote region1 there was a naive cut showing the four doughty knights1 ,renaud and his brothers1 all mounted on ,bayard1 their famous battle charger1 that princely present made to them by the fairy ,orlanda4 ,and inside were narratives of bloody fights1 of the building and besieging of fortresses1 of the terrible swordthrusts exchanged by ,roland and ,renaud1 who was at last about to free the ,holy ,land1 without mentioning the tales of ,maugis the ,magician and his marvellous enchantments1 and the ,princess ,clarisse1 the ,king of ,aquitaine's sister1 who was more lovely than sunlight4 ,her imagination fired by such stories as these1 ,bernadette often found it difficult to get to sleep2 and this was especially the case on the evenings when the books were left aside1 and some person of the company related a tale of witchcraft4 ,the girl was very superstitious1 and after sundown could never be prevailed upon to pass near a tower in the vicinity1 which was said to be haunted by the fiend4 ,for that matter1 all the folks of the region were superstitious1 devout1 and simple-minded1 the whole countryside being peopled1 so to say1 with mysteries--trees which sang1 stones from which blood flowed1 cross-roads where it was necessary to say three 8,paters0 and three 8,aves10 if you did not wish to meet the seven-horned beast who carried maidens off to perdition4 ,and what a wealth of terrifying stories there was6 ,hundreds of stories1 so that there was no finishing on the evenings when somebody started them4 ,first came the wehrwolf adventures1 the tales of the unhappy men whom the demon forced to enter into the bodies of dogs1 the great white dogs of the mountains4 ,if you fire a gun at the dog and a single shot should strike him1 the man will be delivered2 but if the shot should fall on the dog's shadow1 the man will immediately die4 ,then came the endless procession of sorcerers and sorceresses4 ,in one of these tales ,bernadette evinced a passionate interest2 it was the story of a clerk of the tribunal of ,lourdes who1 wishing to see the devil1 was conducted by a witch into an untilled field at midnight on ,good ,friday4 ,the devil arrived clad in magnificent scarlet garments1 and at once proposed to the clerk that he should buy his soul1 an offer which the clerk pretended to accept4 ,it so happened that the devil was carrying under his arm a register in which different persons of the town1 who had already sold themselves1 had signed their names4 ,however1 the clerk1 who was a cunning fellow1 pulled out of his pocket a pretended bottle of ink1 which in reality contained holy water1 and with this he sprinkled the devil1 who raised frightful shrieks1 whilst the clerk took to flight1 carrying the register off with him4 ,then began a wild1 mad race1 which might last throughout the night1 over the mountains1 through the valleys1 across the forests and the torrents4 8,give me back my register60 shouted the fiend4 8,no1 you sha'n't have it60 replied the clerk4 ,and again and again it began afresh3 8,give me back my register60--8,no1 you sha'n't have it'60 ,and at last1 finding himself out of breath1 near the point of succumbing1 the clerk1 who had his plan1 threw himself into the cemetery1 which was consecrated ground1 and was there able to deride the devil at his ease1 waving the register which he had purloined so as to save the souls of all the unhappy people who had signed their names in it4 ,on the evening when this story was told1 ,bernadette1 before surrendering herself to sleep1 would mentally repeat her rosary1 delighted with the thought that hell should have been baffled1 though she trembled at the idea that it would surely return to prowl around her1 as soon as the lamp should have been put out4 ,throughout one winter1 the long evenings were spent in the church4 ,abbe ,ader1 the village priest1 had authorised it1 and many families came1 in order to economise oil and candles4 ,moreover1 they felt less cold when gathered together in this fashion4 ,the ,bible was read1 and prayers were repeated1 whilst the children ended by falling asleep4 ,bernadette alone struggled on to the finish1 so pleased she was at being there1 in that narrow nave whose slender nervures were coloured blue and red4 ,at the farther end was the altar1 also painted and gilded1 with its twisted columns and its screens on which appeared the ,virgin and ,ste4 ,anne1 and the beheading of ,st4 ,john the ,baptist--the whole of a gaudy and somewhat barbaric splendour4 ,and as sleepiness grew upon her1 the child must have often seen a mystical vision as it were of those crudely coloured designs rising before her--have seen the blood flowing from ,st4 ,john's severed head1 have seen the aureolas shining1 the ,virgin ever returning and gazing at her with her blue1 living eyes1 and looking as though she were on the point of opening her vermilion lips in order to speak to her4 ,for some months ,bernadette spent her evenings in this wise1 half asleep in front of that sumptuous1 vaguely defined altar1 in the incipiency of a divine dream which she carried away with her1 and finished in bed1 slumbering peacefully under the watchful care of her guardian angel4 ,and it was also in that old church1 so humble yet so impregnated with ardent faith1 that ,bernadette began to learn her catechism4 ,she would soon be fourteen now1 and must think of her first communion4 ,her foster-mother1 who had the reputation of being avaricious1 did not send her to school1 but employed her in or about the house from morning till evening4 ,m4 ,barbet1 the schoolmaster1 never saw her at his classes1 though one day1 when he gave the catechism lesson1 in the place of ,abbe ,ader who was indisposed1 he remarked her on account of her piety and modesty4 ,the village priest was very fond of ,bernadette and often spoke of her to the schoolmaster1 saying that he could never look at her without thinking of the children of ,la ,salette1 since they must have been good1 candid1 and pious as she was1 for the ,blessed ,virgin to have appeared to them499 ,on another occasion whilst the two men were walking one morning near the village1 and saw ,bernadette disappear with her little flock under some spreading trees in the distance1 the ,abbe repeatedly turned round to look for her1 and again remarked 8,i cannot account for it1 but every time ,i meet that child it seems to me as if ,i saw ,melanie1 the young shepherdess1 little ,maximin's companion40 ,he was certainly beset by this singular idea1 which became1 so to say1 a prediction4 ,moreover1 had he not one day after catechism1 or one evening1 when the villagers were gathered in the church1 related that marvellous story which was already twelve years old1 that story of the ,lady in the dazzling robes who walked upon the grass without even making it bend1 the ,blessed ,virgin who showed herself to ,melanie and ,maximin on the banks of a stream in the mountains1 and confided to them a great secret and announced the anger of her ,son8 ,ever since that day a source had sprung up from the tears which she had shed1 a source which cured all ailments1 whilst the secret1 inscribed on parchment fastened with three seals1 slumbered at ,rome6 ,and ,bernadette1 no doubt1 with her dreamy1 silent air1 had listened passionately to that wonderful tale and carried it off with her into the desert of foliage where she spent her days1 so that she might live it over again as she walked along behind her lambs with her rosary1 slipping bead by bead between her slender fingers4 99 ,it was on ,september #ai1 #ahdf1 that the ,virgin is said to have appeared in the ravine of ,la ,sezia1 adjacent to the valley of ,la ,salette1 between ,corps and ,eutraigues1 in the department of the ,isere4 ,the visionaries were ,melanie ,mathieu1 a girl of fourteen1 and ,maximin ,giraud1 a boy of twelve4 ,the local clergy speedily endorsed the story of the miracle1 and thousands of people still go every year in pilgrimage to a church overlooking the valley1 and bathe and drink at a so-called miraculous source4 ,two priests of ,grenoble1 however1 ,abbe ,deleon and ,abbe ,cartellier1 accused a ,mlle4 de ,lamerliere of having concocted the miracle1 and when she took proceedings against them for libel she lost her case4--,trans4 ,thus her childhood ran its course at ,bartres4 ,that which delighted one in this ,bernadette1 so poor-blooded1 so slight of build1 was her ecstatic eyes1 beautiful visionary eyes1 from which dreams soared aloft like birds winging their flight in a pure limpid sky4 ,her mouth was large1 with lips somewhat thick1 expressive of kindliness2 her square-shaped head had a straight brow1 and was covered with thick black hair1 whilst her face would have seemed rather common but for its charming expression of gentle obstinacy4 ,those who did not gaze into her eyes1 however1 gave her no thought4 ,to them she was but an ordinary child1 a poor thing of the roads1 a girl of reluctant growth1 timidly humble in her ways4 ,assuredly it was in her glance that ,abbe ,ader had with agitation detected the stifling ailment which filled her puny1 girlish form with suffering--that ailment born of the greeny solitude in which she had grown up1 the gentleness of her bleating lambs1 the ,angelic ,salutation which she had carried with her1 hither and thither1 under the sky1 repeating and repeating it to the point of hallucination1 the prodigious stories1 too1 which she had heard folks tell at her foster-mother's1 the long evenings spent before the living altar-screens in the church1 and all the atmosphere of primitive faith which she had breathed in that far-away rural region1 hemmed in by mountains4 ,at last1 on one seventh of ,january1 ,bernadette had just reached her fourteenth birthday1 when her parents1 finding that she learnt nothing at ,bartres1 resolved to bring her back to ,lourdes for good1 in order that she might diligently study her catechism1 and in this wise seriously prepare herself for her first communion4 ,and so it happened that she had already been at ,lourdes some fifteen or twenty days1 when on ,february #aa1 a ,thursday1 cold and somewhat cloudy-- ,but ,pierre could carry his narrative no further1 for ,sister ,hyacinthe had risen to her feet and was vigorously clapping her hands4 8,my children10 she exclaimed1 8it is past nine o'clock4 ,silence6 silence60 ,the train had indeed just passed ,lamothe1 and was rolling with a dull rumble across a sea of darkness--the endless plains of the ,landes which the night submerged4 ,for ten minutes already not a sound ought to have been heard in the carriage1 one and all ought to have been sleeping or suffering uncomplainingly4 ,however1 a mutiny broke out4 8,oh6 ,sister60 exclaimed ,marie1 whose eyes were sparkling1 8allow us just another short quarter of an hour6 ,we have got to the most interesting part40 ,ten1 twenty voices took up the cry3 8,oh yes1 ,sister1 please do let us have another short quarter of an hour60 ,they all wished to hear the continuation1 burning with as much curiosity as though they had not known the story1 so captivated were they by the touches of compassionate human feeling which ,pierre introduced into his narrative4 ,their glances never left him1 all their heads were stretched towards him1 fantastically illumined by the flickering light of the lamps4 ,and it was not only the sick who displayed this interest2 the ten women occupying the compartment at the far end of the carriage had also become impassioned1 and1 happy at not missing a single word1 turned their poor ugly faces now beautified by naive faith4 8,no1 ,i cannot60 ,sister ,hyacinthe at first declared2 8the rules are very strict--you must be silent40 ,however1 she weakened1 she herself feeling so interested in the tale that she could detect her heart beating under her stomacher4 ,then ,marie again repeated her request in an entreating tone2 whilst her father1 ,m4 de ,guersaint1 who had listened like one hugely amused1 declared that they would all fall ill if the story were not continued4 ,and thereupon1 seeing ,madame de ,jonquiere smile with an indulgent air1 ,sister ,hyacinthe ended by consenting4 8,well1 then10 said she1 8,i will allow you another short quarter of an hour2 but only a short quarter of an hour1 mind4 ,that is understood1 is it not8 ,for ,i should otherwise be in fault40 ,pierre had waited quietly without attempting to intervene4 ,and he resumed his narrative in the same penetrating voice as before1 a voice in which his own doubts were softened by pity for those who suffer and who hope4 ,the scene of the story was now transferred to ,lourdes1 to the ,rue des ,petits ,fosses1 a narrow1 tortuous1 mournful street taking a downward course between humble houses and roughly plastered dead walls4 ,the ,soubirous family occupied a single room on the ground floor of one of these sorry habitations1 a room at the end of a dark passage1 in which seven persons were huddled together1 the father1 the mother1 and five children4 ,you could scarcely see in the chamber2 from the tiny1 damp inner courtyard of the house there came but a greenish light4 ,and in that room they slept1 all of a heap2 and there also they ate1 when they had bread4 ,for some time past1 the father1 a miller by trade1 could only with difficulty obtain work as a journeyman4 ,and it was from that dark hole1 that lowly wretchedness1 that ,bernadette1 the elder girl1 with ,marie1 her sister1 and ,jeanne1 a little friend of the neighbourhood1 went out to pick up dead wood1 on the cold ,february ,thursday already spoken of4 ,then the beautiful tale was unfolded at length2 how the three girls followed the bank of the ,gave from the other side of the castle1 and how they ended by finding themselves on the ,ile du ,chalet in front of the rock of ,massabielle1 from which they were only separated by the narrow stream diverted from the ,gave1 and used for working the mill of ,savy4 ,it was a wild spot1 whither the common herdsman often brought the pigs of the neighbourhood1 which1 when showers suddenly came on1 would take shelter under this rock of ,massabielle1 at whose base there was a kind of grotto of no great depth1 blocked at the entrance by eglantine and brambles4 ,the girls found dead wood very scarce that day1 but at last on seeing on the other side of the stream quite a gleaning of branches deposited there by the torrent1 ,marie and ,jeanne crossed over through the water2 whilst ,bernadette1 more delicate than they were1 a trifle young-ladyfied1 perhaps1 remained on the bank lamenting1 and not daring to wet her feet4 ,she was suffering slightly from humour in the head1 and her mother had expressly bidden her to wrap herself in her _/capulet_/199 a large white _/capulet_/ which contrasted vividly with her old black woollen dress4 _/,when she found that her companions would not help her1 she resignedly made up her mind to take off her _/sabots_/1 and pull down her stockings4 ,it was then about noon1 the three strokes of the ,angelus rang out from the parish church1 rising into the broad calm winter sky1 which was somewhat veiled by fine fleecy clouds4 ,and it was then that a great agitation arose within her1 resounding in her ears with such a tempestuous roar that she fancied a hurricane had descended from the mountains1 and was passing over her4 ,but she looked at the trees and was stupefied1 for not a leaf was stirring4 ,then she thought that she had been mistaken1 and was about to pick up her _/sabots_/1 when again the great gust swept through her2 but1 this time1 the disturbance in her ears reached her eyes1 she no longer saw the trees1 but was dazzled by a whiteness1 a kind of bright light which seemed to her to settle itself against the rock1 in a narrow1 lofty slit above the ,grotto1 not unlike an ogival window of a cathedral4 ,in her fright she fell upon her knees4 ,what could it be1 _/mon ,dieu_/8 ,sometimes1 during bad weather1 when her asthma oppressed her more than usual1 she spent very bad nights1 incessantly dreaming dreams which were often painful1 and whose stifling effect she retained on awaking1 even when she had ceased to remember anything4 ,flames would surround her1 the sun would flash before her face4 ,had she dreamt in that fashion during the previous night8 ,was this the continuation of some forgotten dream8 ,however1 little by little a form became outlined1 she believed that she could distinguish a figure which the vivid light rendered intensely white4 ,in her fear lest it should be the devil1 for her mind was haunted by tales of witchcraft1 she began to tell her beads4 ,and when the light had slowly faded away1 and she had crossed the canal and joined ,marie and ,jeanne1 she was surprised to find that neither of them had seen anything whilst they were picking up the wood in front of the ,grotto4 ,on their way back to ,lourdes the three girls talked together4 ,so she1 ,bernadette1 had seen something then8 ,what was it8 ,at first1 feeling uneasy1 and somewhat ashamed1 she would not answer2 but at last she said that she had seen something white4 99 ,this is a kind of hood1 more generally known among the ,bearnese peasantry as a _/sarot_/4 ,whilst forming a coif it also completely covers the back and shoulders4--,trans4 ,from this the rumours started and grew4 ,the ,soubirouses1 on being made acquainted with the circumstance1 evinced much displeasure at such childish nonsense1 and told their daughter that she was not to return to the rock of ,massabielle4 ,all the children of the neighbourhood1 however1 were already repeating the tale1 and when ,sunday came the parents had to give way1 and allow ,bernadette to betake herself to the ,grotto with a bottle of holy water to ascertain if it were really the devil whom one had to deal with4 ,she then again beheld the light1 the figure became more clearly defined1 and smiled upon her1 evincing no fear whatever of the holy water4 ,and1 on the ensuing ,thursday1 she once more returned to the spot accompanied by several persons1 and then for the first time the radiant lady assumed sufficient corporality to speak1 and say to her3 8,do me the kindness to come here for fifteen days40 ,thus1 little by little1 the lady had assumed a precise appearance4 ,the something clad in white had become indeed a lady more beautiful than a queen1 of a kind such as is only seen in pictures4 ,at first1 in presence of the questions with which all the neighbours plied her from morning till evening1 ,bernadette had hesitated1 disturbed1 perhaps1 by scruples of conscience4 ,but then1 as though prompted by the very interrogatories to which she was subjected1 she seemed to perceive the figure which she had beheld1 more plainly1 so that it definitely assumed life1 with lines and hues from which the child1 in her after-descriptions1 never departed4 ,the lady's eyes were blue and very mild1 her mouth was rosy and smiling1 the oval of her face expressed both the grace of youth and of maternity4 ,below the veil covering her head and falling to her heels1 only a glimpse was caught of her admirable fair hair1 which was slightly curled4 ,her robe1 which was of dazzling whiteness1 must have been of some material unknown on earth1 some material woven of the sun's rays4 ,her sash1 of the same hue as the heavens1 was fastened loosely about her1 its long ends streaming downwards1 with the light airiness of morning4 ,her chaplet1 wound about her right arm1 had beads of a milky whiteness1 whilst the links and the cross were of gold4 ,and on her bare feet1 on her adorable feet of virgin snow1 flowered two golden roses1 the mystic roses of this divine mother's immaculate flesh4 ,where was it that ,bernadette had seen this ,blessed ,virgin1 of such traditionally simple composition1 unadorned by a single jewel1 having but the primitive grace imagined by the painters of a people in its childhood8 ,in which illustrated book belonging to her foster-mother's brother1 the good priest1 who read such attractive stories1 had she beheld this ,virgin8 ,or in what picture1 or what statuette1 or what stained-glass window of the painted and gilded church where she had spent so many evenings whilst growing up8 ,and whence1 above all things1 had come those golden roses poised on the ,virgin's feet1 that piously imagined florescence of woman's flesh--from what romance of chivalry1 from what story told after catechism by the ,abbe ,ader1 from what unconscious dream indulged in under the shady foliage of ,bartres1 whilst ever and ever repeating that haunting ,angelic ,salutation8 ,pierre's voice had acquired a yet more feeling tone1 for if he did not say all these things to the simple-minded folks who were listening to him1 still the human explanation of all these prodigies which the feeling of doubt in the depths of his being strove to supply1 imparted to his narrative a quiver of sympathetic1 fraternal love4 ,he loved ,bernadette the better for the great charm of her hallucination--that lady of such gracious access1 such perfect amiability1 such politeness in appearing and disappearing so appropriately4 ,at first the great light would show itself1 then the vision took form1 came and went1 leant forward1 moved about1 floating imperceptibly1 with ethereal lightness2 and when it vanished the glow lingered for yet another moment1 and then disappeared like a star fading away4 ,no lady in this world could have such a white and rosy face1 with a beauty so akin to that of the ,virgins on the picture-cards given to children at their first communions4 ,and it was strange that the eglantine of the ,grotto did not even hurt her adorable bare feet blooming with golden flowers4 ,pierre1 however1 at once proceeded to recount the other apparitions4 ,the fourth and fifth occurred on the ,friday and the ,saturday2 but the ,lady1 who shone so brightly and who had not yet told her name1 contented herself on these occasions with smiling and saluting without pronouncing a word4 ,on the ,sunday1 however1 she wept1 and said to ,bernadette1 8,pray for sinners40 ,on the ,monday1 to the child's great grief1 she did not appear1 wishing1 no doubt1 to try her4 ,but on the ,tuesday she confided to her a secret which concerned her 7the girl7 alone1 a secret which she was never to divulge992 and then she at last told her what mission it was that she entrusted to her3 8,go and tell the priests10 she said1 8that they must build a chapel here40 ,on the ,wednesday she frequently murmured the word 8,penitence6 penitence6 penitence60 which the child repeated1 afterwards kissing the earth4 ,on the ,thursday the ,lady said to her3 8,go1 and drink1 and wash at the spring1 and eat of the grass that is beside it10 words which the ,visionary ended by understanding1 when in the depths of the ,grotto a source suddenly sprang up beneath her fingers4 ,and this was the miracle of the enchanted fountain4 99 ,in a like way1 it will be remembered1 the apparition at ,la ,salette confided a secret to ,melanie and ,maximin 7see _/ante_/1 note74 ,there can be little doubt that ,bernadette was acquainted with the story of the miracle of ,la ,salette4--,trans4 ,then the second week ran its course4 ,the lady did not appear on the ,friday1 but was punctual on the five following days1 repeating her commands and gazing with a smile at the humble girl whom she had chosen to do her bidding1 and who1 on her side1 duly told her beads at each apparition1 kissed the earth1 and repaired on her knees to the source1 there to drink and wash4 ,at last1 on ,thursday1 ,march #d1 the last day of these mystical assignations1 the ,lady requested more pressingly than before that a chapel might be erected in order that the nations might come thither in procession from all parts of the earth4 ,so far1 however1 in reply to all ,bernadette's appeals1 she had refused to say who she was2 and it was only three weeks later1 on ,thursday1 ,march #be1 that1 joining her hands together1 and raising her eyes to ,heaven1 she said3 8,i am the ,immaculate ,conception40 ,on two other occasions1 at somewhat long intervals1 ,april #g and ,july l#f1 she again appeared3 the first time to perform the miracle of the lighted taper1 that taper above which the child1 plunged in ecstasy1 for a long time unconsciously left her hand1 without burning it2 and the second time to bid ,bernadette farewell1 to favour her with a last smile1 and a last inclination of the head full of charming politeness4 ,this made eighteen apparitions all told2 and never again did the ,lady show herself4 ,whilst ,pierre went on with his beautiful1 marvellous story1 so soothing to the wretched1 he evoked for himself a vision of that pitiable1 lovable ,bernadette1 whose sufferings had flowered so wonderfully4 ,as a doctor had roughly expressed it1 this girl of fourteen1 at a critical period of her life1 already ravaged1 too1 by asthma1 was1 after all1 simply an exceptional victim of hysteria1 afflicted with a degenerate heredity and lapsing into infancy4 ,if there were no violent crises in her case1 if there were no stiffening of the muscles during her attacks1 if she retained a precise recollection of her dreams1 the reason was that her case was peculiar to herself1 and she added1 so to say1 a new and very curious form to all the forms of hysteria known at the time4 ,miracles only begin when things cannot be explained2 and science1 so far1 knows and can explain so little1 so infinitely do the phenomena of disease vary according to the nature of the patient6 ,but how many shepherdesses there had been before ,bernadette who had seen the ,virgin in a similar way1 amidst all the same childish nonsense6 ,was it not always the same story1 the ,lady clad in light1 the secret confided1 the spring bursting forth1 the mission which had to be fulfilled1 the miracles whose enchantments would convert the masses8 ,and was not the personal appearance of the ,virgin always in accordance with a poor child's dreams--akin to some coloured figure in a missal1 an ideal compounded of traditional beauty1 gentleness1 and politeness4 ,and the same dreams showed themselves in the naivete of the means which were to be employed and of the object which was to be attained--the deliverance of nations1 the building of churches1 the processional pilgrimages of the faithful6 ,then1 too1 all the words which fell from ,heaven resembled one another1 calls for penitence1 promises of help2 and in this respect1 in ,bernadette's case the only new feature was that most extraordinary declaration3 8,i am the ,immaculate ,conception10 which burst forth--very usefully--as the recognition by the ,blessed ,virgin herself of the dogma promulgated by the ,court of ,rome but three years previously6 ,it was not the ,immaculate ,virgin who appeared3 no1 it was the ,immaculate ,conception1 the abstraction itself1 the thing1 the dogma1 so that one might well ask oneself if really the ,virgin had spoken in such a fashion4 ,as for the other words1 it was possible that ,bernadette had heard them somewhere and stored them up in some unconscious nook of her memory4 ,but these--8,i am the ,immaculate ,conception0--whence had they come as though expressly to fortify a dogma--still bitterly discussed--with such prodigious support as the direct testimony of the ,mother conceived without sin8 ,at this thought1 ,pierre1 who was convinced of ,bernadette's absolute good faith1 who refused to believe that she had been the instrument of a fraud1 began to waver1 deeply agitated1 feeling his belief in truth totter within him4 ,the apparitions1 however1 had caused intense emotion at ,lourdes2 crowds flocked to the spot1 miracles began1 and those inevitable persecutions broke out which ensure the triumph of new religions4 ,abbe ,peyramale1 the parish priest of ,lourdes1 an extremely honest man1 with an upright1 vigorous mind1 was able in all truth to declare that he did not know this child1 that she had not yet been seen at catechism4 ,where was the pressure1 then1 where the lesson learnt by heart8 ,there was nothing but those years of childhood spent at ,bartres1 the first teachings of ,abbe ,ader1 conversations possibly1 religious ceremonies in honour of the recently proclaimed dogma1 or simply the gift of one of those commemorative medals which had been scattered in profusion4 ,never did ,abbe ,ader reappear upon the scene1 he who had predicted the mission of the future ,visionary4 ,he was destined to remain apart from ,bernadette and her future career1 he who1 the first1 had seen her little soul blossom in his pious hands4 ,and yet all the unknown forces that had sprung from that sequestered village1 from that nook of greenery where superstition and poverty of intelligence prevailed1 were still making themselves felt1 disturbing the brains of men1 disseminating the contagion of the mysterious4 ,it was remembered that a shepherd of ,argeles1 speaking of the rock of ,massabielle1 had prophesied that great things would take place there4 ,other children1 moreover1 now fell in ecstasy with their eyes dilated and their limbs quivering with convulsions1 but these only saw the devil4 ,a whirlwind of madness seemed to be passing over the region4 ,an old lady of ,lourdes declared that ,bernadette was simply a witch and that she had herself seen the toad's foot in her eye4 ,but for the others1 for the thousands of pilgrims who hastened to the spot1 she was a saint1 and they kissed her garments4 ,sobs burst forth and frenzy seemed to seize upon the souls of the beholders1 when she fell upon her knees before the ,grotto1 a lighted taper in her right hand1 whilst with the left she told the beads of her rosary4 ,she became very pale and quite beautiful1 transfigured1 so to say4 ,her features gently ascended in her face1 lengthened into an expression of extraordinary beatitude1 whilst her eyes filled with light1 and her lips parted as though she were speaking words which could not be heard4 ,and it was quite certain that she had no will of her own left her1 penetrated as she was by a dream1 possessed by it to such a point in the confined1 exclusive sphere in which she lived1 that she continued dreaming it even when awake1 and thus accepted it as the only indisputable reality1 prepared to testify to it even at the cost of her blood1 repeating it over and over again1 obstinately1 stubbornly clinging to it1 and never varying in the details she gave4 ,she did not lie1 for she did not know1 could not and would not desire anything apart from it4 ,forgetful of the flight of time1 ,pierre was now sketching a charming picture of old ,lourdes1 that pious little town1 slumbering at the foot of the ,pyrenees4 ,the castle1 perched on a rock at the point of intersection of the seven valleys of ,lavedan1 had formerly been the key of the mountain districts4 ,but1 in ,bernadette's time1 it had become a mere dismantled1 ruined pile1 at the entrance of a road leading nowhere4 ,modern life found its march stayed by a formidable rampart of lofty1 snow-capped peaks1 and only the trans-,pyrenean railway--had it been constructed--could have established an active circulation of social life in that sequestered nook where human existence stagnated like dead water4 ,forgotten1 therefore1 ,lourdes remained slumbering1 happy and sluggish amidst its old-time peacefulness1 with its narrow1 pebble-paved streets and its bleak houses with dressings of marble4 ,the old roofs were still all massed on the eastern side of the castle2 the ,rue de la ,grotte1 then called the ,rue du ,bois1 was but a deserted and often impassable road2 no houses stretched down to the ,gave as now1 and the scum-laden waters rolled through a perfect solitude of pollard willows and tall grass4 ,on week-days but few people passed across the ,place du ,marcadal1 such as housewives hastening on errands1 and petty cits airing their leisure hours2 and you had to wait till ,sundays or fair days to find the inhabitants rigged out in their best clothes and assembled on the ,champ ,commun1 in company with the crowd of graziers who had come down from the distant tablelands with their cattle4 ,during the season when people resort to the ,pyrenean-waters1 the passage of the visitors to ,cauterets and ,bagneres also brought some animation2 _/diligences_/ passed through the town twice a day1 but they came from ,pau by a wretched road1 and had to ford the ,lapaca1 which often overflowed its banks4 ,then climbing the steep ascent of the ,rue ,basse1 they skirted the terrace of the church1 which was shaded by large elms4 ,and what soft peacefulness prevailed in and around that old semi-,spanish church1 full of ancient carvings1 columns1 screens1 and statues1 peopled with visionary patches of gilding and painted flesh1 which time had mellowed and which you faintly discerned as by the light of mystical lamps6 ,the whole population came there to worship1 to fill their eyes with the dream of the mysterious4 ,there were no unbelievers1 the inhabitants of ,lourdes were a people of primitive faith2 each corporation marched behind the banner of its saint1 brotherhoods of all kinds united the entire town1 on festival mornings1 in one large ,christian family4 ,and1 as with some exquisite flower that has grown in the soil of its choice1 great purity of life reigned there4 ,there was not even a resort of debauchery for young men to wreck their lives1 and the girls1 one and all1 grew up with the perfume and beauty of innocence1 under the eyes of the ,blessed ,virgin1 ,tower of ,ivory and ,seat of ,wisdom4 ,and how well one could understand that ,bernadette1 born in that holy soil1 should flower in it1 like one of nature's roses budding in the wayside bushes6 ,she was indeed the very florescence of that region of ancient belief and rectitude2 she would certainly not have sprouted elsewhere2 she could only appear and develop there1 amidst that belated race1 amidst the slumberous peacefulness of a childlike people1 under the moral discipline of religion4 ,and what intense love at once burst forth all around her6 ,what blind confidence was displayed in her mission1 what immense consolation and hope came to human hearts on the very morrow of the first miracles6 ,a long cry of relief had greeted the cure of old ,bourriette recovering his sight1 and of little ,justin ,bouhohorts coming to life again in the icy water of the spring4 ,at last1 then1 the ,blessed ,virgin was intervening in favour of those who despaired1 forcing that unkind mother1 ,nature1 to be just and charitable4 ,this was divine omnipotence returning to reign on earth1 sweeping the laws of the world aside in order to work the happiness of the suffering and the poor4 ,the miracles multiplied1 blazed forth1 from day to day more and more extraordinary1 like unimpeachable proof of ,bernadette's veracity4 ,and she was1 indeed1 the rose of the divine garden1 whose deeds shed perfume1 the rose who beholds all the other flowers of grace and salvation spring into being around her4 ,pierre had reached this point of his story1 and was again enumerating the miracles1 on the point of recounting the prodigious triumph of the ,grotto1 when ,sister ,hyacinthe1 awaking with a start from the ecstasy into which the narrative had plunged her1 hastily rose to her feet4 8,really1 really10 said she1 8there is no sense in it4 ,it will soon be eleven o'clock40 ,this was true4 ,they had left ,morceux behind them1 and would now soon be at ,mont de ,marsan4 ,so ,sister ,hyacinthe clapped her hands once more1 and added3 8,silence1 my children1 silence60 ,this time they did not dare to rebel1 for they felt she was in the right2 they were unreasonable4 ,but how greatly they regretted not hearing the continuation1 how vexed they were that the story should cease when only half told6 ,the ten women in the farther compartment even let a murmur of disappointment escape them2 whilst the sick1 their faces still outstretched1 their dilated eyes gazing upon the light of hope1 seemed to be yet listening4 ,those miracles which ever and ever returned to their minds and filled them with unlimited1 haunting1 supernatural joy4 8,and don't let me hear anyone breathe1 even10 added ,sister ,hyacinthe gaily1 8or otherwise ,i shall impose penance on you40 ,madame de ,jonquiere laughed good-naturedly4 8,you must obey1 my children10 she said2 8be good and get to sleep1 so that you may have strength to pray at the ,grotto to-morrow with all your hearts40 ,then silence fell1 nobody spoke any further2 and the only sounds were those of the rumbling of the wheels and the jolting of the train as it was carried along at full speed through the black night4 ,pierre1 however1 was unable to sleep4 ,beside him1 ,m4 de ,guersaint was already snoring lightly1 looking very happy despite the hardness of his seat4 ,for a time the young priest saw ,marie's eyes wide open1 still full of all the radiance of the marvels that he had related4 ,for a long while she kept them ardently fixed upon his own1 but at last closed them1 and then he knew not whether she was sleeping1 or with eyelids simply closed was living the everlasting miracle over again4 ,some of the sufferers were dreaming aloud1 giving vent to bursts of laughter which unconscious moans interrupted4 ,perhaps they beheld the ,archangels opening their flesh to wrest their diseases from them4 ,others1 restless with insomnia1 turned over and over1 stifling their sobs and gazing fixedly into the darkness4 ,and1 with a shudder born of all the mystery he had evoked1 ,pierre1 distracted1 no longer master of himself in that delirious sphere of fraternal suffering1 ended by hating his very mind1 and1 drawn into close communion with all those humble folks1 sought to believe like them4 ,what could be the use of that physiological inquiry into ,bernadette's case1 so full of gaps and intricacies8 ,why should he not accept her as a messenger from the spheres beyond1 as one of the elect chosen for the divine mystery8 ,doctors were but ignorant men with rough and brutal hands1 and it would be so delightful to fall asleep in childlike faith1 in the enchanted gardens of the impossible4 ,and for a moment indeed he surrendered himself1 experiencing a delightful feeling of comfort1 no longer seeking to explain anything1 but accepting the ,visionary with her sumptuous _/cortege_/ of miracles1 and relying on ,god to think and determine for him4 ,then he looked out through the window1 which they did not dare to open on account of the consumptive patients1 and beheld the immeasurable night which enwrapped the country across which the train was fleeing4 ,the storm must have burst forth there2 the sky was now of an admirable nocturnal purity1 as though cleansed by the masses of fallen water4 ,large stars shone out in the dark velvet1 alone illumining1 with their mysterious gleams1 the silent1 refreshed fields1 which incessantly displayed only the black solitude of slumber4 ,and across the ,landes1 through the valleys1 between the hills1 that carriage of wretchedness and suffering rolled on and on1 over-heated1 pestilential1 rueful1 and wailing1 amidst the serenity of the august night1 so lovely and so mild4 ,they had passed ,riscle at one in the morning4 ,between the jolting1 the painful1 the hallucinatory silence still continued4 ,at two o'clock1 as they reached ,vic-de-,bigorre1 low moans were heard2 the bad state of the line1 with the unbearable spreading tendency of the train's motion1 was sorely shaking the patients4 ,it was only at ,tarbes1 at half-past two1 that silence was at length broken1 and that morning prayers were said1 though black night still reigned around them4 ,there came first the 8,pater10 and then the 8,ave10 the 8,credo10 and the supplication to ,god to grant them the happiness of a glorious day4 8,o ,god1 vouchsafe me sufficient strength that ,i may avoid all that is evil1 do all that is good1 and suffer uncomplainingly every pain40 ,and now there was to be no further stoppage until they reached ,lourdes4 ,barely three more quarters of an hour1 and ,lourdes1 with all its vast hopes1 would blaze forth in the midst of that night1 so long and cruel4 ,their painful awakening was enfevered by the thought2 a final agitation arose amidst the morning discomfort1 as the abominable sufferings began afresh4 ,sister ,hyacinthe1 however1 was especially anxious about the strange man1 whose sweat-covered face she had been continually wiping4 ,he had so far managed to keep alive1 she watching him without a pause1 never having once closed her eyes1 but unremittingly listening to his faint breathing with the stubborn desire to take him to the holy ,grotto before he died4 ,all at once1 however1 she felt frightened2 and addressing ,madame de ,jonquiere1 she hastily exclaimed1 8,pray pass me the vinegar bottle at once--,i can no longer hear him breathe40 ,for an instant1 indeed1 the man's faint breathing had ceased4 ,his eyes were still closed1 his lips parted2 he could not have been paler1 he had an ashen hue1 and was cold4 ,and the carriage was rolling along with its ceaseless rattle of coupling-irons2 the speed of the train seemed even to have increased4 8,i will rub his temples10 resumed ,sister ,hyacinthe4 8,help me1 do60 ,but1 at a more violent jolt of the train1 the man suddenly fell from the seat1 face downward4 8,ah6 _/mon ,dieu_/1 help me1 pick him up60 ,they picked him up1 and found him dead4 ,and they had to seat him in his corner again1 with his back resting against the woodwork4 ,he remained there erect1 his torso stiffened1 and his head wagging slightly at each successive jolt4 ,thus the train continued carrying him along1 with the same thundering noise of wheels1 while the engine1 well pleased1 no doubt1 to be reaching its destination1 began whistling shrilly1 giving vent to quite a flourish of delirious joy as it sped through the calm night4 ,and then came the last and seemingly endless half-hour of the journey1 in company with that wretched corpse4 ,two big tears had rolled down ,sister ,hyacinthe's cheeks1 and with her hands joined she had begun to pray4 ,the whole carriage shuddered with terror at sight of that terrible companion who was being taken1 too late alas6 to the ,blessed ,virgin4 ,hope1 however1 proved stronger than sorrow or pain1 and although all the sufferings there assembled awoke and grew again1 irritated by overwhelming weariness1 a song of joy nevertheless proclaimed the sufferers' triumphal entry into the ,land of ,miracles4 ,amidst the tears which their pains drew from them1 the exasperated and howling sick began to chant the 8,ave maris ,stella0 with a growing clamour in which lamentation finally turned into cries of hope4 ,marie had again taken ,pierre's hand between her little feverish fingers4 8,oh1 _/mon ,dieu6_/0 said she1 8to think that poor man is dead1 and ,i feared so much that it was ,i who would die before arriving4 ,and we are there--there at last60 ,the priest was trembling with intense emotion4 8,it means that you are to be cured1 ,marie10 he replied1 8and that ,i myself shall be cured if you pray for me--0 ,the engine was now whistling in a yet louder key in the depths of the bluish darkness4 ,they were nearing their destination4 ,the lights of ,lourdes already shone out on the horizon4 ,then the whole train again sang a canticle--the rhymed story of ,bernadette1 that endless ballad of six times ten couplets1 in which the ,angelic ,salutation ever returns as a refrain1 all besetting and distracting1 opening to the human mind the portals of the heaven of ecstasy3-- 8,it was the hour for ev'ning pray'r2 ,soft bells chimed on the chilly air4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,the maid stood on the torrent's bank1 ,a breeze arose1 then swiftly sank4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,and she beheld1 e'en as it fell1 ,the ,virgin on ,massabielle4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,all white appeared the ,lady chaste1 ,a zone of ,heaven round her waist4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,two golden roses1 pure and sweet1 ,bloomed brightly on her naked feet4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,upon her arm1 so white and round1 ,her chaplet's milky pearls were wound4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria6 8,the maiden prayed till1 from her eyes1 ,the vision sped to ,paradise4 ,ave1 ave1 ave ,maria60