noisily helping to tread the stems firmly into the earth. They told me
it was for the coming of Corpus Christi, and so proved to me that
religion, which is as old as these valleys, would last out their
inhabiting men. Even here, in a place made by a great laundry, a
modern industrial row of tenements, all the world was putting out
green branches to welcome the Procession and the Sacrament and the
Priest. Comforted by this evident refutation of the sad nonsense I had
read in Cities from the pen of intellectuals--nonsense I had known to
be nonsense, but that had none the less tarnished my mind--I happily
entered the inn, ate and drank, praised God, and lay down to sleep in
a great bed. I mingled with my prayers a firm intention of doing the
ordinary things, and not attempting impossibilities, such as marching
by night, nor following out any other vanities of this world. Then,
having cast away all theories of how a pilgrimage should be conducted,
and broken five or six vows, I slept steadily till the middle of the
morning. I had covered fifty miles in twenty-five hours, and if you
imagine this to be but two miles an hour, you must have a very
mathematical mind, and know little of the realities of living. I woke
and threw my shutters open to the bright morning and the masterful
sun, took my coffee, and set out once more towards Epinal, the
stronghold a few miles away--delighted to see that my shadow was so
short and the road so hot to the feet and eyes. For I said, 'This at
least proves that I am doing like all the world, and walking during
the day.' It was but a couple of hours to the great garrison. In a
little time I passed a battery. Then a captain went by on a horse,
with his orderly behind him. Where the deep lock stands by the
roadside--the only suggestion of coolness--I first heard the bugles;
then I came into the long street and determined to explore Epinal, and
to cast aside all haste and folly.