 Section 3 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 Visitelli. The first day. 3. Poitiers. As soon as the train arrived at Poitiers, Sister Yersaint are lighted in all haste, amidst the crowd of porters opening the carriage doors and of pilgrims darting forward to reach the platform. Wait a moment, wait a moment, she repeated, let me pass first. I wish to see if all is over. Then having entered the other compartment, she raised the strange man's head and seeing him so pale, with such blank eyes, she did at first think him already dead. At last, however, she detected a faint breathing. No, no, she then exclaimed. He still breathes. Quick, there is no time to be lost. And, perceiving the other sister, she added, Sister Claire Desange, will you go and fetch Father Macias, who must be in the third or fourth carriage on the train, tell him that we have a patient in very great danger here and ask him to bring the holy oils at once? Without answering, the other sister at once plunged into the midst of the scramble. She was small, slender and gentle, with a meditative air and mysterious eyes, but with all extremely active. Pierre, who was standing in the other compartment watching the scene, now ventured to make a suggestion, and would it not be as well to fetch the doctor, said he. Yes, I was thinking of it, replied Sister Yesaint, and Monsieur Labé, it would be very kind of you to go for him yourself. It so happened that Pierre intended going to the canteen carriage to fetch some broth for Marie. Now that she was no longer being jolted, she felt somewhat relieved, and had opened her eyes, and caused her father to raise her to a sitting posture. Keenly thirsting for fresh air, she would have much liked them to carry her out onto the platform for a moment, but she felt that it would be asking too much, that it would be too troublesome a task to place her inside the carriage again. So Monsieur de Gersaint remained by himself on the platform, near the open door, smoking a cigarette, whilst Pierre hastened to the canteen van, where he knew he would find the doctor on duty with his little travelling pharmacy. Some other patients, whom one could not think of removing, also remained in the carriage. Amongst them was La Grivotte, who was stifling and almost delirious, in such a state indeed as to detain Madame de Jean-Chières, who had arranged to meet her daughter Rémonde with Madame Volmar and Madame des Agneaux in the refreshment room, in order that they might all fall lunch together. But that unfortunate creature seemed on the point of expiring, so how could she leave her all alone on the hard seat of that carriage? On his side Monsieur Sabatier, likewise riveted to his seat, was waiting for his wife, who had gone to fetch a bunch of grapes for him. Whilst Morte had remained with her brother the missionary, whose faint moan never ceased, the others, those who were able to walk, had hustled one another in their haste to a light, all eager as they were to escape for a moment from that cage of wretchedness where their limbs had been quite numbed by the seven hours journey which they had so far gone. Madame Mars had at once drawn apart, straying with melancholy face to the far end of the platform, where she found herself all alone. Madame Védu stupefied by her sufferings had found sufficient strength to take a few steps and sit down on a bench in the full sunlight where she did not even feel the burning heat. Whilst Elise Rouquet, who had had the decency to cover her face with a black wrap, and was consumed by a desire for fresh water, went hither and thither in search of a drinking fountain. In the meantime Madame Vincent, walking slowly, carried her little rose about in her arms, trying to smile at her and to cheer her by showing her some gaudily coloured picture bills which the child gravely gazed at but did not see. Pierre had the greatest possible difficulty to make his way through the crowd in undating the platform. No effort of imagination could enable one to picture the living torrent of ailing and healthy beings which the train had here set down, a mob of more than a thousand persons just emerging from suffocation and bustling, hurrying, hither and thither. Each carriage had contributed its share of wretchedness like some hospital ward suddenly evacuated and it was now possible to form an idea of the frightful amount of suffering which this terrible white train carried along with it, this train which disseminated a legend of horror where so ever it passed. Some infirm sufferers were dragging themselves about, others were being carried and many remained in a heap on the platform. There were sudden pushes, violent calls, innumerable displays of distracted eagerness to reach the refreshment rooms and the buvette. Each and all made haste going where so ever they once called them. This stoppage of half an hour's duration, the only stoppage there would be before reaching Lord, was after all such a short one and the only gay note amidst all the black cassocks and the threadbare garments of the poor, never of any precise shade of colour, was supplied by the smiling whiteness of the little sisters of the assumption, all bright and active in their snowy coiffes, wimples and aprons. When Pierre at last reached the canteen van near the middle of the train he found it already besieged. There was here a petroleum stove with a small supply of cooking utensils. The broth, prepared from concentrated meat extract, was being warmed in wrought iron pans whilst the preserved milk in tins was diluted and supplied as occasion required. There were some other provisions such as biscuits, fruit and chocolate on a few shelves. But Sister Saint-François, to whom the service was entrusted, a short start woman of five and forty with a good-natured fresh coloured face was somewhat losing her head in presence of all the hands so eagerly stretched towards her. Whilst continuing her distribution she lent ear to Pierre as he called to the doctor who with his travelling pharmacy occupied another corner of the van. Then, when the young priest began to explain matters, speaking of the poor, unknown man who was dying, a sudden desire came to her to go and see him, and she summoned another sister to take her place. Oh, I wished to ask you, Sister, for some broth for a passenger who is ill, said Pierre at that moment, turning towards her. Very well, Monsieur Abbey, I will bring some. Go on in front. The doctor and the Abbey went off in all haste, rapidly questioning and answering one another, whilst behind them followed Sister Saint-François, carrying the bowl of broth with all possible caution amidst the jostling of the crowd. The doctor was a dark, complexioned man of eight and twenty, robust and extremely handsome, with the head of a young Roman emperor, such as may still be occasionally met with in the sun-burned land of Provence. As soon as Sister Yer Saint caught sight of him, she raised an exclamation of surprise. What, Monsieur Ferrand, is it you? Indeed, they both seemed amazed at meeting in this manner. It is, however, the courageous mission of the sisters of the assumption to tend the ailing poor, those who lie in agony in their humble garrets, and cannot pay for nursing. And thus these good women spent their lives among the wretched, installing themselves beside the sufferer's pallet in his tiny lodging, ministering to everyone, attending both to cooking and cleaning, and living there like servants and relatives until either cure or death supervenes. And it was in this wise that Sister Yer Saint, young as she was, with her milky face and her blue eyes whichever laughed, had installed herself one day in the abode of this young fellow, Ferrand, then a medical student prostrated by typhoid fever, and so desperately poor that he lived in a kind of loft under the roof, and reached by a ladder in the rue du four. And from that moment she had not stirred from his side, but had remained with him until she cured him, with the passion of one who lived only for others, one who, when an infant had been found in a church porch, and who had no other family than that of those who suffered, to whom she devoted herself with all her ardently affectionate nature. And what a delightful month what exquisite comradeship fraught with the pure fraternity of suffering had followed, when he called her sister it was really to a sister that he was speaking. And she was a mother also, a mother who helped him to rise, and who put him to bed as though he were her child, without aught springing up between them saved Supreme Pity, the divine gentle compassion of charity. She ever showed herself gay, sexless, devoid of any instinct excepting that which prompted her to Aswaj and to console. And he worshipped her, venerated her, and had retained of her the most chaste and passionate of recollections. Oh, Sister Yassin, he murmured in delight. Chance alone had brought them face to face again, for Ferrand was not a believer, and if he found himself in that train it was simply because he had at the last moment consented to take the place of a friend, who was suddenly prevented from coming. For nearly a twelve month now he had been a house surgeon at the Hospital of La Pitié. However this journey to Lourdes in such peculiar circumstances greatly interested him. The joy of meeting was making them forget the ailing stranger, and so the Sister resumed, You see, Monsieur Ferrand, it is for this man that we want you. At one moment we thought him dead. Ever since we passed en bois he has been filling us with fear, and I have just sent for the holy oils. Do you find him so very low? Could you not revive him a little? The Doctor was already examining the man, and thereupon the sufferers who had remained in the carriage became greatly interested, and began to look. Marie, to whom Sister Saint-François had given the bowl of broth, was holding it with such an unsteady hand that Pierre had to take it from her, and endeavour to make her drink. But she could not swallow, and she left the broth scarce-tasted, fixing her eyes upon the man, waiting to see what would happen, like one whose own existence is at stake. Tell me, again asked Sister Yersaint, how do you find him? What is his illness? He has every illness. Then, drawing a little file from his pocket, he endeavoured to introduce a few drops of the contents between the sufferers' clenched teeth. The man heaved a sigh, raised his eyelids, and let them fall again. That was all. He gave no other sign of life. Sister Yersaint, usually so calm and composed, so little accustomed to despair, became impatient. But it is terrible, said she, and Sister Claire Desanges does not come back. Yet I told her plainly enough where she would find Father Macias' carriage. Mon Dieu, what will become of us? Sister Saint-François, seeing that she could render no help, was now about to return to the cantine van. Before doing so, however, she inquired if the man were not simply dying of hunger. For such cases presented themselves, and indeed she had only come to the compartment with the view of offering some of her provisions. At last, as she went off, she promised that she would make Sister Claire Desanges hasten her return should she happen to meet her. And she had not gone twenty yards when she turned round and waved her arm to call attention to her colleague, who with discreet short steps was coming back alone. Leaning out of the window, Sister Yersaint kept on calling to her, Make haste, make haste. Well, and where is Father Macias? He isn't there. What, not there? No, I went as fast as I could, and the people about it was not possible to get there quickly. When I reached the carriage, Father Macias had already alighted and gone out of the station, no doubt. She thereupon explained that according to what she had heard, Father Macias and the priest of Saint Radegonde had some appointment together. In other years, the national pilgrimage halted at Poitiers for four and twenty hours, and after those who were ill had been placed in the town hospital, the others went in procession to Saint Radegonde. That year, however, there was some obstacle to this course being followed, so the train was going straight on to Lourdes, and Father Macias was certainly with his friend the priest, talking with him on some matter of importance. They promised to tell him and send him here with the holy oils as soon as they found him, added Sister Claire. However, this was quite a disaster for Sister Yersaint. Since science was powerless, perhaps the holy oils would have brought the sufferer some relief. She had often seen that happen. Oh, Sister, Sister, how worried I am, she said to her companion. Do you know, I wish you would go back and watch for Father Macias and bring him to me as soon as you see him. It would be so kind of you to do so." Yes, Sister, compliantly answered Sister Claire Desanges, and off she went again with that grave, mysterious air of hers, wending her way through the crowd like a gliding shadow. Véran, meantime, was still looking at the man, sorely distressed at his inability to please Sister Yersaint by reviving him. And as he made a gesture expressive of his powerlessness, she again raised her voice intreatingly. Stay with me, Monsieur Véran, pray stay, she said. Wait till Father Macias comes. I shall be a little more at ease with you here. He remained and helped her to raise the man who was slipping down upon the seat. Then, taking a linen cloth, she wiped the poor fellow's face which a dense perspiration was continually covering. The spell of waiting continued amid the uneasiness of the patients who had remained in the carriage, and the curiosity of the folks who had begun to assemble on the platform in front of the compartment. All at once, however, a girl hastily pushed the crowd aside and, mounting on the footboard, addressed herself to Madame de Jean-Chière. What is the Madame Mama? She said, they are waiting for you in the refreshment room. It was Raymond de Jean-Chière who already somewhat ripe for her five and twenty years, was remarkably like her mother, being very dark, with a pronounced nose, large mouth, and full, pleasant-looking face. But, my dear, you can see for yourself. I can't leave this poor woman, replied the lady hospitaler, and thereupon she pointed to la rivote who had been attacked by a fit of coughing which shook her frightfully. Oh, how annoying Mama, retorted Raymond, Madame des Agnes and Madame Volmaire were looking forward with so much pleasure to this little lunch together. Well, it can't be helped, my dear. At all events, you can begin without waiting for me. Tell the ladies that I will come and join them as soon as I can. Then, an idea occurring to her, Madame de Jean-Chière added, wait a moment, the doctor is here. I will try to get him to take charge of my patient. Go back, I will follow you. As you can guess, I am dying of hunger. Raymond briskly returned to the refreshment room whilst her mother begged Ferrand to come into her compartment to see if he could do something to relieve la rivote. At Malth's request, he had already examined Brother Isidore, whose moaning never ceased and with a sorrowful gesture he had again confessed his powerlessness. However, he hastened to comply with Madame de Jean-Chière's appeal and raised the consumptive woman to a sitting posture in the hope of thus stopping her cough, which indeed gradually ceased. And then he helped the lady hospitaler to make her swallow a spoonful of some soothing draught. The doctor's presence in the carriage was still causing a stir among the ailing ones. Monsieur Sabatier, who was slowly eating the grapes which his wife had been to fetch for him, did not, however, question Ferrand, for he knew full well what his answer would be and was weary, as he expressed it, of consulting all the princes of science. Nevertheless, he felt comforted, as it were, at seeing him set that poor consumptive woman on her feet again. And even Marie watched all that the doctor did with increasing interest, though not daring to call him herself, certain as she also was that he could do nothing for her. Meantime the crush on the platform was increasing. Only a quarter of an hour now remained to the pilgrims. Madame Vitu, whose eyes were open but who saw nothing, sat like an insensible being in the broad sunlight in the hope possibly that the scorching heat would deaden her pains. Whilst up and down in front of her went Madame Vincent ever with the same sleep-inducing step and ever carrying her little rose, her poor ailing birdie whose weight was so trifling that she scarcely felt her in her arms. Many people, meantime, were hastening to the water-tap in order to fill their pitchers, cans and bottles. Madame Mars, who was of refined tastes and careful of her person, thought of going to wash her hands there. But just as she arrived she found Elise Rouquet drinking and she recoiled at sight of that diseased smitten face so terribly disfigured and robbed of nearly all semblance of humanity. And all the others likewise shuddered, likewise hesitated to fill their bottles, pitchers and cans at the tap from which she had drunk. A large number of pilgrims had now begun to eat whilst pacing the platform. You could hear the rhythmical taps of the crutches carried by a woman who incessantly wended her way through the groups. On the ground a legless cripple was painfully dragging herself about in search of nobody knew what. Others seated there in heaps no longer stirred. All these sufferers, momentarily unpacked as it were, these patients of a travelling hospital emptied for a brief half-hour, were taking the air amidst the bewilderment and agitation of the healthy passengers. And the whole throng had a frightfully woeful, poverty-stricken appearance in the broad and noontide light. Pierre no longer stirred from the side of Marie for Monsieur de Gersin had disappeared, attracted by a verdant patch of landscape which could be seen at the far end of the station. And feeling anxious about her, since she had not been able to finish her broth, the young priest with a smiling air tried to tempt her pallet by offering to go buy her a peach. But she refused it. She was suffering too much, she cared for nothing. She was gazing at him with her large, woeful eyes, on the one hand impatient at this stoppage which delayed her chance of cure and on the other terrified at the thought of again being jolted along that hard and endless railroad. Just then a start gentleman whose full beard was turning grey and who had a broad, fatherly kind of face drew near and touched Pierre's arm. Excuse me, Monsieur Labé, said he. But is it not in this carriage that there is a poor man dying? And on the priest returning an affirmative answer, the gentleman became quite affable and familiar. My name is Vigneron, he said. I am a head clerk at the Ministry of Finances and applied for leave in order that I might help my wife to take our son Gustave to Lourdes. The dear lad places all his hope in the Blessed Virgin to whom we pray morning and evening on his behalf. We are in a second-class compartment of the carriage just in front of yours. Then turning round he summoned his party with the wave of the hand. Come, come, said he, it is here. The unfortunate man is indeed in the last throes. Madame Vigneron was a little woman with the correct bearing of a respectable bourgeois. But her long, livid face denoted impoverished blood, terrible evidence of which was furnished by her son Gustave. The latter, who was fifteen years of age, looked scarcely ten. Twisted out of shape, he was a mere skeleton with his right leg so wasted, so reduced, that he had to walk with a crutch. He had a small thin face, somewhat awry, in which one saw little, excepting his eyes, clear eyes, sparkling with intelligence, sharpened as it were by suffering, and doubtless well able to dive into the human soul. An old puffy-faced lady followed the others, dragging her legs along with difficulty, and Monsieur Vigneron, remembering that he had forgotten her, stepped back towards Pierre, so that he might complete the introduction. That lady, said he, is Madame Chez, my wife's eldest sister. She also wished to accompany Gustave, whom she is very fond of. And then, leaning forward, he added in a whisper with a confidential air. She is the widow of Chez, the silk merchant, you know, who left such an immense fortune. She is suffering from a heart complaint which causes her much anxiety. The whole family grouped together, then gazed with lively curiosity at what was taking place in the railway carriage. People were incessantly flocking to the spot, and so that the lad might be the better able to see. His father took him up in his arms for a moment, whilst his aunt held the crutch, and his mother on her side raised herself on tiptoe. The scene in the carriage was still the same. The strange man was still stiffly seated in his corner, his head resting against the hard wood. He was livid, his eyes were closed, and his mouth was twisted by suffering, and every now and then, Sister Yersaint with her linen cloth wiped away the cold sweat which was constantly covering his face. She no longer spoke, no longer evinced any impatience, but had recovered her serenity and relied on heaven. From time to time, she would simply glance towards the platform to see if Father Macias were coming. Look at him, Gustave, a mature, venerant to his son. He must be consumptive. The lad, whom Scroffula was eating away, whose hip was attacked by an abscess, and in whom there were already signs of necrosis of the vertebrae, seemed to take a passionate interest in the agony he thus beheld. It did not frighten him. He smiled at it with a smile of infinite sadness. Oh, how dreadful muttered Madame Chez, who, living in continual terror of a sudden attack which would carry her off, turned pale with the fear of death. Ah, well, replied Monsieur Vigneron philosophically. It will come to each of us in turn. We are all mortal. Thereupon a painful mocking expression came over Gustave's smile, as though he had heard other words than those. But chants an unconscious wish, the hope that the old aunt might die before he himself did, that he would inherit the promised half-million of francs, and then not long encumber his family. Put the boy down now, said Madame Vigneron to her husband, he would not be able to hold him by the legs like that. Then both she and Madame Chez bestowed themselves in order that the lad might not be shaken. The poor darling was so much in need of care and attention. At each moment they feared that they might lose him. Even his father was of opinion that they had better put him in the train again at once. And as the two women went off with the child, the old gentleman once more turned towards Pierre, and with evident emotion exclaimed, Ah! Monsieur Laby, if God should take him from us, the light of our life would be extinguished. I don't speak of his aunt's fortune which would go to other nephews, but it would be unnatural would it not that he should go off before her, especially as she is so ill. However, we are all in the hands of Providence and place our reliance in the Blessed Virgin who will assuredly perform a miracle. Just then, Madame de Genquière, having been reassured by Dr. Ferrand, was able to leave la grive before going off. However, she took care to say to Pierre, I am dying of hunger and am going to the refreshment room for a moment, but if my patient should begin coughing again, pray come and fetch me. When, after great difficulty, she had managed to cross the platform and reach the refreshment room, she found herself in the midst of another scramble. The better circumstance pilgrims had taken the tables by assault and a great many priests were to be seen hastily lunching amidst all the clatter of knives, forks and crockery. The three or four waiters were not able to attend to all requirements, especially as they were hampered in their movements by the crowd purchasing fruit, bread and cold meat at the counter. It was at a little table at the far end of the room that Raymond was lunching with Madame des Agneaux and Madame Volmar. Ah, here you are at last, Mama, the girl exclaimed as Madame de Genquière approached. I was just going back to fetch you. You only ought to be a large time to eat. She was laughing with a very animated expression on her face, quite delighted as she was with the adventures of the journey and this indifferent, scrambling meal. There, said she, I have kept you some trout with green sauce and there's a cutlet also waiting for you. We have already got to the artichokes. Then everything became charming. The gaiety prevailing in that little corner rejoiced the sight. Young Madame des Agneaux was particularly adorable, a delicate blonde with wild, wavy, yellow hair, a round dimpled milky face, a gay laughing disposition and a remarkably good heart. She had made a rich marriage and for three years past had been wanted to leave her husband at Truville in the fine August weather in order to accompany the national pilgrimage as a lady hospitaler. This was her great passion, an access of quivering pity, a longing desire to place herself unreservedly for her days, a real debauch of devotion from which she returned tired to death but full of intense delight. Her only regret was that she has yet had no children and with comical passion she occasionally expressed a regret that she had missed her true vocation, that of a sister of charity. Ah, my dear, she hastily said to Raymond, don't pity your mother for being so much taken up with her patience. She at all events has something to occupy her Madame de Junkière, she added, if you only knew how long we find the time in our fine first class carriage. We cannot even occupy ourselves with a little needlework as it is forbidden. I asked for a place with the patience but all were already distributed so that my only resource will be to try to sleep tonight. She began to laugh and then resumed, yes Madame Volmar, we will try to sleep won't we, since talking seems to tire you. Madame Volmar who looked over thirty was very dark with a long face and delicate but drawn features. Her magnificent eyes shone out like braziers though every now and then a cloud seemed to veil and extinguish them. At the first class she did not appear beautiful, but as you gaze at her she became more and more perturbing till she conquered you and inspired you with passionate admiration. It should be said though that she shrank from all self-assertion, comporting herself with much modesty, but keeping in the background, striving to hide her lustre, invariably clad in black and unadorned by a single jewel, although she was the wife of a Parisian diamond merchant. Oh, for my part, she murmured, as long as I am not hustled too much I am well pleased. She had been to Lourdes as an auxiliary lady helper already on two occasions though but little had been seen of her there, at the hospital of Our Lady of Dolour, as on arriving she had been overcome by such great fatigue that she had been forced, she said, to keep her room. However, Madame de Jean-Chières, who managed to the ward, treated her with good-natured tolerance. Ah, my poor friends, said she, there will be plenty of time for you to exert yourselves. Get to sleep if you can, and your turn will come when I can no longer keep up. Then addressing her daughter, she resumed, and you would do well, darling, not to excite yourself too much if you wished to keep your head clear. Remonde smiled and gave her mother an approachful glance. Mama, mama, why do you say that? Am I not sensible? She asked. Doubtless she was not boasting, for despite her youthful thoughtless air, the air of one who simply feels happy and living, there appeared in her grey eyes an expression of firm resolution, a resolution to shape her life for herself. It is true, the mother confessed with a little confusion, this little girl is at times more sensible than I am myself. Pass me the cutlet. It is welcome, I assure you. Lord, how hungry I was! The meal continued, enlivened by the constant laughter of Madame Desagnos and Remonde. The latter was very animated and her face, which was already growing somewhat yellow through long pining for a suitor, again assumed the rosy bloom of twenty. They had to eat very fast for only ten minutes now remained to them. On all sides one heard the growing tumult of customers who feared that they had no time to take their coffee. All at once, however, Pierre made his appearance. A fit of stifling had again come over la grivote and Madame de Junquier hastily finished her artichoke and returned to her compartment after kissing her daughter who wished her good night in a facetious way. The priest, however, had made a movement of surprise on perceiving Madame Volmar with the red cross of the Lady Hospitallers on her black bodice. He knew her, for he still called Madame de Junquier the Diamond Merchant's mother who had been one of his own mother's friends. She was the most terrible woman in the world, religious beyond all reason, so harsh and stern, moreover, as to close the very window shutters in order to prevent her daughter-in-law from looking into the street. And he knew the young woman's story, how she had been imprisoned on the very morrow of her marriage, shut up between her mother-in-law who tyrannized over her and her husband, a repulsively ugly monster who went to beat her, mad as he was with jealousy, although he himself kept mistresses. The unhappy woman was not allowed out of the house, accepting it were to go to Mass. And one day, at La Trinité, Pierre had surprised her secret on seeing her behind the church, exchanging a few hasty words with a well-groomed, distinguished-looking man. The priest's sudden appearance in the refreshment room had somewhat disconcerted Madame Volmar. What an unexpected meeting, Monsieur Rabi, she said, offering him her long, warm hand. What a long time it is since I last saw you. And thereupon she explained that this was the third year she had gone to Lourdes, her mother-in-law having required her to join the association of Our Lady of Salvation. It is surprising that you did not see her at the station when we started, she added. She sees me into the train and comes to meet me on my return. This was said in an apparently simple way, but with such a subtle touch of irony that Pierre fancied he could guess the truth. He knew that she really had no religious principles at all, and that she merely followed the rites and ceremonies of the church in order that she might now and again obtain an hour's freedom. And all at once he intuitively realized that someone must be waiting for her yonder, that it was for the purpose of meeting him that she was thus hastening to Lourdes with her shrinking yet ardent air and flaming eyes, which she so prudently shrouded with a veil of lifeless darkness. For my part, he answered, I am accompanying a friend of my childhood, a poor girl who was very ill indeed. I must ask your help for her. You shall nurse her. Thereupon she faintly blushed and he no longer doubted the truth of his surmise. However, Raymond was just then settling the bill with the easy assurance of a girl who was expert in figures, and immediately afterwards Madame Desagnolais Madame Volmar away. The waiters were now growing more distracted by the fast being vacated. For on hearing a bell ring everybody had begun to rush towards the door. Pierre, on his side, was hastening back to his carriage when he was stopped by an old priest. Ah, Monsieur le curé, he said, I saw you just before we started, but I was unable to get near enough to shake hands with you. Thereupon he offered his hand to his brother Ecclesiastic, who was looking and smiling at him in a kindly way. Yabé Juden was the parish priest and a little village in the department of the was. Tall and sturdy he had a broad pink face, around which clustered a mass of white curly hair and it could be devined by his appearance that he was a worthy man whom neither the flesh nor the spirit had ever tormented. He believed indeed firmly and absolutely, with a tranquil godliness, never having known a struggle, endowed as he was with the ready faith of a child unacquainted with human passions. And ever since the virginate lord had cured him of a disease of the eyes by a famous miracle which folks still talked about, his belief had become yet more absolute and tender as though impregnated with divine gratitude. I am pleased that you are with us, my friend, he gently said, for there is much in these pilgrimages for young priests to profit by. I am told that some of them at times experience a feeling of rebellion. Well, you will see all these poor people praying. It is a sight which will make you weep. How can one do otherwise than place oneself in God's hands on seeing so much suffering cured or consoled? The old priest himself was accompanying a patient, and he pointed to a first-class compartment at the door of which hung a placard bearing the inscription Mr. Labé Juden reserved. Then lowering his voice he said it is Madame Dieu Lafay, you know, the great banker's wife. Their chateau, a royal domain, is in my marriage, and when they learned that the blessed virgin had vouchsafed me such an undeserved favour, they begged me to intercede for their poor sufferer. I have already said several masses and most sincerely pray for her. There you see her yonder on the ground. She insisted on being taken out of the carriage in spite of all the trouble which one will have to place her in it again. On a shady part of the platform, in a kind of long box, there was, as the old priest said, a woman whose beautiful, perfectly beautiful face, lighted up by splendid eyes, denoted no greater age than six and twenty. She was suffering from a frightful disease. The disappearance from her system of the calcareous salts had led to a softening of the osseous framework, the slow destruction of her bones. Three years previously after the advent of a stillborn child she had felt vague pains in the spinal column, and then little by little her bones had rarified and lost shape. The vertebrae sunk, the bones of the pelvis had flattened and those of the arms and legs had contracted. Thus shrunken, melting away as it were, she had become a mere human remnant, a nameless fluid thing which could not be said erect, but had to be carried hither and thither with infinite care for fear lest she should vanish between one's fingers. Her face, emotionless face on which sat a stupefied, imbecile expression still retained its beauty of outline, and yet it was impossible to gaze at this wretched shred of a woman without feeling a heart-pank, the keener on account of all the luxury surrounding her. For not only was the box in which she lay lined with blue-quilted silk, but she was covered with valuable lace, and a cap of rare valenciennes was set upon her head, her wealth thus being proclaimed, displayed in the midst of her awful agony. Ah, how pitiable it is, resumed the Abbey Juden in an undertone, to think that she is so young, so pretty, possessed of millions of money, and if you knew how dearly loved she was, with what adoration she is still surrounded, that tall gentleman near her is her husband, that elegantly dressed lady is her sister, Madame Jousseur. Pierre remembered, having often noticed in the newspapers the name of Madame Jousseur, wife of a diplomatist, and a conspicuous member of the higher spheres of Catholic society in Paris. People had even circulated a story of some great passion which she had fought against and vanquished. She also was very prettily dressed, with marvellously tasteful simplicity, and she ministered to the wants of her sorry sister with an air of perfect devotion. As for the unhappy woman's husband, who at the age of five and thirty had inherited his father's colossal business, he was a clear complexion, well-groomed, handsome man clad in a closely buttoned frock coat. His eyes, however, were full of tears, for he adored his wife and had left his business in order to take her to Lourdes, placing his last hope in this appeal to the mercy of heaven. Ever since the morning Pierre had beheld many frightful sufferings in that woeful white train. But none had so distressed his soul as did that wretched female skeleton, slowly liquefying in the midst of its lace and its millions. The unhappy woman, he murmured with a shudder. Pierre Juden, however, made a gesture of serene hope. The blessed virgin will cure her, said he, I have prayed to her so much. Just then a bell again peeled, and this time it was really the signal for starting. Only two minutes remained. There was a last rush and folks hurried back towards the train carrying eatables wrapped in paper and bottles and cans which they had filled with water. Several of them quite lost their heads and in their inability to find their carriages ran abstractedly from one to the other end of the train. Whilst some of the infirm ones dragged themselves about amidst the precipitous tapping of crutches and others, only able to walk with difficulty, strove to hasten their steps whilst leaning on the arms of some of the lady hospitalers. It was only with infinite difficulty that four men managed to replace Madame Dior Lafay in her first-class compartment. The Vignerones who were content with second-class accommodation had already reinstalled themselves in their quarters amidst an extraordinary heap of baskets, boxes and valises which scarcely allowed little Gustave enough room to stretch his poor puny limbs, the limbs as it were of a deformed insect. And then all the women appeared again, Madame Mars gliding along in silence, Madame Vincent raising her dear little girl in her outstretched arms and dreading lest she should hear her cry out, Madame Vitu whom it had been necessary to push into the train after rousing her from a superfine torment, and Elise Rouquet who was quite drenched through her obstinacy in endeavouring to drink from the tap and was still wiping her monstrous face. Whilst each returned to her place and the carriage filled once more Marie listened to her father who had come back delighted with his stroll to a poinsman's little house beyond the station, whence a really pleasant stretch of landscape could be discerned. Shall we lay you down again at once? asked Pierre, sorely distressed by the pained expression on Marie's face. Oh, no, no, by and by, she replied, I shall have plenty of time to hear those wheels roaring in my head as though they were grinding my bones. Then as Ferrand seemed on the point of returning to the canteen van Sister Ia Sainte begged him to take another look at the strange man before he went off. She was still waiting for Father Macias, astonished at the inexplicable delay in his arrival but not yet without hope as Pierre Désange had not returned. Pray, Monsieur Ferrand, said she, tell me if this unfortunate man is in any immediate danger. The young doctor again looked at the sufferer, felt him and listened to his breathing. Then with the gesture of discouragement he answered in a low voice, I feel convinced that you will not get him to lured alive. Every head was still anxiously stretched forward if they had only known the man's name, the place he had come from, who he was but it was impossible to extract a word from this unhappy stranger who was about to die there in that carriage without anybody being able to give his face a name. It suddenly occurred to Sister Ia Sainte to have him searched. Under the circumstances there could certainly be no harm in such a course. Feel in his pockets, Monsieur Ferrand, she said. The doctor thereupon searched the man in a gentle, cautious way but the only things that he found in his pockets were a chaplet, a knife and three souses. And nothing more was ever learned of the man. At that moment, however, a voice announced that Sister Cléve Des Anges was at last coming back with Father Marseillais. All this while the latter had simply been chatting with the priest of Saint-Radegaune in one of the waiting rooms. Keen emotion attended his arrival. For a moment all seemed saved. But the train was about to start. The porters were already closing the carriage doors and it was necessary that extreme function should be administered in all haste in order to avoid too long a delay. This way, Montré Véran Perre exclaimed Sister Ia Sainte, Yes, yes, pray come in. Our unfortunate patient is here. Father Marseillais, who was five years older than Pierre, whose fellow student, however, he had been at the seminary, had a tall spare figure with an ascetic countenance framed around with a light-coloured beard and vividly lighted up by burning eyes. He was neither the priest harassed by doubt nor the priest with childlike faith, but an apostle carried away by his passion, ever ready to fight and vanquish for the pure glory of the Blessed Virgin. In his black cloak with its large hood and his broad brimmed flossy hat, he shone resplendently with the perpetual ardour of battle. He immediately took from his pocket the silver case containing the holy oils and the ceremony began whilst the last carriage doors were being slammed and belated pilgrims were rushing back to the train, the stationmaster meantime anxiously glancing at the clock and realising that it would be necessary for him to grant a few minutes' grace. Credo in unum deum, hastily murmured the father. Amen, replied Sister Iassant and the other occupants of the carriage. Those who had been able to do so had knelt upon the seats whilst the others joined their hands or repeatedly made the sign of the cross, and when the murmured prayers were followed by the litanies of the ritual every voice rose, an ardent desire for the remission of the man's sins and for his physical and spiritual cure winging its flight heavenward with each successive kirie eleison. Might his whole life of which they knew not be forgiven him. Might he enter, stranger though he was, in triumph into the kingdom of God. Christe exaudinos. Ora pro nobis sancta dei genitrix. Father Massias had pulled out the silver needle from which hunger dropped upon him. In the midst of such a scramble with the whole train waiting many people now thrusting their heads out of the carriage windows in surprise at the delay in starting. He could not think of following the usual practice of anointing in turn all the organs of the senses, those portals of the soul which give admittance to evil. He must content himself as the rules authorised him to do in pressing cases with one anointment and this he made upon the man's lips those vivid parted lips from between which only a faint breath escaped, whilst the rest of his face with its lowered eyelids already seemed indistinct again merged into the dust of the earth. Peristam sancta munzionem, said the father, et sua am pisissima misericordium indulgeat tibi dominus quid quid pervisum auditum odoratum gustum taktum deliquisti. The remainder of the ceremony was in the form of anointing in the form of anointing the remainder of the ceremony was lost amid the hurry and scramble of the departure. Father Masias scarcely had time to wipe off the oil with the little piece of cotton wool which Sister Iasant held in readiness before he had to leave the compartment and get into his own as fast as possible setting the case containing the holy oils in order as he did so whilst the pilgrims finished repeating the final prayer. We cannot wait any longer it is impossible repeated the station master as he bustled about to make haste everybody. At last then they were about to resume their journey everybody sat down returned to his or her corner again. Madame de Jean-Chières however had changed her place in order to be nearer la grivote whose condition still worried her and she was now seated in front of Monsieur Sabatier who remained waiting with silent resignation. Moreover Sister Iasant had not returned to her compartment having decided to remain near her own man so that she might watch over him and help him. By following this course too she was able to minister to Brother Isidore whose sufferings his sister Mart was at a loss to Asloage and Marie turning pale felt the jolting of the train in her ailing flesh even before it had resumed its journey under the heavy sun rolling onward once more with its load of sufferers stifling in the pestilential atmosphere of the overheated carriages. At last the loud whistle resounded the engine puffed and Sister Iasant rose up to say The Magnificat my children End of Section 3 Section 4 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 Emile Zola Translated by Ernest Visitelli The first day Four Miracles Just as the train was beginning to move the door of the compartment in which Pierre and Marie found themselves was opened and a porter pushed a girl of 14 inside saying There's a seat here, make haste The others were already pulling long faces and were about to protest when Sister Iasant exclaimed What is it you Sophie So you were going back to see the Blessed Virgin who cured you last year and at the same time Madame de Genquière remarked Ah Sophie my little friend I am very pleased to see that you are grateful Why yes Sister why yes Madame answered the girl in a pretty way The carriage door had already been closed again so that it was necessary that they should accept the presence of this new pilgrim who had fallen from heaven as it were at the very moment when the train which she had almost missed was starting off again She was a slender damsel and would not take up much room Moreover these ladies knew her and all the patients had turned their eyes upon her on hearing that the Blessed Virgin had been pleased to cure her They had now got beyond the station the engine was still puffing whilst the wheels increased their speed and Sister Iasant clapping her hands repeated come come my children the magnificat Whilst the joyful chant arose amidst the jolting of the train Pierre gazed at Sophie She was evidently a young peasant girl with some poor husbandmen of the vicinity of Poitiers petted by her parents treated in fact like a young lady since she had become the object of a miracle one of the elect whom the priests of the district flocked to see She wore a straw hat with pink ribbons and a grey woollen dress trimmed with a flance Her round face although not pretty was a very pleasant one with a beautifully fresh complexion and clear intelligent eyes which lent her a smiling modest air When the magnificat had been sung Pierre was unable to resist his desire to question Sophie a child of her age with so candid an air so utterly unlike a liar greatly interested in him And so you nearly missed the train my child he said I should have been much ashamed if I had Monsieur Labis she replied I had been at the station since twelve o'clock and all at once I saw his reverence the priest of Saint-Radi-Gonde who knows me well and who called me to him to kiss me and called me that it was very good of me to go back to Lourdes but it seems the train was starting and I only just had time to run on to the platform oh I ran so fast she paused laughing still slightly out of breath but already repenting that she had been so giddy and what is your name my child asked Pierre Sophie Coutot Monsieur Labis you do not belong to the town of Poitiers oh no certainly not we belong to Vivon a few kilometres away my father and mother have a little land there and things would not be so bad if there were not eight children at home I am the fifth fortunately the four elder ones are beginning to work and you my child what do you do I am Monsieur Labis oh I am no great help since last year when I came home cured I have not been left quiet a single day for as you can understand so many people have come to see me and then too I have been taken to Montseigneur and all manner of other places and before all that I was a long time ill I could not walk without a stick and each step I took made me cry out so dreadfully did my foot hurt me so it was of some injury to the foot that the Blessed Virgin cured you Sophie did not have time to reply for Sister Yassin who was listening intervened of carries of the bones of the left heel which had been going on for three years said she the foot was swollen and quite deformed and there were fistulas giving egress to continual supuration on hearing this all the sufferers in the carriage became intensely interested they no longer took their eyes off this little girl on whom a miracle had been performed but scanned her from head to foot as though seeking for some sign of the prodigy those who were able to stand rose up in order that they might the better see her and the others the infirm ones stretched on their mattresses strove to raise themselves and turn their heads amidst the suffering which had again come upon them on leaving Poitiers the terror which filled them at the thought that they must continue rolling onward for another fifteen hours the sudden advent of this child favoured by heaven was like a divine relief a ray of hope whence they would derive sufficient strength to accomplish the remainder of their terrible journey the moaning had abated somewhere already and every face was turned towards the girl with an ardent desire to believe this was especially the case with Marie who already reviving joined her trembling hands and in a gentle subplacating voice said to Pierre question her pray question her ask her to tell us everything cured oh god cured of such a terrible complaint Madame de Jean-Chière who was quite affected had lent over the partition to kiss the girl certainly said she our little friend will tell you all about it won't you my darling you will tell us what the Blessed Virgin did for you oh certainly Madame as much as you like answered Sophie with her smiling modest air her eyes gleaming with intelligence indeed she wished to begin at once and raised her right hand with a pretty gesture as a sign to everybody to be attentive plainly enough she had already acquired the habit of speaking in public she could not be seen however from some parts of the carriage and an idea came to sister Yassin who said get up on the seat Sophie and speak loudly on account of the noise the train makes this amused the girl and before beginning she needed time to become serious again well it was like this said she my foot was past cure I couldn't even go to church anymore and it had to be kept bandaged because there was always a lot of nasty 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 blame for life but when I had 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 bandage off and everything remained in the water there was no longer anything the matter with my foot when I took it out a murmur of mingled surprise wonder and desire arose and spread among those who heard this marvellous tale so sweet and soothing to all who were in despair the one had not yet finished she had simply paused and now making a fresh gesture holding her arms somewhat apart she concluded when I got back to Vivonne 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 this time a burst of laughter rang out the girl spoke in too recitative a way having repeated her story so many times already that she knew it by heart her remark was sure to produce an effect and she herself laughed at it in advance certain as she was that the others would laugh also however she still retained her candid touching air but she had evidently forgotten some particular for Sister Ier Sainte a glance from whom had foreshadowed the doctor's jest now softly prompted her and what was it you said to Madame La Conteste the superintendent of your ward Sophie ah yes I hadn't brought many bandages for my foot 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 this provoked a fresh outburst of delight they all thought her so nice to have been cured like that and in reply to a question from Madame de Genquière she also had to tell the story of her boots a pair of beautiful new boots which Madame La Conteste had given her and in which she had run jumped and danced about full of childish delight boots think of it for three years had not even been able to wear a slipper Pierre who had become grave waxing pale with the secret uneasiness which was penetrating him continued to look at her and he also asked her other questions she was certainly not lying and he merely suspected a slow distortion of the actual truth and easily explained embellishment of the real facts amidst all the joy she felt at being cured and becoming an important little personage who now knew the privatisation of her injuries affected so it was asserted completely instantaneously in a few seconds had not in reality been the work of days where were the witnesses just then Madame de Genquière began to relate that she had been at the hospital at the time referred to Sophie was not in my ward said she but I had met her walking lame that very morning Pierre hastily interrupted the Lady Hospitale ah you saw her foot before and after the immersion no no I don't think that anybody was able to see it for it was bound round with bandages she told you that the bandages had fallen into the piscina and turning towards the child Madame de Genquière added but she will show you her foot won't you Sophie, undo your shoe the girl took off her shoe and pulled down her stocking with the promptness and ease of manner which showed how thoroughly accustomed she had become to it all and she not only stretched out her foot which was very clean and very white carefully tended indeed with well-cut pink nails but complacently turned it so that the young priest might examine it at his ease just below the ankle there was a long scar whose whitey seam plainly defined testified to the gravity of the complaint from which the girl had suffered oh take hold of the heel Monsieur Labis said she press it as hard as you like and no longer feel any pain at all Pierre made a gesture from which it might have been thought he was delighted with the power exercised by the blessed virgin but he was still tortured by doubt what unknown force had acted in this case or rather what faulty medical diagnosis what assemblage of errors and exaggerations had ended in this fine tale all the patients however wished to see the miraculous foot that outward invisible sign of the divine cure which each of them was going in search of and it was Marie sitting up in her box and already feeling less pain he pressed it first then Madame Mars quite roused from her melancholy passed it on to Madame Vincent who would have kissed it for the hope which it restored to her Monsieur Sabatier had listened to all the explanations with a beatific air Madame Védu, la grivotte and even brother Isidore opened their eyes and evinced signs of interest whilst the face of Elise Rouquet had assumed an extraordinary expression transfigured by faith almost beatified sore had thus disappeared might not her own sore close and disappear her face retaining no trace of it save a slight scar and again becoming such a face as other people had Sophie who was still standing had to hold on to one of the iron rails and place her foot on the partition now on the right now on the left and she did not weary of it all but felt exceedingly happy and proud at the many exclamations which were raised the quivering admiration and religious respect which were bestowed on that little piece of her person that little foot which had now so to say become sacred one must possess great faith no doubt said Marie thinking aloud one must have a pure unspotted soul and addressing herself to Monsieur de Gersin she added Father I feel that I should get well if I were ten years old if I had the unspotted soul of a little girl but you are ten years old my darling is it not so Pierre a little girl of ten years old could not have a more spotless soul possessed of a mind prone to chimeras Monsieur de Gersin was fond of hearing tales of miracles as for the young priest profoundly affected by the ardent purity which the young girl evinced he no longer sought to discuss the question but let her surrender herself to the consoling illusions which Sophie's tale had wafted through the carriage the temperature had become yet more oppressive since their departure from Poitiers a storm was rising in the coppery sky seemed as though the train were rushing through a furnace the villagers passed mournful and solitary under the burning sun at Gouet Verrac they had again said their chaplets and sung another canticle at present however there was some slight abatement of the religious exercises Sister Yersaint who had not yet been able to lunch ventured to eat a roll and some fruit in all haste whilst still ministering to the strange man whose faint, painful breathing seemed to have become more regular a passing rifec at three o'clock that they said the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Ora pro nobis sancta dei genitrix ut digni effigti amur promissionibus cristi as they were finishing Monsieur Sabatier who had watched little Sophie while she put on her shoe and stocking turned towards Monsieur de Gersaint this child's case is interesting no doubt he remarked but it is a mere nothing Monsieur for there have been far more marvellous cures than that do you know the story of Pierre de Ridaire a Belgian working man everybody had again begun to listen this man continued Monsieur Sabatier had his leg broken by the fall of a tree eight years afterwards the two fragments of the bone had not yet joined together again the two ends could be seen in the depths of a saw which was continually suppurating and the leg hung down quite limp swaying in all directions well it was sufficient for this man to drink a glass full of the miraculous water and his leg was made whole again he was able to walk without crutches and the doctor said to him your leg is like that of a newborn child yes indeed a perfectly new leg nobody spoke but the listeners exchanged glances of ecstasy and by the way resumed Monsieur Sabatier it is like the story of Louis Bourriet a quarryman one of the first of the Lord Miracles do you know it Bourriet had been injured by an explosion during some blasting operations the sight of his right eye was altogether destroyed and he was even threatened with the loss of the left one well one day he sent his daughter to fetch a bottle full of the muddy water of the sauce which then scarcely bubbled up to the surface he washed his eye with this muddy liquid and prayed fervently and all at once he raised a cry for he could see Monsieur see as well as you and I the doctor who was attending him drew up a detailed narrative of the case and there cannot be the slightest doubt about its truth it is marvellous murmured Monsieur de Gersin in his delight would you like another example Monsieur I could give you a famous one that of François Macarie the carpenter of Lavour during 18 years he had suffered from a deep varicose ulcer with considerable enlargement of the tissues in the mesial part of the left leg he had reached such a point that he could no longer move and would forever remain infirm well one evening he shuts himself up with a bottle of lured water he takes off his bandages washes both his legs and drinks what little water then remains in the bottle then he goes to bed and falls asleep and when he awakes he feels his legs and looks at them there is nothing left the varicose enlargement the ulcers have all disappeared the skin of his knee Monsieur had become as smooth this time there was an explosion of surprise and admiration the patience and the pilgrims were entering into the enchanted land of miracles where impossibilities are accomplished at each bend of the pathways where one marches on at ease from prodigy to prodigy and each had his or her story to tell burning with a desire to contribute a fresh proof to fortify faith and hope by yet another example that silent creature Madame Mars was so transported that she spoke the first I have a friend said she who knew the widow Rizan that lady whose cure also created so great a stir for four and twenty years her left side had been entirely paralysed her stomach was unable to retain any solid food and she had become an inert bag of bones which had to be turned over in bed the friction of the sheets too had ended by rubbing her skin away in parts well she was so low one evening the doctor announced that she would die during the night an hour later however she emerged from her torpor and asked her daughter in a faint voice to go and fetch her a glass of lured water at her neighbours but she was only able to obtain this glass of water on the following morning and she cried out to her daughter oh it is life that I am drinking rub my face with it, rub my arm and my leg rub my whole body with it and when her daughter obeyed her she gradually saw the huge swelling subside and the paralysed tumour-fied limbs recover their natural suppleness and appearance nor was that all for Madame Rison cried out that she was cured and felt hungry and wanted bread and meat she who had eaten none for four and twenty years and she got out of bed and dressed herself whilst her daughter who was so overpowered that the neighbours thought she had become an orphan replied to them no, no, mama isn't dead, she has come to life again this narrative had brought tears to Madame Vincent's eyes ah, if she had only been able to see her little rose recover like that eat with a good appetite and run about again at the same time another case which she had been told of in Paris and which had greatly influenced her in deciding to take her ailing child to Lourdes returned to her memory and I too said she know the story of a girl who was paralysed her name was Lucie Druron and she was an inmate of an orphan asylum she was quite young and could not even kneel down her limbs were bent like hoops her right leg, the shorter of the two had ended by becoming twisted round the left one and when any of the other girls carried her about you saw her feet hanging down quite limp like dead ones please notice that she did not even go to Lourdes she simply performed a novella but she fasted during the nine days and her desire to be cured was so great that she spent her nights in prayer at last on the ninth day whilst she was drinking a little lured water she felt a violent commotion in her legs she picked herself up fell down picked herself up again and walked all her little companions who were astonished almost frightened at the sight began to cry out Lucie can walk, Lucie can walk it was quite true in a few seconds her legs had become straight and strong and healthy she crossed the courtyard and was able to climb up the steps of the chapel her sisterhood transported with gratitude chanted the magnificat ah, the dear child, how happy how happy she must have been as Madame Vincent finished two tears fell from her cheeks onto the pale face of her little girl whom she kissed distractedly the general interest was still increasing becoming quite impassioned the rapturous joy born of these beautiful stories in which heaven invariably triumphed over human reality transported these childlike souls to such a point that those who were suffering the most grievously sat up in their turn and recovered the power of speech and with the narratives of one and all was blended the thought of the sufferer's own particular ailment a belief that he or she would also be cured since a malady of the same description had vanished like an evil dream beneath the breath of the divinity ah, stammered Madame Vetu her articulation hindered by her sufferings there was another one Antoinette Taldivail being eaten away like mine you would have said that dogs were devouring it and sometimes there was a swelling in it as big as a child's head tumours indeed were ever forming in it like foul's eggs so that for eight months she brought up blood and she also was at the point of death with nothing but her skin left on her bones and dying of hunger when she drank some water of lourde and had the pit of her stomach washed with it three minutes afterwards her doctor who on the previous day had left her almost last throes, scarce breathing found her up and sitting by the fire side eating a tender chicken's wing with a good appetite she had no more tumours she laughed as she had laughed when she was twenty and her face had regained the brilliancy of youth ah, to be able to eat what one likes to become young again, to cease suffering and the cure of Sister Julienne then exclaimed La Grivotte raising herself on one of her elbows her eyes glittering with fever in her case it commenced with a bad cold as it did with me and then she began to spit blood and every six months she fell ill again and had to take to her bed the last time everybody said that she wouldn't leave it alive the doctors had vainly tried every remedy iodine, blistering and cauterising in fact hers was a real case of thysis, certified by half a dozen medical men well she comes to lourde and heaven alone knows amidst what awful suffering it was so bad indeed that at Toulouse they thought for a moment that she was about to die the sisters had to carry her in their arms and on reaching the piscina the lady hospitalers wouldn't bathe her she was dead they said no matter, she was undressed at last and plunged into the water quite unconscious and covered with perspiration and when they took her out she was so pale that they laid her on the ground thinking that it was certainly all over with her at last but all at once when she came back to her cheeks her eyes opened and she drew a long breath she was cured she dressed herself without any help and made a good meal after she had been to the grotto to thank the blessed virgin there, there's no gain saying it that was a real case of thysis completely cured as though by medicine thereupon brother Isidore in his turn wished to speak but he was unable to do so at any length and could only with difficulty managed to say to his sister tell them the story of Sister Dorothee which the priest of Saint-Sauveur related to us Sister Dorothee began the peasant girl in an awkward way felt her leg quite numbed when she got up one morning and from that time she lost the use of it for it got as cold and as heavy as stone besides which she felt a great pain in the back the doctors couldn't understand it she saw half a dozen of them who pricked her with pins and burnt her skin with a lot of drugs but it was just as if they had sung to her Sister Dorothee had well understood that only the blessed virgin could find the right remedy for her and so she went off to Lord and had herself dipped into the piscina she thought at first that the water was going to kill her for it was so bitterly cold but by and by it became so soft that she fancied it was warm as nice as milk she had never felt so nice before it seemed to her as if her veins were opening and the water were flowing into them as you will understand life was returning into her body since the blessed virgin was concerning herself in the case she no longer had anything the matter with her when she came out but walked about ate the whole of a pigeon for her dinner and slept all night long like the happy woman she was glory to the blessed virgin eternal gratitude to the most powerful mother and her divine son Elise Rouquet would also have liked to bring forward a miracle which she was acquainted with only she spoke with so much difficulty owing to the deformity of her mouth that she had not yet been able to secure a turn just then however there was a pause and drawing the wrap which concealed the horror of her sore slightly on one side she profited by the opportunity to begin for my part I wasn't told anything about a great illness but it was a very funny case at all events she said it was about a woman Célestine Dubois as she was called who had run a needle right into her hand while she was washing it stopped there for seven years and no doctor was able to take it out her hand shriveled up and she could no longer open it well she got to lured and dipped her hand in the piscina but as soon as she did so she began to shriek and took it out again then they caught hold of her and put her hand into the water by force and kept it there while she continued sobbing with her face covered with sweat three times did they plunge her hand into the piscina and each time they saw the needle moving along till it came out by the tip of the thumb she shrieked of course because the needle was moving through her flesh just as though somebody had been pushing it to drive it out and after that Célestine never suffered again and only a little scar could be seen on her hand as a mark of what the Blessed Virgin had done this anecdote produced a greater effect than even the miraculous cures of the most fearful illnesses a needle which moved as though somebody were pushing it this peopled the invisible showed each sufferer his guardian angel standing behind him only awaiting the orders of heaven in order to render him assistance and besides how pretty and childlike the story was this needle which came out in the miraculous water after obstinately refusing to stir during seven long years exclamations of delight resounded from all the pleased listeners they smiled and laughed with satisfaction radiant at finding that nothing was beyond the power of heaven and that if it were heaven's pleasure they themselves would all become healthy, young and superb it was sufficient that one should fervently believe and pray in order that nature might be confounded and that the incredible might come to pass apart from that there was merely a question of good luck since heaven seemed to make a selection of those sufferers who should be cured oh how beautiful it is Father moment Marie who revived by the passionate interest which she took in the momentous subject had so far contented herself with listening dumb with amazement as it were do you remember she continued what you yourself told me of that poor woman Jochine Dau who came from Belgium and made her way right across France with her twisted leg eaten away by an ulcer the awful smell of which drove everybody away from her first of all the ulcer was healed you could press her knee and she felt nothing only a slight redness remained to mark where it had been and then came the turn of the dislocation she shrieked while she was in the water it seemed to her as if somebody were breaking her bones pulling her leg away from her and at the same time she and the woman who was bathing her saw her deformed foot rise and extended to its natural shape with the regular movement of a clock hand her leg also straightened itself the muscle extended the knee replaced itself in its proper position all amidst such acute pain that Joachine ended by fainting but as soon as she recovered consciousness she darted off, erect and agile to carry her crutches to the grotto to Gelsain his turn was laughing with wonderment waving his hand to confirm this story which had been told him by a father of the assumption he could have related a score of similar instances said he each more touching more extraordinary than the other he even invoked Pierre's testimony and the young priest who was unable to believe contented himself with nodding his head at first unwilling as he was to afflict Marie he had striven to divert his thoughts by gazing through the carriage window at the fields trees and houses which defiled before his eyes they had just passed Angoulême and meadows stretched out and lines of poplar trees fled away amidst the continuous fanning of the air which the velocity of the train occasioned they were late no doubt for they were hastening onward at full speed thundering along under the stormy sky through the fiery atmosphere devouring kilometre after kilometre in swift succession however despite himself Pierre heard snatches of the various narratives and grew interested in these extravagant stories which the rough jolting of the wheels accompanied like a lullaby as though the engine had been turned loose and were wildly bearing them away to the divine land of dreams they were rolling still rolling along and Pierre at last ceased to gaze at the landscape and surrendered himself to the heavy sleep-inviting atmosphere of the carriage where ecstasy was growing and spreading carrying everyone far from that world of reality across which they were so rapidly rushing the sight of Marie's face with its brightened look filled the young priest with sincere joy and he let her retain his hand which she had taken in order to acquaint him by the pressure of her fingers with all the confidence which was reviving in her soul and why should he have saddened her by his doubts since he was so desirous of her cure so he continued clasping her small moist hand feeling infinite affection for her a dolerous brotherly love which distracted him and made him anxious to believe in the pity of the spheres in a superior kindness which tempered suffering to those who have plunged in despair Oh, she repeated, how beautiful it is Pierre how beautiful it is and what glory it will be if the Blessed Virgin deigns to disturb herself for me do you really think me worthy of such a favour? Assuredly I do, he exclaimed you are the best and purest with a spotless soul as your father said there are not enough good angels in paradise to form your escort but the narratives were not yet finished Sister Ia Sainte and Madame de Jean-Claire were now enumerating all the miracles with which they were acquainted a long, long series of miracles which for more than 30 years had been flowering at Lourdes like the uninterrupted budding of the roses on the mystical rose tree they could be counted by thousands they put forth fresh shoots every year with prodigious verdancy of sap becoming brighter and brighter each successive season and the sufferers who listened to these marvellous stories with increasing feverishness were like little children who, after hearing one fine fairy tale asked for another and another and yet another oh that they might have more and more of those stories in which evil reality was flattered in which unjust nature was cuffed and slapped in which the divinity intervened as the supreme healer he who laughs at science and distributes happiness according to his own good pleasure first of all there were the deaf and the dumb who suddenly heard and spoke who was incurably deaf with the drums of both ears broken and yet was suddenly enraptured by the celestial music of a harmonium such also as Louise Porcher who on her side had been dumb for five and twenty years and yet whilst praying in the grotto suddenly exclaimed and there were others and yet others who were completely cured by merely letting a few drops of water fall into their ears or upon their tongues then came the procession of the blind Father Hermann who felt the blessed virgin's gentle hand removing the veil which covered his eyes Mademoiselle de Pomblion who was threatened with a total loss of sight but after a simple prayer was enabled to see better than she had ever seen before then a child of twelve years old whose corneas resembled marbles but who in three seconds became possessed of clear deep eyes bright with an angelic smile however there was especially an abundance of paralytics of lame people suddenly enabled to walk upright of sufferers for long years powerless to stir from their beds of misery and to whom the voice said arise and walk Delanois afflicted with ataxia vainly cauterized and burnt fifteen times an inmate of the Paris hospitals whence he had emerged with the concurring diagnosis of twelve doctors feels a strange force raising him up as the blessed sacrament goes by and he begins to follow it his legs strong and healthy once more Marie-Louise Delpont suffering from paralysis which had stiffened her legs drawn back her hands and twisted her mouth on one side sees her limbs loosen and the distortion of her mouth disappear as though an invisible hand was severing the fearful bonds which had deformed her Marie Vachier riveted to her armchair during seventeen years by paraplegia not only runs and flies on emerging from the piscina but finds no trace even of the sores with which her long enforced immobility had covered her body and George Anquet attacked by softening of the spinal marrow passes without transition from agony to perfect health while Leonie Charton likewise afflicted with softening of the bedala and whose vertebrae bulge out to a considerable extent feels her hump melting away as though by enchantment and her legs rise and straighten renovated and vigorous then came all sorts of ailments first those brought about by scroffula a great many more legs long incapable of service and made anew there was Margaret Gaye who had suffered from coxalgia for seven and twenty years whose hip was devoured by the disease whose left knee was ankylosed and who yet was suddenly able to fall upon her knees to thank the blessed virgin for healing her there was also Philoman Simonot the young Vande Yen whose left leg was perforated by three horrible sores in the depths of which her carious bones were visible and whose bones, whose flesh and whose skin were all formed afresh next came the dropsical ones Madame Ancelain the swelling of whose feet, hands and entire body subsided without anyone being able to tell whither all the water had gone Mademoiselle Montagnon from whom on various occasions nearly twenty quarts of water had been drawn and who on again swelling was entirely rid of the fluid by the application of a bandage which had been dipped in the miraculous sauce and in her case also none of the water could be found either in her bed or on the floor in the same way not a complaint of the stomach resisted all disappeared with the first glass of water there was Marie Souchet who vomited black blood who had wasted to a skeleton and who devoured her food and recovered her flesh in two days time there was Marie Jarlant who had burnt herself internally through drinking a glass full of a metallic solution used for cleansing and brightening kitchen utensils and who felt the tumour which had resulted from her injuries melt rapidly away moreover every tumour disappeared in this fashion in the piscina without leaving the slightest trace behind but that which caused yet greater wonderment was the manner in which ulcers, cancers all sorts of horrible visible sores were secretised by a breath from on high a Jew, an actor whose hand was devoured by an ulcer merely had to dip it in the water and he was cured a very wealthy young foreigner who had a when as large as a hen's egg on his right wrist beheld it dissolve Rose Duval who as a result of a white tumour had a hole in her left elbow large enough to accommodate a walnut was able to watch and follow the prompt action of the new flesh in filling up this cavity the widow Fremont with a lip half destroyed by a cancerous formation merely had to apply the miraculous water to it as a lotion and not even a red mark remained Marie Montreux who experienced fearful sufferings from a cancer in the breast fell asleep after laying on it a linen cloth soaked in some water lured and when she awoke later the pain had disappeared and her flesh was once more smooth and pink and fresh at last sister Yersant began to speak of the immediate and complete cures of thysis and this was the triumph the healing of that terrible disease which ravages humanity which unbelievers defied the blessed virgin to cure but which she did cure it was said by merely raising her little finger a hundred instances more extraordinary one than the other pressed forward for citation Magritte Coupel who has suffered from thysis for three years and the upper part of whose lungs is destroyed by tuberculosis rises up and goes off radiant with health Madame de la Rivière who spits blood, who is ever covered with a cold perspiration, whose nails have already acquired a violet tinge who is indeed on the point of drawing her last breath requires but a spoonful of the water to be administered to her between her teeth and lo the rattle ceases she sits up makes the responses to the litanies and asks for some broth Julie Jadoux requires four spoonfuls but then she could no longer hold up her head she was of such a delicate constitution that disease had reduced her to nothing and yet in a few days she becomes quite fat Anna-Cathrie who is in the most advanced stage of the malady with her left lung half destroyed by a cavity is plunged five times into the cold water contrary to all the dictates of prudence and she is cured her lung is healthy once more another consumptive girl condemned by 15 doctors has asked nothing has simply fallen on her knees in the grotto by chance as it were and is afterwards quite surprised at having been cured o passage through the lucky circumstance of having been there no doubt at the hour when the blessed virgin moved to pity allows miracles to fall from her invisible hands miracles and yet more miracles they rained down like the flowers of dreams from a clear and barmy sky some of them were touching some of them were childish an old woman who having her hand ankylosed had been incapable of moving it for 30 years washes it in the water and is at once able to make the sign of the cross sister Sophie who barked like a dog plunges into the piscina and emerges from it with a clear pure voice chanting a canticle Mustafa, a Turk invokes the white lady and recovers the use of his right eye by applying a compress to it an officer of Turkos was protected at Sedan a cuirassier of Reichshofen would have died pierced in the heart by a bullet if this bullet after passing through his pocket book had not stayed its flight on reaching a little picture of our Lady of Lourdes and as with the men and the women so did the children the poor suffering little ones find mercy a paralytic boy of five rose and walked after being held for five minutes under the icy jet of the spring another one 15 years of age in bed could only raise an inarticulate cry sprang out of the piscina shouting that he was cured another one but two years old a poor tiny fellow who had never been able to walk remained for a quarter of an hour in the cold water and then invigorated and smiling took his first steps like a little man and for all of them the little ones as well as the adults the pain was acute whilst the miracle was being accomplished for the work of repair could not be affected without causing an extraordinary shock and an organism the bones grew again new flesh was formed and the disease driven away made its escape in a final convulsion but how great was the feeling of comfort which followed the doctors could not believe their eyes their astonishment burst forth at each fresh cure when they saw the patients whom they had despaired of run and jump and eat with ravenous appetites all these chosen ones these women cured of their ailments walked a couple of miles sat down to roast foul for an hour moreover there was no convalescence it was a sudden leap from the death throes to complete health limbs were renovated sores were filled up organs were reformed in their entirety plumpness returned to the emaciated all with the velocity of a lightning flash science was completely baffled not even the most simple precautions were taken women were bathed at all times and seasons perspiring consumptives were plunged into the icy water sores were left to their putrefaction without any thought of employing antiseptics and then what canticles of joy what shouts of gratitude and love arose at each fresh miracle the favoured one falls upon her knees all who are present weep conversions are effected Protestants and Jews alike embrace Catholicism other miracles these miracles of faith at which heaven triumphs and when the favoured one chosen for the miracle returns to her village all the inhabitants crowd to meet her whilst the bells peal merrily and when she is seen springing lightly from the vehicle which has brought her home shouts and sobs of joy burst forth and all intonate the magnificat glory to the blessed virgin gratitude and love forever indeed that which was more particularly evolved from the realisation of all these hopes from the celebration of all these ardent thanksgivings was gratitude gratitude to the mother most pure and most admirable she was the great passion of every soul she the virgin most powerful the virgin most merciful the mirror of justice the seat of wisdom all hands were stretched towards her mystical rows in the dim light of the chapels tower of ivory on the horizon of dreamland gate of heaven leading into the infinite each day at early dawn she shone forth bright morning star gay with juveness and hope and was she not also the health of the weak the refuge of sinners the comforter of the afflicted France had ever been her well loved country and she was adored there with an ardent worship the worship of her womanhood and her motherhood the soaring of a divine affection and it was particularly in France that it pleased her to show herself to little shabbadesses she was so good to the little and the humble she continually occupied herself with them and if she was appealed to so willingly it was because she was known to be the intermediary of love betweeks earth and heaven every evening she wept tears of gold at the feet of her divine son to obtain favours from him and these favours were the miracles which he permitted her to work these beautiful flower-like miracles as sweet-centered as the roses of paradise so prodigiously splendid and fragrant but the train was still rolling rolling onward they had just passed Koutras it was six o'clock and sister Yersaint rising to her feet clapped her hands together and once again repeated the angeless my children never had Arvés impregnated with greater faith inflamed with a more fervent desire to be heard by heaven winged their flight on high and Pierre suddenly understood everything clearly realized the meaning of all these pilgrimages of all these trains rolling along through every country of the civilized world of all these eager crowds hastening towards Lourdes which blazed over Yonder like the abode of salvation for body and for mind ah the poor wretches whom ever since morning he had heard groaning with pain the poor wretches who exposed their sorry carcasses to the fatigues of such a journey they were all condemned abandoned by science weary of consulting doctors of having tried the torturing effects of futile remedies and how well one could understand that burning with a desire to preserve their lives unable to resign themselves to the injustice and indifference of nature they should dream of a superhuman power of an almighty divinity who in their favor would perchance and null the established laws alter the course of the planets of creation for if the world failed them did not the divinity remain to them in their case as reality was too abominable and an immense need of illusion and falsehood sprang up within them oh to believe that there is a supreme justicia somewhere one who writes the apparent wrongs of things and beings to believe that there is a redeemer a consola who is the real master who can carry the torrents back to their source and who can restore youth to the aged and when you are covered with sores when your limbs are twisted when your stomach is swollen by tumours when your lungs are destroyed by disease to be able to say that all this is of no consequence that everything may disappear and be renewed at a sign from the blessed virgin that it is sufficient that you should pray to her touch her heart and obtain the favor of being chosen by her and then what a heavenly fount of hope appeared with the prodigious flow of those beautiful stories of cure those adorable fairy tales and intoxicated the feverish imaginations of the sick and the infirm since little Sophie Coutot with her white sound foot had climbed into that carriage opening to the gaze of those within it the limitless heavens of the divine and the supernatural how well one could understand the breath of resurrection that was passing over the world slowly raising those who despaired the most from their beds of misery and making their eyes shine since life was yet a possibility for them and they were perhaps about to begin it afresh yes it was indeed that if that woeful train was rolling rolling on if that carriage was full if the other carriages were full also if France and the world from the uttermost limits of the earth were crossed by similar trains if crowds of 300,000 believers bringing thousands of sick along with them were ever setting out from one end of the year to the other it was because the grotto yonder was shining forth in its glory like a beacon of hope and illusion triumph of the impossible over inexorable materiality never had a more impassionating romance been devised to exalt the souls of men above the stern laws of life to dream that dream this was the great the ineffable happiness if the fathers of the assumption had seen the success of their pilgrimages increase and spread from year to year it was because they sold to all the flocking peoples the bread of consolation and delusion the delicious bread of hope for which suffering humanity ever hungers that nothing will ever appease and it was not merely the physical source which cried aloud for cure the whole of man's moral and intellectual being likewise shrieked forth its wretchedness with an insatiable yearning for happiness to be happy to place the certainty of life in faith to lean till death should come upon that one strong staff of travel such was the desire exhaled by every breast the desire which made every moral grief bend the knee imploring a continuance of grace the conversion of dear ones the spiritual salvation of self and those one loved the mighty cry spread from pole to pole ascended and filled all the regions of space to be happy happy forevermore both in life and in death and Pierre saw the suffering beings around him lose all perception of the jolting and recover their strength as league by league they drew nearer to the miracle even Madame Mars grew talkative certain as she felt that the blessed virgin would restore her husband to her with a smile on her face Madame Vincent gently rocked her little rose in her arms thinking that she was not nearly so ill as those all but lifeless children who after being plunged in the icy water sprang out and played Monsieur Sabatier gestured with Monsieur de Gelsin and explained to him that next October when he had recovered the use of his legs he should go on a trip to Rome a journey which he had been postponing for 15 years and more Madame Vitu quite calmed feeling nothing but a slight twinge in the stomach imagined that she was hungry and asked Madame de Jonquière to let her dip some strips of bread in a glass of milk whilst Elise Rouquet forgetting her sores ate some grapes with face uncovered and in la grivote who was now sitting up and brother Isidore who had ceased moaning all those fine stories had left a pleasant fever to such a point that impatient to be cured they grew anxious to know the time for a minute also the man was a strange man resuscitated whilst Sister Yersaint was again wiping the cold sweat from his brow he raised his eyelids and a smile momentarily brightened his pallid countenance yet once again he also had hoped Marie was still holding Pierre's fingers in her own small warm hand it was seven o'clock they were not due at Bordeaux until half past seven and the belated train was quickening its pace yet more and more rushing along with wild speed in order to make up for the minutes it had lost the storm had ended by coming down and now a gentle light of infinite purity fell from the vast clear heavens oh how beautiful it is Pierre how beautiful it is Marie again repeated pressing his hand with tender affection and leaning towards him she added in an undertone I beheld at the blessed virgin a little while ago Pierre and it was your cure that I implored and shall obtain the priest who understood her meaning was thrown into confusion by the divine light which gleamed in her eyes as she fixed them on his own she had forgotten her own sufferings that which she had asked for was his conversion and that prayer of faith emanating pure and candid from that dear suffering creature upset his soul it why should he not believe some day he himself had been distracted by all those extraordinary narratives the stifling heat of the carriage had made him dizzy the sight of all the woe heaped up there caused pity and contagion was doing its work he no longer knew where the real and the possible ceased he lacked the power to disentangle so many stupefying facts to explain such as admitted of explanation and reject the others at one moment indeed as a hymn once more resounded and carried him off with its stubborn important at rhythm he ceased to be master of himself and imagined that he was at last beginning to believe amidst the hallucinatory vertigo which range in that travelling hospital ever rolling onward at full speed into section 4