“The Chevalier d’Aumont-Clery replied in a voice feebler than a breath, but none the less crystal clear: 

“’Catherine, these men and women are souls from purgatory who have grieved God by sinning as we ourselves sinned through love of the creature, but who are not on that account cast off by God, inasmuch as their sin, like ours, was not deliberate.

“’Whilst separated from those whom they loved upon earth, they are purified in the cleansing fires of purgatory, they suffer the pangs of absence, which is for them the most cruel of tortures.  They are so unhappy that an angel from heaven takes pity upon their love-torment.  By the permission of the Most High, for one hour in the night, he reunites each year lover to loved in their parish church, where they are permitted to assist at the Mass of Shadows, hand clasped in hand.  These are the facts.  If it has been granted to me to see thee before thy death, Catherine, it is a boon which is bestowed by God’s special permission.’

“And Catherine Fontaine answered him: 

“’I would die gladly enough, dear, dead lord, if I might recover the beauty that was mine when I gave you to drink in the forest.’

“Whilst they thus conversed under their breath, a very old canon was taking the collection and proffering to the worshipers a great copper dish, wherein they let fall, each in his turn, ancient coins which have long since ceased to pass current:  ecus of six livres, florins, ducats and ducatoons, jacobuses and rose-nobles, and the pieces fell silently into the dish.  When at length it was placed before the Chevalier, he dropped into it a louis which made no more sound than had the other pieces of gold and silver.

“Then the old canon stopped before Catherine Fontaine, who fumbled in her pocket without being able to find a farthing.  Then, being unwilling to allow the dish to pass without an offering from herself, she slipped from her finger the ring which the Chevalier had given her the day before his death, and cast it into the copper bowl.  As the golden ring fell, a sound like the heavy clang of a bell rang out, and on the stroke of this reverberation the Chevalier, the canon, the celebrant, the servers, the ladies and their cavaliers, the whole assembly vanished utterly; the candles guttered out, and Catherine Fontaine was left alone in the darkness.”

Having concluded his narrative after this fashion, the sacristan drank a long draught of wine, remained pensive for a moment, and then resumed his talk in these words: 

“I have told you this tale exactly as my father has told it to me over and over again, and I believe that it is authentic, because it agrees in all respects with what I have observed of the manners and customs peculiar to those who have passed away.  I have associated a good deal with the dead ever since my childhood, and I know that they are accustomed to return to what they have loved.