It is a '_fete_' to day (according to a notice pasted upon a stone
pillar) '_avec Indulgence pleniere_,'
GRAND MESSE a 10 a.m.,
LES VEPRES a 3 p.m.,
SALUT ET BENEDICTION DU SACRAMENT,
SERMON, &c.'
Let us now follow the crowd (up the street we saw in the illustration)
into the Church of St. Pierre, which is already overflowing with people
coming and going, pushing past each other through the baize door,
dropping sous into the '_tronc pour les pauvres_,' and receiving, with
bowed head and crossed breast, the holy water, administered with a
brush.
We pay two sous for a chair and take our places, under a fire of glances
from our neighbours, who pray the while, and tell their beads; and we
have scarcely time to notice the beautiful proportions of the nave, the
carving in the side chapels, or the grotesque figures that we have
before alluded to, when the service commences, and we can just discern
in the distance the priests at the high altar (looking in their bright
stiff robes, and with their backs to the people, like golden beetles
under a microscope); we cannot hear distinctly, for the moving of the
crowd about us, the creaking of chairs, and the whispering of many
voices; but we can see the incense rising, the children in white robes
swinging silver chains, and the cocked hat of the tall 'Suisse' moving
to and fro.
Presently the congregation sits down, the organ peals forth and a choir
of sweet voices chaunts the 'Agnus Dei.
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