 Section 9 of Lourdes. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please contact LibriVox.org. Lourdes by Emil Zola, translated by Ernest Visitelli. The second day. 4. Verification. The doctor was waiting for the young priest outside the verification office, in front of which a compact and feverish crowd of pilgrims was assembled, way-laying and questioning the patients who went in, and acclaiming them as they came out whenever the news spread of any miracle, such as the restoration of some blind man's sight, some deaf woman's hearing, or some paralytic's power of motion. Pierre had no little difficulty in making his way through the throng, but at last he reached his friend. Well, he asked, are we going to have a miracle? A real incontestable one, I mean. The doctor smiled, indulgent despite his new faith. Ah, well, said he, a miracle is not worked to order. God intervenes when he pleases. Some hospitalers were mounting guard at the door, but they all knew Monsieur Chasseigne, and respectfully drew aside to let him enter with his companion. The office where the cures were verified was very badly installed in a wretched wooden shanty divided into two apartments, first a narrow anti-chamber, and then a general meeting-room, which was by no means so large as it should have been. However, there was a question of providing the department with better accommodation the following year, with which few some large premises under one of the inclined ways of the rosary were already being fitted up. The only article of furniture in the anti-chamber was a wooden bench on which Pierre perceived two female patients awaiting their turn in the charge of a young hospitaler. But on entering the meeting-room the number of persons packed inside had quite surprised him, whilst the suffocating heat within those wooden walls on which the sun was so fiercely playing almost scorched his face. It was a square bear-room painted a light yellow with the panes of its single window covered with whitening, so that the pressing throng outside might see nothing of what went on within. One dared not even open this window to admit a little fresh air, for it was no sooner set a jar than a crowd of inquisitive heads peeped in. The furniture was of a very rudimentary kind, consisting simply of two-deal tables of unequal height placed end to end and not even covered with a cloth. Together with a kind of big canterbury littered with untidy papers, sets of documents, registers and pamphlets, and finally some thirty rush-seated chairs placed here and there over the floor and a couple of ragged arm-chairs usually reserved for the patients. Dr. Bonami at once hastened forward to greet Dr. Shasthenye, who was one of the latest and most glorious conquests of the grotto. He found a chair for him, and bowing to Pierre's cassock also made the young priests sit down. Then, in the tone of extreme politeness which was customary with him, he exclaimed, « Mon cher confrère, you will kindly allow me to continue. We were just examining Mademoiselle. He referred to a deaf peasant girl of twenty who was seated in one of the arm-chairs. Instead of listening, however, Pierre, who was very weary, still with a buzzing in his head, contented himself with gazing at the scene, endeavouring to form some notion of the people assembled in the room. There were some fifty altogether, many of them standing and leaning against the walls. Half a dozen, however, were seated at the two tables, a central position being occupied by the superintendent of the piscinas, who was constantly consulting a thick register. Whilst around him were a father of the assumption and three young seminarists who acted as secretaries, writing, searching for documents, passing them and classifying them again after each examination. Pierre, however, took most interest in a father of the immaculate conception, Father Darjelez, who had been pointed out to him that morning as being the editor of the Journal de la Grotte. This ecclesiastic, whose thin little face with its blinking eyes, pointed nose and delicate mouth was ever smiling, had modestly seated himself at the end of the lower table where he occasionally took notes for his newspaper. He alone, of the community to which he belonged, showed himself during the three days of the national pilgrimage. Behind him, however, one could divine the presence of all the others, the slowly developed hidden power which organised everything and raked in all the proceeds. The onlookers consisted almost entirely of inquisitive people and witnesses, including a score of doctors and a few priests. The medical men who had come from all parts mostly preserved silence, only a few of them occasionally venturing to ask a question. And every now and then they would exchange oblique glances, more occupied apparently in watching one another than in verifying the facts submitted to their examination. Who could they be? Some names were mentioned, but they were quite unknown. Only one had caused any stir, that of a celebrated doctor professing at a Catholic university. That afternoon, however, Dr. Bonamie, who never sat down, busy as he was conducting the proceedings and questioning the patients, reserved most of his attentions for a short, fair-haired man, a writer of some talent who contributed to one of the most widely read Paris newspapers, and who in the course of a holiday tour had by chance reached Lourdes that morning. Was not this an unbeliever whom it might be possible to convert, whose influence it would be desirable to gain for advertisement's sake? Such at all events appeared to be Mr. Bonamie's opinion, for he had compelled the journalist to take the second armchair, and with an affectation of smiling good nature, was treating him to a full performance, again and again repeating that he and his patrons had nothing to hide, and that everything took place in the most open manner. We only desire light, he exclaimed. We never cease to call for the investigations of all willing men. Then, as the alleged cure of the deaf girl did not seem at all a promising case, he addressed her somewhat roughly. Come, come, my girl, this is only a beginning. You must come back when there are more distinct signs of improvement. And turning to the journalist he added in an undertone, if we were to believe them, they would all be healed. But the only cures we accept are those which are thoroughly proven, which are as apparent as the sun itself. Pray notice moreover that I say cures and not miracles, for we doctors do not take upon ourselves to interpret and explain. We are simply here to see if the patients who submit themselves to our examination have really lost all symptoms of their ailments. Thereupon he struck an attitude. Doubtless he spoke like this in order that his rectitude might not be called in question. Believing without believing, he knew that science was yet so obscure, so full of surprises, that what seemed impossible might always come to pass. And thus in the declining years of his life, he had contrived to secure an exceptional position at the grotto, a position which had both its inconveniences and its advantages, but which, taken for all in all, was very comfortable and pleasant. And now, in reply to a question from the Paris journalist, he began to explain his mode of proceeding. Each patient who accompanied the pilgrimage arrived provided with papers, amongst which there was almost always a certificate of the doctor who had been attending the case. At times even there were certificates given by several doctors, hospital bulletins and so forth, quite a record of the illness in its various stages. And thus if a cure took place and the cured person came forward, it was only necessary to consult his or her set of documents in order to ascertain the nature of the ailment, and then examination would show if that ailment had really disappeared. Pierre was now listening. Since he had been there seated and resting himself, he had grown calmer and his mind was clear once more. It was only the heat which at present caused him any inconvenience. And thus, interested as he was by Dr Bonamie's explanations and a desirous of forming an opinion, he would have spoken out and questioned had it not been for his cloth which condemned him to remain in the background. He was delighted therefore when the little fair-haired gentleman, the influential writer, began to bring forward the objections which at once occurred to him. Was it not most unfortunate that one doctor should diagnose the illness and that another should verify the cure? In this mode of proceeding there was certainly a source of frequent error. The better plan would have been for a medical commission to examine all the patients as soon as they arrived at Lourdes and draw up reports on every case, to which reports the same commission would have referred whenever an alleged cure was brought before it. Dr Bonamie, however, did not fall in with this suggestion. He replied with some reason that a commission would never suffice for such gigantic labour. Just think of it. A thousand patients to examine in a single morning, and how many different theories there would be, how many contrary diagnoses, how many endless discussions, all of a nature to increase the general uncertainty. The preliminary examination of the patients which was almost always impossible would, even if attempted, leave the door open for as many errors as the present system. In practice it was necessary to remain content with the certificates delivered by the medical men who had been in attendance on the patients, and these certificates accordingly acquired capital, decisive importance. Dr Bonamie ran through the documents lying on one of the tables and gave the Paris journalists some of these certificates to read. A great many of them, unfortunately, were very brief. Others, more skillfully drawn up, clearly specified the nature of the complaint. And some of the doctor's signatures were even certified by the mayors of the localities where they resided. Nevertheless, doubts remained innumerable and not to be surmounted. Who were these doctors? Who could tell if they possessed sufficient scientific authority to write as they did? With all respect to the medical profession, were there not innumerable doctors whose attainments were very limited? And besides, might not these have been influenced by circumstances that one knew nothing of, in some cases by considerations of a personal character? One was tempted to ask for an inquiry respecting each of these medical men. Since everything was based on the documents supplied by the patients, these documents ought to have been most carefully controlled. For there could be no proof of any miracle if the absolute certainty of the alleged ailments had not been demonstrated by stringent examination. Very red and covered with perspiration, Dr. Bonami waved his arms. But that is the course we follow. That is the course we follow, said he. As soon as it seems to us that a case of cure cannot be explained by natural means, we institute a minute inquiry. We request the person who has been cured to return here for further examination. And as you can see, we surround ourselves with all means of enlightenment. These gentlemen here, who are listening to us, are nearly every one of them doctors who have come from all parts of France. We always entreat them to express their doubts if they feel any, to discuss the cases with us, and a very detailed report of each discussion is drawn up. You hear me, gentlemen, by all means protest if anything occurs here of a nature to offend your sense of truth. Not one of the onlookers spoke. Most of the doctors present were undoubtedly Catholics, and naturally enough they merely bowed. As for the others, the unbelievers, the savants pure and simple, they looked on and evinced some interest in certain phenomena, but considerations of courtesy deterred them from entering into discussions which they knew would have been useless. When as men of sense their discomfort became too great, and they felt themselves growing angry, they simply left the room. As nobody breathed a word, Dr. Bonami became quite a triumphant, and on the journalist asking him if he were all alone to accomplish so much work, he replied, Yes, all alone, but my functions as doctor of the grotto are not so complicated as you may think, for, I repeat it, they simply consist in verifying cures whenever any take place. However, he corrected himself and added with a smile, Ah, I was forgetting, I am not quite alone, I have Robboin, who helps me keep things a little bit in order here. So saying, he pointed to a stout, grey-haired man of 40 with a heavy face and bulldog jaw. Robboin was an ardent believer, one of those excited beings who did not allow the miracles to be called in question, and thus he often suffered from his duties at the verification office, where he was ever ready to growl with anger when anybody disputed a prodigy. The appeal to the doctors had made him quite loose his temper and his superior had to calm him. Come, Robboin, my friend, be quiet, said Dr. Bonami. All sincere opinions are entitled to a hearing. However, the défilé of patience was resumed. A man was now brought in whose trunk was so covered with eczema that when he took off his shirt a kind of grey flower fell from his skin. He was not cured, but simply declared that he came to Lourdes every year and always went away feeling relieved. Then came a lady, a countess, who was fearfully emaciated due to whose story was an extraordinary one. Cured of tuberculosis by the Blessed Virgin a first time seven years previously, she had subsequently given birth to four children and had then again fallen into consumption. At present she was a morphinomaniac, but her first path had already relieved her so much that she proposed taking part in the torchlight procession that same evening with the twenty-seven members of her family whom she had brought with her to Lourdes. Then there was a woman afflicted with nervous aphonia who after months of absolute dumbness had just recovered her voice at the moment when the Blessed Sacrament went by at the head of the four o'clock procession. Gentlemen declared Dr Bonami affecting the graciousness of a savant of extremely liberal views. As you are aware we do not draw any conclusions when a nervous affection is in question. Still you will kindly observe that this woman was treated at the Salpêtrière for six months and that she had to come here to find her tongue suddenly loosened. Despite all these fine words he displayed some little impatience for he would have greatly liked to show the gentleman from Paris one of those remarkable instances of cure which occasionally presented themselves during the four o'clock procession. That being the moment of grace and exultation when the Blessed Virgin interceded for those whom she had chosen. But on this particular afternoon there had apparently been none. The cures which had so far passed were the ones deficient in interest. Meanwhile out of doors you could hear the stamping and roaring of the crowd goaded into a frenzy by repeated hymns enfevered by its earnest desire for the divine interposition and growing more and more innovated by the delay. All at once however a smiling modest looking young girl whose clear eyes sparkled with intelligence entered the office. Ah exclaimed Dr Bonami joyously here is our little friend Sophie a remarkable cure gentleman which took place at the same season last year and the results of which I will ask permission to show you. Pierre had immediately recognized Sophie Coutot the Miraculé who had got into the train at Poitiers and he now witnessed a repetition of the scene which had already been acted in his presence. Dr Bonami began giving detailed explanations to the little fair-haired gentleman who displayed great attention. The case said the doctor had been one of the carries of the bones healed with the commencement of necrosis necessitating excision and yet the frightful, suppurating sore had been healed in a minute at the first immersion in the piscina. Tell the gentleman how it happened Sophie he added the little girl made her usual pretty gesture as a sign to everybody to be attentive and then she began well it was like this my foot was past cure I couldn't even go to church anymore and it had to be kept bandaged there was always a lot of matter coming from it Monsieur Rivoir the doctor who had made a cut in it so as to see inside it said that he should be obliged to take out a piece of the bone and that sure enough would have made me lame for life but when I got to Lord and had prayed a great deal to the Blessed Virgin I went to dip my foot in the water wishing so much that I might be cured that I did not even take the time to pull the bandages off and everything remained in the water there was no longer anything the matter when I took it out Dr Bonami listened and punctuated each word with an approving nod and what did your doctor say Sophie he asked when I got back to Vivon and Monsieur Rivoir saw my foot again he said whether it be God or the devil who has cured this child it is all the same to me but in all truth she is cured a burst of laughter rang out the doctor's remark was sure to produce an effect and what was it Sophie that you said to Madame la Contesse the superintendent of your ward ah yes I hadn't brought many bandages for my foot with me and I said to her it was very kind of the Blessed Virgin to cure me the first day as I should have run out of linen on the morrow then there was fresh laughter a general display of satisfaction at seeing her look so pretty telling her story which she now knew by heart in two recitative manner but nevertheless remaining very touching and truthful in appearance take off your shoes Sophie now said Dr Bonamy show your foot to these gentlemen let them feel it nobody must retain any doubt the little foot promptly appeared very white very clean carefully tendered indeed with its scar just below the ankle a long scar whose whitey seemed testified to the gravity of the complaint some of the medical men had drawn near and looked on in silence others whose opinions no doubt were already formed they did not disturb themselves though one of them with an air of extreme politeness inquired why the Blessed Virgin had not made a new foot while she was about it for this would assuredly have given her no more trouble Dr Bonamy however quickly replied that if the Blessed Virgin had left a scar it was certainly in order that a trace a proof of the miracle might remain then he entered into technical particulars demonstrating that a fragment of bone and flesh must have been instantly formed and this of course would not be explained in any natural way Maudieux interrupted the little fair-haired gentleman there is no need of any such complicated affair let me merely see a finger cut with a pen knife let me see it dipped in the water and let it come out with the cut secretised the miracle will be quite as great and I shall bow to it respectfully then he added if I possessed a source which could thus close up sores and wounds I should turn the world's topsy-turvy I did not know exactly how I should manage it but at all events I would summon the nations and the nations would come I should cause the miracles to be verified in such an indisputable manner that I should be the master of the earth just think what an extraordinary power it would be a divine power but it would be necessary that not a doubt should remain the truth would have to be as patent as apparent as the sun itself the whole world would behold it and believe then he began discussing various methods of control with the doctor he had admitted that owing to the great number of patients it would be difficult if not impossible to examine them all on their arrival only why didn't they organise a special ward at the hospital a ward which would be reserved for cases of visible sores they would have 30 such cases all told which might be subjected to the preliminary examination of a committee authentic reports would be drawn up and the sores might even be photographed then if a case of cure should present itself the commission would merely have to authenticate it by a fresh report and in all this there would be no question of any internal complaint the diagnostication of which is difficult and liable to be controverted there would be visible evidence of the ailment and cure could be proved somewhat embarrassed Doctor Bonami replied no doubt, no doubt all we ask for is enlightenment the difficulty would lie informing the committee you speak of if you only knew how little medical men agree however there is certainly an idea in what you say fortunately a fresh patient now came to his assistance whilst little Sophie Coutot already forgotten was putting on her shoes again Elise Rouquet appeared and removing her wrap displayed her diseased face to view she related that she had been bathing it with her handkerchief ever since the morning and it seemed to her that her sores previously so fresh and raw seemed to dry and grow paler in colour this was true Pierre noticed with great surprise that the aspect of the sore was now less horrible this supplied fresh food for the discussion on visible sores for the little fair-haired gentleman clung obstinately to his idea of organising a special ward indeed said he if the condition of this girl had been verified that morning and she should be cured what a triumph it would have been for the grotto which could have claimed to have healed a lupus it would then have no longer been possible to deny that miracles were worked Dr Chasseigne had so far kept in the background motionless and silent as though he desired that the facts alone should exercise their influence on Pierre but he now lent forward and said to him in an undertone visible sores, visible sores indeed that gentleman can have no idea that our most learned medical men suspect many of these sores to be of nervous origin yes we are discovering that complaints of this kind are often simply due to bad nutrition of the skin these questions of nutrition are still so imperfectly studied and understood and some medical men are also beginning to prove that the faith which heals can even cure sores certain forms of lupus among others and so I would ask what certainty that gentleman would obtain with his ward for visible sores there would simply be a little more confusion and passion in arguing the eternal question no, no, science is vain it is a sea of uncertainty he smiled sorrowfully whilst Dr Bonamie after advising Elise Rourke to continue using the water as lotion and to return each day for further examination repeated with his prudent affable air at all events gentlemen there are signs of improvement in this case that is beyond doubt but all at once the office was fairly turned topsy-turvy by the arrival of La Gleeva who swept in like a whirlwind almost dancing with delight and shouting in a full voice I am cured I am cured and forthwith she began to relate that they had first of all refused to bathe her and that she had been obliged to insist and beg and sob in order to prevail upon them to do so after receiving Father Fulkard's express permission and then it had all happened as she had previously said it would she had not been immersed in the icy water for three minutes all perspiring as she was with her consumptive rattle before she had felt strength returning to her like a whip-stroke lashing her whole body and now a flaming excitement possessed her radiant stamping her feet she was unable to keep still I am cured my good gentlemen I am cured Pierre looked at her this time quite stupefied was this the same girl whom on the previous night he had seen lying on the carriage seat annihilated coughing and spitting blood with her face of ashen hue he could not recognize her as she now stood there erect and slender her cheeks rosy her eyes sparkling up buoyed by a determination to live a joy in living already gentlemen declared Dr. Bonamy the case appears to me to be a very interesting one we will see then he asked for the documents concerning like rivote but they could not be found among all the papers heaped together on the two tables the young seminerists who acted as secretaries began turning everything over and the superintendent of the piscinas who sat in their midst himself had to get up to see if these documents were in the canterbury at last when they had sat down again he found them under the register which lay open before him among them were three medical certificates which he read aloud all three of them agreed in stating that the case was one of advanced thysis complicated by nervous incidents which invested it with a peculiar character Dr. Bonamy he wagged his head as though to say that such an ensemble of testimony could leave no room for doubt forthwith he subjected the patient to a prolonged oscultation and he murmured I hear nothing then correcting himself he added at least I hear scarcely anything finally he turned towards the five and twenty or thirty doctors who were assembled there in silence well some of you gentlemen he asked kindly lend me the help of your science we are here to study and discuss these questions at first nobody stirred then there was one who ventured to come forward and in his turn subject the patient to oscultation but instead of declaring himself he continued reflecting shaking his head anxiously at last he stammered that in his opinion one must await further developments another doctor however at once took his place and this one expressed a decided opinion he could hear nothing at all that woman could never have suffered from thysis then others followed him in fact with the exception of five or six whose smiling faces remained impenetrable they all joined the défilé and the confusion now attained its uproger for each gave an opinion sensibly differing from that of his colleagues so that a general uproar arose and one could no longer hear oneself speak father Darjele is alone retained the calmness of perfect serenity where he had centered one of those cases which impassioned people and redound to the glory of our Lady of Lourdes he was already taking notes on a corner of the table thanks to all the noise of the discussion Pierre and Dr. Chasseigne seated at some distance from the others were now able to talk together without being heard oh those piscinas said the young priest I have just seen them to think that the water should be so seldom changed what filth it is what a soup of microbes what a terrible blow for the present today mania that rage for antiseptic precautions how is it that some pestilence does not carry off all these poor people the opponents of the microbe theory must be having a good laugh chasseigne stopped him no no my child said he the baths may be scarcely clean but they offer no danger please notice that the temperature of the water never rises above 50 degrees and that 77 are necessary for the cultivation of germs besides scarcely any contagious diseases come to lord neither cholera nor typhus nor variola nor measles nor scalatina we only see certain organic affections here paralysis scrophila tumours ulcers and abscesses cancers and thysis and the latter cannot be transmitted by the water of the baths the old sores which are bathed have nothing to fear and often no risk of contagion I can assure you that on this point there is even no necessity for the blessed virgin to intervene then in that case doctor rejoined pierre when you were practicing you would have dipped all your patients in icy water women at no matter what season rheumatic patients people suffering from diseases of the heart consumptives and so on for instance that unhappy girl half dead and covered with sweat would you have bathed her certainly not there are heroic methods of treatment to which in practice one does not dare to have recourse an icy bath may undoubtedly kill a consumptive but do we know whether in certain circumstances it might not save her I who have ended by admitting that a supernatural power is at work here I willingly admit that some cures must take place under natural conditions thanks to that immersion in cold water which seems to us idiotic and barbarous the things we don't know the things we don't know he was relapsing into his anger his hatred of science which he scorned since it had left him scared powerless beside the deathbed of his wife and his daughter you ask for certainties he resumed but assuredly it is not medicine which will give you them listen for a moment to those gentlemen and you will be edified is it not beautiful all that confusion in which so many opinions clash together certainly there are ailments with which one is thoroughly acquainted even to the most minute details of their evolution there are remedies also the effects of which have been studied with the most care but the thing that one does not know that one cannot know is the relation of the remedy to the ailment for there are as many cases as there may be patients each liable to variation so that experimentation begins afresh every time this is why the practice of medicine remains in art for there can be no experimental finality in it cure always depends on chance on some fortunate circumstance on some bright idea of the doctors and so you will understand that all the people who come and discuss here make me laugh when they talk about the absolute laws of science where are those laws in medicine I should like to have them shown to me he did not wish to say anymore but his passion carried him away so he went on I told you that I had become a believer nevertheless to speak the truth I understand very well why this worthy Dr. Bonami is so little affected and why he continues calling upon doctors in all parts of the world to come to his miracles the more doctors that might come the less likelihood there would be of the truth being established in the inevitable battle between contradictory diagnoses and methods of treatment if men cannot agree about a visible sore they surely cannot do so about an internal lesion the existence of which will be admitted by some and denied by others and why then should not everything become a miracle for after all whether the action comes from nature or from some unknown power as a rule nonetheless astonished when an illness terminates in a manner which they have not foreseen no doubt too things are very badly organized here those certificates from doctors whom nobody knows have no real value all documents ought to be stringently inquired into but even admitting any absolute scientific strictness you must be very simple my dear child if you imagine that a positive conviction would be arrived at absolute for one and all error is implanted in man and there is no more difficult task than that of demonstrating to universal satisfaction the most insignificant truth pier had now begun to understand what was taking place at lord the extraordinary spectacle which the world had been witnessing for years amidst the devout adoration of some and the insulting laughter of others forces as yet but imperfectly studied of which one was even ignorant was certainly at work auto suggestion long prepared disturbance of the nerves in spiriting influence of the journey the prayers and the hymns and especially the healing breath the unknown force which was evolved from the multitude in the acute crisis of faith thus it seemed to him anything but intelligent to believe in trickery the facts were both of a much more lofty and a much more simple nature there was no occasion for the fathers of the grotto to descend to falsehood it was sufficient that they should help in creating confusion that they should utilize the universal ignorance it might even be admitted that everybody acted in good faith the doctors void of genius who delivered the certificates the consuls patients who believed themselves cured and the impassioned witnesses who swore that they had beheld what they described and from all this was evolved the obvious impossibility of proving whether there was a miracle or not and such being the case did not the miracle naturally become a reality for the greater number for all those who suffered and who had no need of hope then as Dr. Bonamy who had noticed that they were chatting apart came up to them Pierre ventured to inquire what is about the proportion of the cures to the number of cases about 10% answered the doctor and reading in the young priest's eyes the words that he could not utter he added in a very cordial way oh but there would be many more they would all be cured if we chose to listen to them but it is as well to say it it is easier to keep an eye on the miracles like a policeman as it were my only functions are to check excessive zeal and to prevent holy things from being made ridiculous in one word this office is simply an office where a visa is given when the cures have been verified and seem real ones he was interrupted however by a low growl the cures verified the cures verified he muttered what is the use of that of the miracles what is the use of verifying them so far as believers are concerned they merely have to bow down and believe and what is the use too as regards the unbelievers they will never be convinced the work we do here is so much foolishness Dr Bonamie severely ordered him to hold his tongue you are a rebel robboin said he I shall tell Father Cap de Barth that I won't have you here any longer since you pass your time in sowing disobedience nevertheless there was truth in what had just been said by this man who so promptly showed his teeth eager to bite whenever his faith was assailed and Pierre looked at him with sympathy all the work of the verification office work anything but well performed was indeed useless for it wounded the feelings of the pious and failed to satisfy the incredulous besides can a miracle be proved no you must believe in it when God is pleased to intervene it is not for man to try to understand in the ages of real belief science did not make any meddlesome attempt to explain the nature of the divinity and why should it come and interfere here by doing so it simply hampered faith and diminished its own prestige no there must be no science you must throw yourself upon the ground kiss it and believe or else you must take yourself off no compromise was possible if examination once began it must go on and must fatally conduct to doubt Pierre's greatest sufferings however came from the extraordinary conversations which he heard around him there were some believers present who spoke of the miracles with the most amazing ease and tranquility the most stupefying stories left their serenity entire another miracle and yet another and with smiles on their faces their reason never protesting they went on relating such imaginings as could only have come from diseased brains they were evidently living in such a state of visionary fever that nothing henceforth could astonish them and not only did Pierre notice this among folks of simple childish minds illiterate hallucinated creatures like Rabouin but also among the men of intellect the men with cultivated brains the savans like Dr Bonamy and others it was incredible and thus Pierre felt a growing discomfort arising within him a covert anger which would doubtless end by bursting forth his reason was struggling like that of some after being flung into a river feels the waters seize him from all sides and stifle him and he reflected that the minds which like Dr Chacens sink at last into blind belief must pass through this same discomfort and struggle before the final shipwreck he glanced at his old friend and saw how sorrowful he looked struck down by destiny as weak as a crying child and henceforth quite alone in life nevertheless he was unable to check for a test which rose to his lips no, no if we do not know everything even if we shall never know everything there is no reason why we should leave off learning it is wrong that the unknown should profit by man's debility and ignorance on the contrary the eternal hope should be that the things which now seem inexplicable will someday be explained and we cannot under healthy conditions have any other ideal than this march towards the discovery of the unknown this victory slowly achieved by reason amidst all the miseries both of the flesh and of the mind ah, reason it is my reason which makes me suffer and it is from my reason too that I await all my strength when reason dies the whole being perishes and I feel but an ardent thirst to satisfy my reason more and more even though I may lose all happiness in doing so tears were appearing in Dr Chacens eyes doubtless the memory of his dear dead ones then flashed upon him and in his turn he murmured reason, reason, yes certainly it is a thing to be very proud of it embodies the very dignity of life but there is love which is life's omnipotence the one blessing to be won again when you have lost it his voice sank in a stifled sob and as in a mechanical way he began to finger the sets of documents lying on the table he aspired among them one whose cover bore the name of Marie de Gersin in large letters he opened it and read the certificates of the two doctors who had inferred that the case was one of paralysis of the marrow come my child he then resumed I know that you feel warm affection for Mademoiselle de Gersin what should you say if she were cured here there are here some certificates bearing honourable names and you know that paralysis of this nature is virtually incurable well if this young person should all at once run and jump about as I have seen so many doctors do would you not feel very happy would you not at last acknowledge the intervention of a supernatural power Pierre was about to reply when he suddenly remembered his cousin Beau Claire's expression of opinion the prediction that the miracle would come about like a lightning stroke an awakening an exultation of the whole being and he felt his discomfort increase and contented himself with the replying yes indeed I should be very happy and you are right there is doubtless only a determination to secure happiness in all the agitation one beholds here however he could remain in that office no longer the heat was becoming so great that perspiration streamed down the faces of those present Dr. Bonamy had begun to dictate a report of the examination of L'Agrivote to one of the seminarists well Father Darjelez watchful with regards to the expressions employed occasionally rose and whispered in his ear so as to make him modify some sentence meantime the tumult around them was continuing the discussion among the medical men had taken another turn and now bore on certain technical points of no significance with regard to the case in question you could no longer breathe within those wooden walls nausea was upsetting every heart and every head the little fair-haired gentleman the influential writer from Paris had already gone away quite vexed at not having seen a real miracle Pierre thereupon said to Dr. Chasseigne let us go I shall be taken ill if I stay here any longer they left the office at the same time as L'Agrivote who was at last being dismissed and as soon as they reached the door they found themselves caught in a torrential surging jostling crowd which was eager to behold the girl so miraculously healed for the report of the miracle must have already spread and one and all was struggling to see the chosen one question her and touch her and she with her impurpled cheeks her flaming eyes her dancing gate could do nothing but repeat I am cured I am cured shouts drowned her voice she herself was submerged carried off amidst the eddies of the throng for a moment one lost sight of her as though she had sunk in those tumultuous waters then she suddenly reappeared close to Pierre and the doctor who endeavored to extricate her from the crush they had just perceived the commander one of whose manias was to come down to the piscinas and to the grotto in order to vent his anger there with his frock coat tightly girding him in military fashion he was as usual leaning on his silver-nobbed walking stick slightly dragging his left leg which his second attack of paralysis had stiffened and his face reddened and his eyes flashed with anger when la grivotte pushing him aside in order that she might pass repeated amidst the wild enthusiasm of the crowd I am cured I am cured well he cried seized with sudden fury so much the worse for you my girl exclamations arose folks began to laugh for he was well known and his maniacal passion for death was forgiven him however when he began stammering confused words saying that it was pitiful to desire life when one was possessed of neither beauty nor fortune and that this girl ought to have preferred to die at once rather than suffer again people began to growl around him and Abbey Juden who was passing had to extricate him from his trouble the priest drew him away be quiet my friend be quiet it is scandalous why do you rebel like this against the goodness of God who occasionally shows his compassion for our sufferings by alleviating them I tell you again that you yourself ought to fall on your knees and beg him to restore to you the use of your leg and let you live another 10 years the commander almost choked with anger what he replied asked to live for another 10 years when my finest day will be the day I die show myself as spiritless as cowardly as the thousands of patients whom I see pass along here full of a base terror of death shrieking aloud their weakness their passion to remain alive oh no I should feel too much contempt for myself I want to die to die at once it will be so delightful to be no more he was at last out of the scramble of the pilgrims and again found himself near Dr. Chassani and Pierre on the bank of the garve and he addressed himself to the doctor whom he often met didn't they try to restore a dead man to life just now he asked I was told of it it almost suffocated me hey doctor you understand that man was happy enough to be dead and they dared to dip him in their water in the criminal hope of making him live again but suppose they had succeeded suppose their water had animated that poor devil once more for one never knows what may happen in this funny world don't you think that the man would have had a perfect right to spit his anger in the face of those corpse-menders had he asked them to awaken him how did they know if he were not well pleased at being dead folks ought to be consulted at any rate just picture them playing the same vile trick on me when I at last fall into the great deep sleep I would give them a nice reception meddle with what concerns you I should say and you may be sure I should make all haste to die again he looked so singular in the fit of rage which had come over him that Abbey Juden and the doctor could not help smiling Pierre, however, remained grave chilled by the great quiver which swept by were not those words he had just heard the despairing implications of Lazarus he had often imagined Lazarus emerging from the tomb and crying aloud why hast thou again awakened me to this abominable life, oh Lord I was sleeping the eternal dreamless sleep so deeply I was at last enjoying such sweet repose amidst the delights of nihility I had known every wretchedness I had known every wretchedness and every doleur treachery, vain hope, defeat, sickness as one of the living I had paid my frightful debt to suffering for I was born without knowing why and I lived without knowing how and now behold, oh Lord thou requirest me to pay my debt yet again thou condemnest me to serve my term of punishment afresh have I then been guilty of some inexpeable transgression that thou shouldst inflict such cruel chastisement upon me alas, to live again to feel oneself die a little in one's flesh each day to have no intelligence save such as is required in order to doubt no will save such as one must have to be unable no tenderness save such as is needed to weep over one's own sorrows yet it was past I had crossed the terrifying threshold of death I had known that second which is so horrible that it suffices to poison the whole of life I had felt the sweat of agony cover me with moisture the blood flow back from my limbs my breath forsake me flee away in a last casp and thou ordainest that I should know this distress a second time that I should die twice that my human misery should exceed that of all mankind then may it be even now oh Lord yes I entreat thee do also this great miracle may I once more lay myself down in this grave and again fall asleep without suffering from the interruption of my eternal slumber have mercy upon me and forbear from inflicting on me the torture of living yet again that torture which is so frightful that thou hast never inflicted it on any being I have always loved thee and served thee and I beseech thee do not make of me the greatest example of thy wrath a cause of terror unto all generations but show unto me thy gentleness and loving kindness oh Lord restore unto me the slumber I have earned and let me sleep once more in the light of thy nihility while Pierre was pondering in this wise Abbey-Judain had led the commander away at last managing to calm him and now the young priest shook hands with Dr. Chasseigne recollecting that it was past five o'clock and that Marie must be waiting for him on his way back to the grotto however he encountered the Abbey-de-Hain-Oise deep in conversation with Monsieur de Guercin who had only just left his room at the hotel and was quite enlivened by his good nap he and his companion were admiring the extraordinary beauty which the fervour of faith imparted to some women's countenances and they also spoke of their projected trip to the Sire de Gavarni on learning however that Marie had taken a first bath with no effect Monsieur de Guercin had once followed Pierre they found the poor girl still in the same painful stupor with her eyes still fixed on the blessed virgin who had not danged to hear her she did not answer the loving words which her father addressed to her but simply glanced at him with her large distressful eyes and then again turned them upon the marble statue which looked so white amid the radiance of the tapers and whilst Pierre stood waiting to take her back to the hospital Monsieur de Guercin devoutly fell upon his knees at first he prayed with passionate ardour for his daughter's cure and then he solicited on his own behalf the favour of finding some wealthy person who would provide him with the million of francs that he needed for his studies on aerial navigation end of section 9 section 10 of Lourdes this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please contact LibriVox.org Lourdes by Émile Zola translated by Ernest Visatelli the second day 5. Bernadette's Trials about 11 o'clock that night leaving Monsieur de Guercin in his room at the Hotel of the Apparitions it occurred to Pierre to return for a moment to the Hospital of Our Lady of Delour before going to bed himself he had left Marie in such a despairing state so fiercely silent that he was full of anxiety about her and when he had asked for Madame de Junquier at the room of the Saint-Honorine Ward he became yet more anxious for the news was by no means good the young girl said the superintendent had not even opened her mouth she would answer nobody and had even refused to eat Madame de Junquier insisted therefore that Pierre should come in true the presence of men was forbidden in the women's wards at night time but then a priest is not a man she only cares for you and will only listen to you said the worthy lady pray come in and sit down near her till Abbey Judaine arrives he will come at about one in the morning to administer the communion to our more afflicted sufferers those who cannot move and who have to eat at daybreak you will be able to assist him Pierre thereupon followed Madame de Junquier who installed him at the head of Marie's bed my dear child she said to the girl I have brought you somebody who is very fond of you you will be able to chat with him and you will be reasonable now won't you Marie however on recognising Pierre gazed at him with an air of exasperated suffering a black stern expression of revolt would you like him to read something to you resumed Madame de Junquier something that would ease and console him as he did in the train no it wouldn't interest you you don't care for it well we will see by and by I will leave him with you and I am sure you will be quite reasonable again in a few minutes Pierre then began speaking to her in a low voice saying all the kind consoling things that his heart could think of and in treating her not to allow herself to sink into such despair if the Blessed Virgin had not cured her on the first day it was because she reserved her for some conspicuous miracle but he spoke in vain Marie had turned her head away and did not even seem to listen as she lay there with a bitter expression on her mouth and a gleam of irritation in her eyes which wandered away into space accordingly he ceased speaking and began to gaze at the ward around him the spectacle was a frightful one never before had such a nausea of pity and terror affected his heart they had long since dined nevertheless plates of food which had been brought up from the kitchen still lay about the beds and all through the night there were some who ate whilst others continued restlessly moaning asking to be turned over or helped out of bed as the hours went by a kind of vague delirium seemed to come upon almost all of them very few were able to sleep quietly some had been undressed and were lying between the sheets but the greater number were simply stretched out on the beds it being so difficult to get their clothes off that they did not even change their linen during the five days of the pilgrimage in the semi obscurity moreover the obstruction of the ward seemed to have increased to the fifteen beds ranged along the walls and the seven mattresses filling the central space some fresh pallets had been added and on all sides there was confused litter of ragged garments old baskets, boxes and valises indeed you no longer knew where to sleep two smoky lanterns shed but a dim light upon this encampment of dying women in which a sickly smell prevailed for instead of any freshness merely the heavy heat of the August night came in through the two windows which had been left ajar Nightmare like shadows and cries sped to and fro peepling this inferno amidst the nocturnal agony of all the accumulated suffering however Pierre recognised Raymond who, her duties over, had come to kiss her mother therefore going to sleep in one of the garrets reserved to the sisters of the hospital for her own part Madame de Jean-Chières taking her functions to heart did not close her eyes during the three nights spent at Lourdes she certainly had an armchair in which to rest herself but she never sat down in it for a moment without being disturbed it must be admitted that she was bravely seconded by little Madame des Agneaux who displayed such enthusiastic zeal that Sister Ier Saint asked her with a smile don't you take the vows whereupon she responded with an air of scared surprise oh I can't I'm married you know and I'm very fond of my husband as for Madame de Jean-Chières she had not even shown herself but it was alleged that Madame de Jean-Chières had sent her to bed on hearing her complain of a frightful headache and this had put Madame des Agneaux in quite a temper for as she sensibly enough remarked a person had no business to offer to nurse the sick when the slightest exertion exhausted her she herself however at last began to feel her legs and arms aching though she would not admit it but hastened to every patient whom she heard calling ever ready to lend a helping hand in Paris she would have wrung for a servant rather than have moved a candlestick herself but here she was ever coming and going bringing and emptying basins and passing her arms around patients to hold them up whilst Madame de Jean-Chières slipped pillows behind them however shortly after eleven o'clock she was all at once overpowered having imprudently stretched herself in the armchair for a moment's rest she there fell soundly asleep her pretty head sinking on one of her shoulders amidst her lovely wavy fair hair which was all in disorder and from that moment neither moan nor call indeed no sound whatever could awaken her Madame de Jean-Chières however had softly approached the young priest again I had an idea said she in a low voice the geron the house surgeon you know who accompanies us he would have given the poor girl something to calm her only he is busy downstairs trying to relieve brother Isidore in the family ward besides as you know we are not supposed to give medical attendants here our work consists in placing our dear sick ones in the hands of the blessed virgin Sister Yia Sainte who had made up her mind to spend the night with the superintendent now drew near I had just come from the family ward I went to take Monsieur Sabatier some oranges which I had promised him and I saw Monsieur Ferrand who had just succeeded in reviving brother Isidore would you like me to go down and fetch him but Pierre declined the offer no no he replied Marie will be sensible I will read her a few consoling pages by and by and then she will rest for the moment however the girl still remained obstinately silent one of the two lanterns was hanging from the wall close by and Pierre could distinctly see her thin face rigid and emotionless like stone then farther away in the adjoining bed he perceived Elise Rouquet who was sound asleep and no longer wore her fissue but openly displayed her face the ulcerations of which still continued to grow paler and on the young priests left hand was Madame Vitu now greatly weakened in a hopeless state unable to doze off for a moment shaken as she was by a continuous rattle he said a few kind words to her for which she thanked him with a nod and gathering her remaining strength together she was at last able to say there were several cures today I was very pleased to hear of them on a mattress at the foot of her bed was like Livot who in a fever of extraordinary activity kept on sitting up to repeat her favorite phrase I am cured I am cured and she went on to relate that she had eaten half a fowl for dinner she who had been unable to eat for long months past then too she had followed the torchlight procession on foot during nearly a couple of hours and she would certainly have danced till daybreak had the Blessed Virgin only been pleased to give a ball and once more she repeated I am cured yes cured quite cured thereupon Madame Vitu found enough strength to say with childlike serenity and perfect gladsome abnegation the Blessed Virgin did well to cure her since she is poor I am better pleased than if it had been myself for I have my little shop to depend on and can wait we each have our turn each our turn one and all displayed a like charity a like pleasure that others should have been cured seldom indeed was any jealousy shown they surrendered themselves to a kind of epidemical beatitude to a contagious hope that they would all be cured whenever it should so please the Blessed Virgin and it was necessary that she should not be offended by any undue impatience for assuredly she had her reasons and knew right well why she began by healing some rather than others thus with the fraternity born of common suffering and hope the most grievously afflicted patients prayed for the cure of their neighbours none of them ever dispaired each fresh miracle was the promise of another one of the one which would be worked on themselves their faith remained unshakable a story was told of a paralytic woman some farm servant who with extraordinary strength of will had contrived to take a few steps at the grotto and who while being conveyed back to the hospital had asked to be set down that she might return to the grotto on foot but she had gone only half the distance when she had staggered, panting and livid and on being brought to the hospital on a stretcher she had died there cured however said her neighbours in the ward each indeed had her turn the Blessed Virgin forgot none of her dear daughters unless it were her design to grant some chosen one immediate admission into Paradise all at once at the moment when Pierre was leaning towards her again offering to read to her Marie burst into furious sobs letting her head fall upon her friend's shoulder she vented all her rebellion in a low terrible voice amidst the vague shadows of that awful room she had experienced what seldom happened to her a collapse of faith a sudden loss of courage of the suffering being who can no longer wait such was her despair indeed that she even became sacrilegious no no she stammered the Virgin is cruel she is unjust for she did not cure me just now yet I felt so certain that she would grant my prayer I had prayed to her so fervently I shall never be cured now that the first day has passed it was a Saturday and I was convinced that I should be cured on a Saturday I did not want to speak and, oh, prevent me for my heart is too full and I might say more than I ought to do with fraternal hands he had quickly taken hold of her head and he was endeavouring to stifle the cry of her rebellion be quiet Marie I entreat you it would never do for anyone to hear you you so pious do you want to scandalise every soul but in spite of her efforts she was unable to keep silence I should stifle speak out she said I no longer love her, no longer believe in her the tales which are related here are all falsehoods there is nothing she does not even exist since she does not hear when one speaks to her and sobs if you only knew all that I said to her oh I want to go away at once take me away carry me away in your arms so that I may go and die in the street where the passes by at least will take pity on my sufferings she was growing weak again and had once more fallen on her back stammering, talking childishly besides nobody loves me she said my father was not even there and you my friend forsook me when I saw that it was another who was taking me to the pisciness I began to feel a chill yes that chill of doubt which I often felt in Paris and that is at least certain I doubted perhaps indeed that is why she did not cure me she prayed well enough I am not pious enough, no doubt she was no longer blaspheming but seeking for excuses to explain the non-intervention of heaven however her face retained an angry expression amidst this struggle which she was waging with the supreme power that power which she had loved so well and treated so fervently but which had not obeyed her when on rare occasions a fit of rage of this description broke out in the ward and the sufferers lying on their beds their fate sobbing and lamenting and at times even swearing the lady hospitalers and the sisters somewhat shocked would content themselves with simply closing the bed curtains Grace had departed one must await its return and at last sometimes after long hours the rebellious complaints would die away and peace would reign again amidst the deep woeful silence calm yourself calm yourself I implore you Pierre gently repeated to Marie that her attack was coming upon her an attack of doubt in herself of fear that she was unworthy of the divine assistance Sister Ier Saint moreover had again drawn near you will not be able to take the sacrament by and by my dear child said she if you continue in such a state come since we have given Monsieur Labib permission to read to you why don't you let him do so Marie made a feeble gesture as though to say that she consented and Pierre at once took out of the valise foot of her bed the little blue covered book in which the story of Bernadette was so naively related as on the previous night however when the train was rolling on he did not confine himself to the bold phraseology of the book but began improvising relating all manner of details in his own fashion in order to charm the simple folks who listened to him nevertheless with his reasoning analytical proclivities he could not prevent himself from secretly re-establishing the real facts imparting for himself alone a human character to this legend whose wealth of prodigies contributed so greatly to the cure of those that suffered women were soon sitting up on all the surrounding beds they wished to hear the continuation of the story for the thought of the sacrament which they were passionately awaiting had prevented almost all of them from getting to sleep and seated there in the pale light of the lantern hanging from the wall above him Pierre little by little raised his voice so that he might be heard by the whole ward the persecutions began with the very first miracles called a liar and a lunatic Bernadette was threatened with imprisonment Abé Péramal the parish priest of Lourdes and Monseigneur Laurence Bishop of Talbe like the rest of the clergy refrained from all intervention waiting the course of events with the greatest prudence whilst the civil authorities the prefect the public prosecutor the mayor and the commissary of police indulged in religious zeal continuing his perusal in this fashion Pierre saw the real story rise up before him with invincible force his mind traveled a short distance backward and he beheld Bernadette at the time of the first apparitions so candid so charming in her ignorance and good faith amidst all her sufferings and she was truly the visionary the saint her face assuming an expression of superhuman beauty during her crises of ecstasy her brow beamed her features seemed to ascend her eyes were bathed with light whilst her parted lips burnt with divine love and then her whole person became majestic it was in a slow stately way that she made the sign of the cross with gestures which seemed to embrace the whole horizon the neighbouring valleys the villages the towns spoke of Bernadette alone although the lady had not yet told her name she was recognized and people said it is she the blessed virgin on the first market day so many people flocked into lord that the town quite overflowed all wished to see the blessed child whom the queen of the angels had chosen and who became so beautiful when the heavens opened to her and raptured gaze the crowd on the banks of the garve grew larger each morning and thousands of people ended by installing themselves there jostling one another that they might lose nothing of the spectacle as soon as Bernadette appeared a murmur of fervor spread here is the saint the saint the saint folks rushed forward to kiss her garments she was a messiah the eternal messiah whom the nations await and the need of whom is ever arising from generation to generation and moreover it was ever the same adventure beginning afresh an apparition of the virgin to a shepardess a voice exhorting the world to penitence a spring gushing forth and miracles astonishing and enrapturing the crowds that hastened to the spot in larger and larger numbers ah those first miracles of lord what a springtide flowering of consolation at hope they brought to the hearts of the wretched upon whom poverty and sickness were preying old bourriettes restored eyesight little boo or alls resuscitation in the icy water the death recovering their hearing the lame suddenly enabled to walk and so many other cases Blaise Momus Bernad Soubi Auguste Bold Blaise Soupen Benoit Casa in turn cured of the most dreadful ailments became the subject of endless conversations and found the illusions of all those who suffered either in their hearts or their flesh on Thursday March 4 the last day of the 15 visits solicited by the virgin there were more than 20,000 persons assembled before the grotto everybody indeed had come down from the mountains and this immense throng found at the grotto the divine food that it hungered for a feast of the marvellous a sufficient mead of the impossible to content its belief in a superior power which deigned to bestow some attention upon poor folks and to intervene in the wretched affairs of this lower world in order to reestablish some measure of justice and kindness it was indeed the cry of heavenly charity bursting forth the invisible helping hand stretched out at last to dress the eternal sores of humanity that dream in which each successive generation sought refuge with what indestructible energy did it not arise among the disinherited ones of this world as soon as it found a favourable spot prepared by circumstances and for centuries perhaps circumstances had never so combined to kindle the mystical fire of faith as they did at Lord a new religion was about to be founded and persecutions at once began for religions only spring up amidst vexations and rebellions and even as it was long ago at Jerusalem when the tidings of miracles spread the civil authorities the public prosecutor, the justice of the peace the mayor and particularly the prefect of Talb were all roused and began to bestow themselves the prefect was a sincere catholic a worshipper, a man of perfect honour but he also had the firm mind of a public functionary was a passionate defender of order and a declared adversary of fanaticism which gives birth to disorder and religious perversion under his orders at Lord there was a commissary of police a man of great intelligence and shrewdness who had hitherto discharged his functions in a very proper way and who legitimately enough beheld in this affair of the apparitions an opportunity to put his gift of sagacious skill to the proof so the struggle began and it was this commissary who on the first Sunday in Lent at the time of the first apparitions offered his office in order that he might question her he showed himself affectionate then angry, then threatening but all in vain the answers which the girl gave him were ever the same the story which she related with its slowly accumulated details had little by little irrevocably implanted itself in her infantile mind and it was no lie on the part of this poor suffering creature this exceptional victim of hysteria but an unconscious haunting a radical lack of willpower from her original hallucination she knew not how to exert any such will she could not, she would not exert it ah the poor child, the dear child so amiable and so gentle so incapable of any evil thought from that time forward lost to life crucified by her fixed idea whence one could only have extricated her by changing her environment by restoring her to the open air in some land of daylight and human affection but she was the chosen one who held the virgin she would suffer from it her whole life long and die from it at last Pierre who knew Bernadette so well and who felt a fraternal pity for her memory the fervent compassion with which one regards a human saint a simple upright charming creature tortured by her faith allowed his emotion to appear in his moist eyes and trembling voice and a pause in his narrative ensued Marie who had hitherto been lying there quite stiff a hard expression of revolt still upon her face opened her clenched hands and made a vague gesture of pity ah, she murmured the poor child all alone to contend against those magistrates and so innocent, so proud so unshakable in her championship of the truth the same compassionate sympathy was arising from all the beds in the ward that hospital inferno with its nocturnal wretchedness its pestilential atmosphere its pallets of anguish heaped together lady-hospitalers and sisters flitting phantom-like hither and thither now seemed to be illumined by a ray of divine charity was not the eternal illusion of happiness rising once more amidst tears and unconscious falsehoods poor, poor Bernadette all waxed indignant at the thought of the persecutions which she had endured in defence of her faith then Pierre resuming his story related all that the child had had to suffer after being questioned by the commissary he had to appear before the judges of the local tribunal the entire magistracy pursued her and endeavoured to ring a retraction from her but the obstinacy of her dream was stronger than the common sense of all the civil authorities put together two doctors who were sent by the prefect to make a careful examination of the girl came like all doctors would have done to the honest opinion that it was a case of nervous trouble of which the asthma was a sure sign and which in certain circumstances might have induced visions this nearly led to her removal and confinement in a hospital at Talb but public exasperation was feared a bishop had fallen on his knees before her some ladies had sought to buy favours from her for gold moreover she had found a refuge with the sisters of Nevers who tended the aged in the town asylum and there she made her first communion and was with difficulty taught to read and write as the blessed virgin seemed to have chosen her solely to work the happiness of others and she herself had not been cured it was very sensibly decided to take her to the bars of Côtre which were so near at hand however they did her no good and no sooner had she returned to Lourdes than the torture of being questioned and adored by a whole people began afresh became aggravated and filled her more and more with horror of the world her life was over already she would be a playful child no more she could never be a young girl dreaming of a husband, a young wife kissing the cheeks of sturdy children she had beheld the virgin she was the chosen one, the martyr if the virgin, said believers had confided three secrets to her investing her with the triple armour as it were it was simply in order to sustain her in her appointed course the clergy had for a long time remained aloof on its own side full of doubt and anxiety Abbe Péramal, the parish priest of Lourdes was a man of somewhat blunt ways but full of infinite kindness rectitude and energy whenever he found himself in what he thought the right path on the first occasion when Bel Nadet visited him he received this child who had been brought up at Barthress and had not yet been seen at Catechism almost as sternly as the commissary of police had done in fact he refused to believe her story and with some irony told her to entreat the lady to begin by making the Eglentine blossom beneath her feet which by the way the lady never did and if the Abbe ended by taking the child under his protection like a good pastor who defends his flock it was simply through the advent of persecution and the talk of imprisoning this puny child whose clear eyes shone so frankly and who clung with such modest gentle stubbornness to her original tale besides, why should he have continued denying the miracle after merely doubting it like a prudent priest who had no desire to see religion mixed up in any suspicious affair Holy writ is full of prodigies all dogma is based on the mysterious and that being so there was nothing to prevent him, a priest from believing that the virgin had really entrusted Bernadette with a pious message for him an injunction to build a church with that the faithful would repair in procession thus it was that he began loving and defending Bernadette for her charm's sake whilst still refraining from active interference awaiting as he did the decision of his bishop this bishop, Monseigneur Laurence seemed to have shut himself up in his episcopal residence at Talbe locking himself within it and preserving absolute silence as though there were nothing occurring at Lourdes of a nature to interest him he had given strict instructions to his clergy and so far not a priest had appeared among the vast crowds of people who spent their days before the grotto he waited and even allowed the prefect to state in his administrative circulars that the civil and the religious authorities were acting in concert in reality he cannot have believed in the apparitions of the grotto of Massabiel which he doubtless considered to be the mere hallucinations of a sick child this affair which was revolutionising the region was of sufficient importance for him to have had it studied day by day and the manner in which he disregarded it for so long a time shows how little inclined he was to admit the truth of the alleged miracles and how greatly he desired to avoid compromising the church in a matter which was destined to end badly with all his piety Monseigneur Lawrence had a cool practical intellect which enabled him to govern his diocese with great good sense impatient and ardent people nicknamed him Saint Thomas at the time on account of the manner in which his doubts persisted until events at last forced his hand indeed he turned a deaf ear to all the stories that were being related firmly resolved as he was that he would only listen to them if it should appear certain that religion had nothing to lose however the persecutions were about to become more pronounced the minister of worship in Paris who had been informed of what was going on required that a stop should be put to all disorders and so the prefect caused the approaches to the grotto to be occupied by the military the grotto had already been decorated with vases of flowers offered by the zeal of the faithful and the gratitude of sufferers who had been healed money moreover was thrown into it gifts to the blessed virgin abounded rudimentary improvements too were carried out in a spontaneous way some quarrymen cut a kind of reservoir to receive the miraculous water and others removed the large blocks of stone and traced a path in the hillside however in presence of the swelling torrents of people the prefect after announcing his idea of arresting Bernadette took the serious resolution of preventing all access to the grotto by placing a strong palisade in front of it some regrettable incidents had lately occurred the children pretended that they had seen the devil some of them being guilty of simulation in this respect whilst others had given way to real attacks of hysteria in the contagious nervous unhinging which was so prevalent but what a terrible business did the removal of the offerings from the grotto prove? it was only towards evening that the commissary was able to find a girl willing to let him have a cart on hire and two hours later this girl fell from a loft and broke one of her ribs in the same way a man who had lent an axe had his feet crushed on the morrow by the fall of a block of stone it was in the midst of jeers and hisses that the commissary carried off the pots of flowers the tapers which he found burning the coppers and the silver hearts which lay upon the sand people clenched their fists and covertly called him thief and murderer then the posts for the palisades were planted in the ground and the rails were nailed to the crossbars no little labour being performed in order to shut off the mystery in order to bar access to the unknown and put the miracles in prison and the civil authorities were simple enough to imagine that it was all over that those few bits of boarding would suffice to stay the poor people who hungered for illusion and hope but as soon as the new religion was proscribed forbidden by the laws and offence it began to burn with an inextinguishable flame in the depths of every soul the believers came to the river bank in far greater numbers fell upon their knees that a short distance from the grotto and sobbed aloud as they gazed at the forbidden heaven and the sick the poor ailing folks who were forbidden to seek a cure rushed on the grotto despite all prohibitions slipped in wherever they could find an aperture or climbed over the palings when their strength enabled them to do so in the one ardent desire to steal a little of the water what there was a prodigious water in that grotto which restored the sight of the blind which set the infirm erect upon their legs again which instantaneously healed all ailments and there were officials cruel enough to put that water under lock and key so that it might not cure any more poor people why it was monstrous and a cry of hatred arose from all the humble ones all the disinherited ones who had as much need of the marvellous as a bread to live in accordance with the municipal decree the names of all delinquents were to be taken by the police and thus one soon beheld a woeful defile of old women and lame men summoned before the justice of the peace for the sole offence of taking a little water from the fount of life they stammered and intreated at their wits end when a fine was imposed upon them and outside the crowd was growling rageful unpopularity was gathering around those magistrates who treated human wretchedness so harshly those pitiless masters who after taking all the wealth of the world would not even leave to the poor their dream of the realms beyond life that a beneficent superior power took a maternal interest in them and was ready to endow them with peace of soul and health of body one day a whole band of poverty stricken and ailing folks went to the mayor knelt down in his courtyard and implored him with sobs to allow the grotto to be reopened and the words they spoke were so pitiful that all who heard them wept a mother showed her child who was half dead would they let the little one die like that in her arms a false yonder which had saved the children of other mothers a blind man called attention to his dim eyes a pale scrofulous youth displayed the sores on his legs a paralytic woman sought to join her woeful twisted hands did the authorities wish to see them all perish did they refuse them the last divine chance of life condemned and abandoned as they were by the science of man and equally great was the distress of the believers convinced that a corner of heaven had opened amidst the night of their mournful existences and who were indignant that they should be deprived of the chimerical delight the supreme relief for their human and social sufferings which they found in the belief that the blessed virgin had indeed come down from heaven to bring them the priceless balm of her intervention however the mayor was unable to promise anything and the crowd withdrew weeping ready for rebellion as though under the blow of some great act of injustice an act of idiotic cruelty towards the humble and the simple for which heaven would assuredly take vengeance the struggle went on for several months and it was an extraordinary spectacle which these sensible men the minister the prefect and the commissary of police presented all animated with the best intentions and contending against the ever swelling crowd of despairing ones who would not allow the doors of dreamland to be closed upon them who would not be shut off from the mystic glimpse of future happiness in which they found a consolation for their present rigidness the authorities required order the respect of a discreet religion the triumph of reason whereas the need of happiness carried the people off into an enthusiastic desire for cure both in this world and in the next oh to cease suffering to secure equality in the comforts of life to march on under the protection of a just and beneficent mother to die only to awaken in heaven and necessarily the burning desire of the multitude the holy madness of the universal joy was destined to sweep aside the rigid morose conceptions of a well-regulated society in which the ever-recurring epidemical attacks of religious hallucination are condemned as prejudicial to good order and healthiness of mind the Saint Honoreen ward on hearing the story likewise revolted Pierre again had to pause for many were the stifled exclamations in which the commissary of police was likened to Satan and Herod the revolt had set up upon her mattress stammering oh the monsters to behave like that to the blessed virgin who has cured me and even Madame Vitu once more penetrated by a ray of hope amidst the covert certainty she felt that she was going to die grew angry at the idea that the grotto would not have existed had the prefect won the day there would have been no pilgrimages she said we should not be here hundreds of us would not be cured every year a fit of her however and sister ear saint had to raise her to a sitting posture Madame de j'enquière was profiting by the interruption to attend to a young woman afflicted with a spinal complaint whilst two other women unable to remain on their beds so unbearable was the heat prowled about with short silent steps looking quite white in the misty darkness and from the far end of the ward where all was black there resounded a noise of painful breathing which had been going on without a pause accompanying Pierre's narrative like a rattle Elise Rouquet alone was sleeping peacefully still stretched upon her back and displaying her disfigured countenance which was slowly drying Midnight had struck a quarter of an hour previously and Abbey Juden might arrive at any moment for the communion Grace was now again descending into Marie's heart and she was convinced that if the Blessed Virgin had refused to cure her it was indeed her own fault in having doubted the piscina and she therefore repented of her rebellion as of a crime could she ever be forgiven her pale face sank down among her beautiful fair hair her eyes filled with tears and she looked at Pierre with an expression of anguish oh how wicked I was my friend she said it was through hearing you relate how that prefect and those magistrates sinned through pride that I understood my transgression one must believe my friend your happiness outside faith and love then as Pierre wished to break off at the point which he had reached they all began protesting and calling for the continuation of his narrative so that he had to promise to go on to the triumph of the grotto its entrance remained barred by the palisade and you had to come secretly at night if you wished to pray and carry off a stolen bottle of water still the fear of rioting increased for it was rumoured that whole villages intended to come down from the hills in order to deliver God as they naively expressed it it was a levée en masse of the humble a rush of those who hungered for the miraculous so irresistible in its impetuosity that mere common sense mere considerations of public order were to be swept away like chaff and it was Monseigneur Laurence in his Episcopal residence at Talb who was first forced to surrender all his prudence all his doubts were outflanked by the popular outburst for five long months he had been able to remain aloof preventing his clergy from following the faithful to the grotto and defending the church against the tornado of superstition which had been let loose but what was the use of struggling any longer he felt the wretchedness of the suffering people committed to his care to be so great that he resigned himself to granting them the idolatrous religion for which he realised them to be eager some prudence remaining to him however he contended himself in the first instance with drawing up an ordonnance appointing a commission of inquiry which was to investigate the question this implied the acceptance of the miracles after a period of longer or shorter duration if Monseigneur Laurence was the man of healthy culture and cool reason that he has pictured to have been how great must have been his anguish on the morning when he signed that ordonnance he must have knelt in his oratory and have begged the sovereign master of the world to dictate his conduct to him he did not believe in the apparitions he had a loftier more intellectual idea of the manifestations of the divinity only would he not be showing true pity and mercy and silencing the scruples of his reason the noble prejudices of his faith in presence of the necessity of granting that bread of falsehood which poor humanity requires in order to be happy doubtless he begged the pardon of heaven for allowing it to be mixed up in what he regarded as childish pastime for exposing it to ridicule in connection with an affair in which there was only bitterness and dementia but his flock suffered so much hungered so ravenously for the marvellous for fairy stories with which to lull the pains of life and thus in tears the bishop at last sacrificed his respect for the dignity of Providence to his sensitive pastoral charity for the woeful human flock then the emperor in his turn gave way he was at Biarritz at the time and was kept regularly informed of everything connected with this affair of the apparitions with which the entire Parisian press was also occupying itself for the persecutions would not have been complete if the pens of Voltarian newspaper men had not meddled in them and whilst his minister his prefect and his commissary of police were fighting for common sense and public order the emperor preserved his wounded silence the deep silence of a daydream of which nobody ever penetrated petitions arrived day by day yet he held his tongue bishops came great personages great ladies of his circle watched and drew him on one side and still he held his tongue a truseless warfare was being waged around him on one side the believers and the men of fanciful minds whom the mysterious strongly interested on the other the unbelievers and the statesmen who distrusted the disturbances of the imagination and still and ever he held his tongue then all at once with the sudden decision of a naturally timid man he spoke out the rumour spread that he had yielded to the entreaties of his wife Eugenie no doubt she did intervene but the emperor was more deeply influenced by a revival of his old humanitarian dreams his genuine compassion for the disinherited like the bishop he did not wish to close the portals of illusion to the wretched by upholding the unpopular decree which for bad despairing sufferers to go and drink life at the holy source so he sent a telegram a curt order to remove the palisade so as to allow everybody free access to the grotto then came a shout of joy and triumph the decree annulling the previous one was read at lord to the sound of drum and trumpet the commissary of police had to come in person to super intend the removal of the palisade he was afterwards transferred elsewhere like the prefect people flocked to lord from all parts the new cultus was organised at the grotto and a cry of joy ascended God had won the victory God alas no it was human wretchedness which had won the battle human wretchedness with its eternal need of falsehood its hunger for the marvellous its everlasting hope akin to that of some condemned man who for salvation's sake surrenders himself into the hands of an invisible omnipotence mightier than nature and alone capable should it be willing of annulling nature's laws and that which had also conquered was the sovereign compassion of those pastors the merciful bishop and merciful emperor who allowed those big sick children to retain the fetish which consoled some of them and at times even cured others in the middle of November the Episcopal commission came to lord to prosecute the inquiry which had been entrusted to it it questioned Bernadette yet once again and studied a large number of miracles however in order that the evidence might be absolute it only registered some 30 cases of cure and Monseigneur Laurence declared himself convinced nevertheless he gave a final proof of his prudence by continuing to wait another three years before declaring in a pastoral letter that the Blessed Virgin had in truth appeared at the grotto of Massabiel and that numerous miracles had subsequently taken place there meantime he had purchased the grotto itself with all the land around it from the municipality of Lourdes on behalf of his sea work was then begun modestly at first but soon on a larger and larger scale as money began to flow in from all parts of Christendom the grotto was cleared and enclosed with an iron railing the garve was thrown back into a new bed so as to allow of spacious approaches to the shrine with lawns, paths and walks at last to the church which the Virgin had asked for the Basilica began to rise on the summit of the rock itself from the very first stroke of the pick Abbé Père Amal the parish priest of Lourdes went on directing everything with even excessive zeal for the struggle had made him the most ardent and most sincere of all the believers in the work that was to be accomplished with his somewhat rough but true fatherly nature he had begun to adore Bernadette making her mission his own and devoting himself soul and body to realizing the orders which he had received from heaven through her innocent mouth and he exhausted himself in mighty efforts he wished everything to be very beautiful and very grand worthy of the queen of the angels who had deigned to visit the Saint and Nook the first religious ceremony did not take place till six years after the apparitions a marble statue of the Virgin was installed with great pomp on the very spot where she had appeared it was a magnificent day all Lord was gay with flags and every bell rang joyously five years later in 1869 the first mass was celebrated in the crypt of the Basilica whose spire was not yet finished meantime gifts flowed in without a pause the river of gold was streaming towards the grotto a whole town was about to spring up from the soil it was the new religion completing its foundations the desire to be healed did heal the thirst for a miracle worked the miracle a deity of pity and hope was evolved from man's sufferings from that longing for falsehood and relief which in every age of humanity has created the marvellous palaces of the realms beyond where an almighty power renders justice and distributes eternal happiness and thus the ailing ones of the Saint-Honorine Ward only beheld in the victory of the grotto, the triumph of their hopes of cure along the rows of beds there was a quiver of joy when with his heart stirred by all those poor faces turned towards him eager for certainty Pierre repeated God had conquered since that day the miracles have never ceased and it is the most humble who are the most frequently relieved then he laid down the little book Abbey Juden was coming in and the sacrament was about to be administered Marie however again penetrated by the fever of faith her hands burning, lynched towards Pierre oh my friend said she I pray you hear me confess my fault and absolve me I have blasphemed and have been guilty of mortal sin if you do not succor me I shall be unable to receive the blessed sacrament and yet I so greatly need to be consoled and strengthened the young priest refused her request with a wave of the hand he had never been willing to act as confessor to this friend the only woman he had loved in the healthy smiling days of youth however she insisted I beg you to do so said she you will help to work the miracle of my cure then he gave way and received the avowal of her fault that empires rebellion induced by suffering that rebellion against the virgin who had remained deaf to her prayers and afterwards he granted her absolution in the sacramental form meanwhile Abbey Juden had already deposited the seborium on the little table between two lighted tapers which looked like woeful stars in the semi-obscurity of the ward Madame de Jean-Kyre had just decided to open one of the windows quite wide for the odor emanating from all the suffering bodies and heaped up rags had become unbearable but no air came in from the narrow courtyard into which the window opened though black with night it seemed like a well of fire having offered to act as server Pierre repeated the confité or then after responding with the Miséraitor and the Indulgentiam the chaplain who wore his alb raised the pics saying, behold the Lamb of God who takeeth away the sins of the world all the women who writhing in agony were impatiently awaiting the communion like dying creatures who await life from some fresh medicine which is a long time coming thereupon thrice repeated in all humility and with lips almost closed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed Abeshu then had begun to make the round of those woeful beds accompanied by Pierre and followed by Madame de Jean-Kyre and Sister Yassant each of whom carried one of the lighted tapers the sister designated those who were to communicate and murmuring the customary Latin words the priest lent forward and placed the host somewhat at random on the sufferer's tongue almost all were waiting for him with widely opened glittering eyes amidst the disorder of that hastily pitched camp two were found to be sound asleep however and had to be awakened several were moaning without being conscious of it and continued moaning even after they had received the sacrament at the far end of the ward the rattle of the poor creature who could not be seen still resounded and nothing could have been more mournful than the appearance of that little cortege in the semi-darkness amidst which the yellow flames of the tapers gleamed like stars but Marie's face to which an expression of ecstasy had returned was like a divine apparition although la grivote was hungry for the bread of life they had refused her the sacrament on this occasion as it was to be administered to her in the morning at the Rosary Madame Vetu however had received the host on her black tongue in a hiccup and now Marie was lying there under the pale light of the tapers looking so beautiful amidst her fair hair with her eyes dilated and her features transfigured by faith that everyone admired her she received the sacrament with rapture heaven visibly descended into her poor youthful frame reduced to such physical wretchedness and clasping Pierre's hand she detained him for a moment saying oh she will heal me my friend she has just promised me that she will do so go and take some rest I shall sleep so soundly now as he withdrew in company with Abbey Juden Pierre caught sight of little Madame Desagnos stretched out in the armchair in which weariness had overpowered her nothing could awaken her it was now half-past one in the morning and Madame de Junquière and her assistant Sister Yia Sainte were still going backwards and forwards turning the patients over cleansing them and dressing their sores however the ward was becoming more peaceful its heavy darkness had grown less oppressive since Bernadette with her charm had passed through it the visionary's little shadow was now flitting in triumph from bed to bed, completing its work bringing a little of heaven to each of the despairing ones each of the disinherited ones of this world and as they all at last sank to sleep they could see the little Shepardess so young so will herself leaning over them and kissing them with a kindly smile End of section 10