into little knots in the streets to talk of the strange thing that was happening In the course of the day M. Barbou came to ask whether I did not think it would be well to appease the popular feeling by conceding what they wished to the Sisters of the hospital.  I would not hear of it.  ’Shall we own that we are in the wrong?  I do not think we are in the wrong,’ I said, and I would not yield.  ’Do you think the good Sisters have it in their power to darken the sky with their incantations?’ M. l’Adjoint shook his head.  He went away with a troubled countenance; but then he was not like myself, a man of natural firmness.  All the efforts that were employed to influence him were also employed with me; but to yield to the women was not in my thoughts.

We are now approaching, however, the first important incident in this narrative.  The darkness increased as the afternoon came on; and it became a kind of thick twilight, no lighter than many a night.  It was between five and six o’clock, just the time when our streets are the most crowded, when, sitting at my window, from which I kept a watch upon the Grande Rue, not knowing what might happen—­I saw that some fresh incident had taken place.  Very dimly through the darkness I perceived a crowd, which increased every moment, in front of the Cathedral.  After watching it for a few minutes, I got my hat and went out.  The people whom I saw—­so many that they covered the whole middle of the Place, reaching almost to the pavement on the other side—­had their heads all turned towards the Cathedral.  ’What are you gazing at, my friend?’ I said to one by whom I stood.  He looked up at me with a face which looked ghastly in the gloom.  ‘Look, M. le Maire!’ he said; ‘cannot you see it on the great door?’

‘I see nothing,’ said I; but as I uttered these words I did indeed see something which was very startling.  Looking towards the great door of the Cathedral, as they all were doing, it suddenly seemed to me that I saw an illuminated placard attached to it, headed with the word ‘Sommation’ in gigantic letters. ‘Tiens!’ I cried; but when I looked again there was nothing.  ‘What is this? it is some witchcraft!’ I said, in spite of myself.  ‘Do you see anything, Jean Pierre?’

‘M. le Maire,’ he said, ’one moment one sees something—­the next, one sees nothing.  Look! it comes again.’  I have always considered myself a man of courage, but when I saw this extraordinary appearance the panic which had seized upon me the former night returned, though in another form.  Fly I could not, but I will not deny that my knees smote together.  I stood for some minutes without being able to articulate a word—­which, indeed, seemed the case with most of those before me.  Never have I seen a more quiet crowd.  They were all gazing, as if it was life or death that was set before them—­while I, too, gazed with a shiver going over me.  It was as I have seen an illumination of lamps in a stormy night; one moment the whole seems