had been present in the Bureau that morning to report upon her excellent
health. (She was cured last year instantaneously, in the _piscine_, of a
number of running wounds, so deep that they penetrated the intestines.)
On the table lay some curious brass objects, which I learned later were
models of the bones of Pierre de Rudder's legs. (This man had for eight
years suffered from a broken leg and two running wounds--one at the
fracture, the other on the foot. These were gangrenous. The ends of the
broken bones were seen immediately before the cure, which took place
instantaneously at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes at Oostacker.
Pierre lived rather over twenty years after his sudden and complete
restoration to health). For the rest, the room is simple enough. There
are a few chairs. Another door leads into a little compartment where the
sick can be examined privately; a third and a fourth lead into the open
air on either side. There are two windows, looking out respectively on
this side and that.

Now I spent a great deal of my time in the Bureau. (I was given
presently a "doctor's cross" to wear--consisting of a kind of cardboard
with a white upright and red cross-bar--so that I could pass in and out
as I wished). I may as well, then, sum up once and for all the
impressions I received from observing the methods of the doctors. There
were all kinds of doctors there continually--Catholics and
free-thinkers, old, young, middle-aged. The cases were discussed with
the utmost freedom. Any could ask questions of the _miraculés_ or of the
other doctors. The certificates of the sick were read aloud. I may
observe, too, that if there was any doubt as to the certificates, if
there was any question of a merely nervous malady, any conceivable
possibility of a mistake, the case was dismissed abruptly. These
certificates, then, given by the doctor attending the sick person, dated
and signed, are of the utmost importance; for without them no cure is