with earthly lights. High up to our left hung the church, outlined in
fire--tawdry, I dare say, with its fairy lights of electricity, yet
speaking to three-quarters of this crowd in the highest language they
knew. Light, after all, is the most heavenly thing we possess. Does it
matter so very much if it is decked out and arranged in what to superior
persons appears a finikin fashion?

The crowd itself had become a serpent of fire, writhing here below in
endlessly intricate coils; up there along the steps and parapets, a
long-drawn, slow-moving line; and from the whole incalculable number
came gusts and roars of singing, for each carried a burning torch and
sang with his group. The music was of all kinds. Now and again came the
_Laudate Mariam_ from one company, following to some degree the general
movement of the procession, and singing from little paper-books which
each read by the light of his wind-blown lantern; now the _Gloria
Patri_, as a band came past reciting the Rosary; but above all pealed
the ballad of Bernadette, describing how the little child went one day
by the banks of the Gave, how she heard the thunderous sound, and,
turning, saw the Lady, with all the rest of the sweet story, each stanza
ending with that

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!

that I think will ring in my ears till I die.

It was an astounding sight to see that crowd and to hear that singing,
and to watch each group as it came past--now girls, now boys, now
stalwart young men, now old veteran pilgrims, now a bent old woman; each
face illumined by the soft paper-shrouded candle, and each mouth singing
to Mary. Hardly one in a thousand of those came to be cured of any