occupavit.”  The movement affected especially the places devoted to Mary, but ran through all Normandy, far and wide.  Of all Mary’s miracles, the best attested, next to the preservation of her church, is the building of it; not so much because it surprises us as because it surprised even more the people of the time and the men who were its instruments.  Such deep popular movements are always surprising, and at Chartres the miracle seems to have occurred three times, coinciding more or less with the dates of the crusades, and taking the organization of a crusade, as Archbishop Hugo of Rouen described it in a letter to Bishop Thierry of Amiens.  The most interesting part of this letter is the evident astonishment of the writer, who might be talking to us to-day, so modern is he:—­

The inhabitants of Chartres have combined to aid in the construction of their church by transporting the materials; our Lord has rewarded their humble zeal by miracles which have roused the Normans to imitate the piety of their neighbours ...  Since then the faithful of our diocese and of other neighbouring regions have formed associations for the same object; they admit no one into their company unless he has been to confession, has renounced enmities and revenges, and has reconciled himself with his enemies.  That done, they elect a chief, under whose direction they conduct their waggons in silence and with humility.

The quarries at Bercheres-l’Eveque are about five miles from Chartres.  The stone is excessively hard, and was cut in blocks of considerable size, as you can see for yourselves; blocks which required great effort to transport and lay in place.  The work was done with feverish rapidity, as it still shows, but it is the solidest building of the age, and without a sign of weakness yet.  The Abbot told, with more surprise than pride, of the spirit which was built into the cathedral with the stone:—­Who has ever seen!—­ Who has ever heard tell, in times past, that powerful princes of the world, that men brought up in honour and in wealth, that nobles, men and women, have bent their proud and haughty necks to the harness of carts, and that, like beasts of burden, they have dragged to the abode of Christ these waggons, loaded with wines, grains, oil, stone, wood, and all that is necessary for the wants of life, or for the construction of the church?  But while they draw these burdens, there is one thing admirable to observe; it is that often when a thousand persons and more are attached to the chariots,—­so great is the difficulty,—­yet they march in such silence that not a murmur is heard, and truly if one did not see the thing with one’s eyes, one might believe that among such a multitude there was hardly a person present.  When they halt on the road, nothing is heard but the confession of sins, and pure and suppliant prayer to God to obtain pardon.  At the voice of the priests who exhort their hearts to peace, they forget all hatred, discord is thrown far aside, debts are remitted, the unity of hearts is established.