A ProcessionAll hearts were moved. God's presence seemed to have come down intothese narrow, gothic streets, decked on every side, and strewn with sandthrough the good offices of the faithful. YOUNG 5In vain might Julien make himself small and foolish, he could not givesatisfaction, he was too different. 'And yet,' he said to himself, 'all theseProfessors are men of great discernment, and picked men, each of themone in a thousand; how is it they do not like my humility?' One aloneseemed to him to be taking advantage of his readiness to believe anything and to appear taken in by everything. This was the abbe Chas-Bernard, Master of Ceremonies at the Cathedral, where, for the last fifteen years, he had been kept in hopes of a Canonry; in the meantime, hetaught sacred eloquence at the Seminary. In the period of his blindness,this class was one of those in which Julien most regularly came out at thetop. The abbe Chas had been led by this to show a partiality for him,and, at the end of his class, would gladly take his arm for a turn in thegarden.

　　'What can his object be?' Julien asked himself. He found withamazement that, for hours on end, the abbe talked to him of the ornaments which the Cathedral possessed. It had seventeen apparelled chasubles, apart from the vestments worn at requiems. They had great hopesof President de Rubempre's widow; this lady, who was ninety years old,had preserved for at least seventy of those years her wedding garmentsof superb Lyons stuffs, figured in gold. 'Just imagine, my friend,' said theabbe Chas coming to a standstill and opening his eyes wide, 'these stuffsstand by themselves, there is so much gold in them. It is common opinion in Besancon that, under the Presidente's will, the treasury of theCathedral will be enriched with more than ten chasubles, not to mention5.As in Chapter 26 I have left this motto in French. It seems, however, to be taken fromArthur Young rather and Edward. C. K. S. M.

　　 four or five copes for the greater feasts. I will go farther,' the abbe Chasadded, lowering his voice. 'I have good reason to think that the Presidente will bequeath to us eight magnificent silver-gilt candlesticks, whichare supposed to have been bought in Italy, by the Duke of Burgundy,Charles the Bold, whose favourite minister was an ancestor of hers.'

　　'But what is this man really aiming at behind all this frippery?' Julienwondered. 'This careful preparation has been going on for an age, andnothing comes of it. He must have singularly little faith in me! He iscleverer than any of the others, whose secret purposes one can see soplainly after a fortnight. I understand, this man's ambition has been intorment for fifteen years.'

　　One evening, in the middle of the armed drill, Julien was sent for bythe abbe Pirard, who said to him:

　　'Tomorrow is the feast of Corpus Christi. M. l'abbe Chas-Bernard requires you to help him to decorate the Cathedral; go and obey.'

　　The abbe Pirard called him back, and added, in a tone of compassion:

　　'It is for you to decide whether you wish to seize the opportunity oftaking a stroll through the town.'

　　'Incedo per ignes,' replied Julien: which is to say, I am treading on dangerous ground.

　　Next morning at daybreak, Julien made his way to the Cathedral,walking with lowered eyes. The sight of the streets and the activitywhich was beginning to pervade the town did him good. On every sidepeople were draping the fronts of their houses for the procession. All thetime that he had spent in the Seminary seemed to him no more than aninstant. His thoughts were at Vergy, and with that charming AmandaBinet, whom he might meet, for her cafe was but little out of his way. Hesaw in the distance the abbe Chas-Bernard, standing by the door of hisbeloved Cathedral; he was a large man with a joyful countenance and anopen air. This morning he was triumphant: 'I have been waiting for you,my dear son,' he called out, as soon as he caught sight of Julien, 'you arewelcome. Our labours this day will be long and hard, let us fortifyourselves with an early breakfast; the other we shall take at ten o'clockduring high mass.'

　　'I desire, Sir,' Julien said to him with an air of gravity, 'not to be leftalone for a moment; kindly observe,' he added, pointing to the clockabove their heads, 'that I have arrived at one minute before five.'

　　 'Ah! So you are afraid of those young rascals at the Seminary! It is tookind of you to give them a thought,' said the abbe Chas; 'is a road anythe worse, because there are thorns in the hedges on either side of it? Thetraveller goes his way and leaves the wicked thorns to wither where theyare. However, we must to work, my dear friend, to work.'

　　The abbe Chas had been right in saying that their labours would behard. There had been a great funeral service in the Cathedral the day before; it had been impossible to make any preparations; they were obliged, therefore, in the course of the morning, to drape each of the gothicpillars which separate the nave from the aisles in a sort of jacket of reddamask which rose to a height of thirty feet. The Bishop had orderedfour decorators from Paris by mail coach, but these gentlemen could notdo everything themselves, and so far from encouraging the awkward efforts of their Bisontine colleagues they increased their awkwardness bylaughing at it.

　　Julien saw that he would have to go up the ladders himself, his agilitystood him in good stead. He undertook to direct the local decorators inperson. The abbe Chas was in ecstasies as he watched him spring fromone ladder to another. When all the pillars were hung with damask, thenext thing was to go and place five enormous bunches of plumes on topof the great baldachino, over the high altar. A richly gilded woodencrown was supported on eight great twisted columns of Italian marble.

　　But, in order to reach the centre of the baldachino, over the tabernacle,one had to step across an old wooden cornice, possibly worm-eaten, andforty feet from the ground.

　　The sight of this perilous ascent had extinguished the gaiety, so brilliant until then, of the Parisian decorators; they looked at it from beneath,discussed it volubly, and did not go up. Julien took possession of thebunches of plumes, and ran up the ladder. He arranged them admirablyupon the ornament in the form of a crown in the centre of the baldachino. As he stepped down from the ladder, the abbe Chas-Bernardtook him in his arms.

　　'Optime!' exclaimed the worthy priest, 'I shall tell Monseigneur of this.'

　　Their ten o'clock breakfast was a merry feast. Never had the abbe Chasseen his church looking so well.

　　'My dear disciple,' he said to Julien, 'my mother used to hire out chairsin this venerable fane, so that I was brought up in this great edifice.

　　Robespierre's Terror ruined us; but, at eight years old, as I then was, Iwas already serving masses in private houses, and their owners gave me my dinner on mass days. No one could fold a chasuble better than I, thegold braid was never broken. Since the restoration of the Faith by Napoleon, it has been my happy lot to take charge of everything in this venerable mother church. On five days in the year, my eyes behold it deckedout with these beautiful ornaments. But never has it been so resplendent,never have the damask strips been so well hung as they are today, havethey clung so to the pillars.'

　　'At last, he is going to tell me his secret,' thought Julien, 'here he is talking to me of himself; he is beginning to expand.' But nothing imprudentwas sai............