and three hundred girls, each very neatly and appropriately dressed, in a
sort of sabbath attire, and each holding a lighted wax taper in the hand.
The girls were dressed in white, with white veils; and the rich lent veils
to those who had not the means of purchasing them. The cathedral,
especially about the choir, was crowded to excess. I hired a chair, stood
up, and gazed as earnestly as the rest. The interest excited among the
parents, and especially the mothers, was very striking. "Voila la
petite--qu'elle a l'air charmant!--le petit ange!"....A stir is made ...
they rise... and approach, in the most measured order, the rails of the
choir ... There they deposit their tapers. The priests, very numerous,
extinguish them as dexterously as they can; and the whole cathedral is
perfumed with the mixed scent of the wax and frankincense. The boys, on
approaching the altar, and giving up their tapers, kneel down; then shut
their eyes, open their mouths; and the priests deposit the consecrated
wafer upon their tongues. The procession now took a different direction.
They all went into the nave, where a sermon was preached to the young
people, expressly upon the occasion, by a Monsieur Quillebeuf, a canon of
the cathedral, and a preacher of considerable popularity. He had one of the
most meagre and forbidding physiognomies I ever beheld, and his beard was
black and unshaven. But he preached well; fluently, and even eloquently:
making a very singular, but not ungraceful, use of his left arm--and
displaying at times rather a happy familiarity of manner, wholly exempt
from vulgarity, and well suited to the capacities and feelings of his
youthful audience. His subject was "belief in Christ Jesus;" on which he
gave very excellent proofs and evidences. His voice was thin, but clear,
and distinctly heard.

And now, my dear Friend, if you are not tired with this détour of the
CATHEDRAL, suppose we take a promenade to the next most important
ecclesiastical edifice in the city of Rouen. What say you therefore to a