and to hear that tale of Him who went
forth to seek the lamb that was lost, was like a tale out of a holy
book, where all was peace and goodness and joy. But on the other side,
not twenty steps off, was the house full of those who wept, and at all
the doors and windows anxious faces gazing down upon that cloud in the
valley where Semur was. A procession of our women was coming back, many
with lingering steps, carrying the baskets which were empty. 'Is there
any news?' we asked, reading their faces before they could answer. And
some shook their heads, and some wept. There was no other reply.

On the last night before our deliverance, suddenly, in the middle of the
night, there was a great commotion in the house. We all rose out of our
beds at the sound of the cry, almost believing that some one at the
window had seen the lifting of the cloud, and rushed together,
frightened, yet all in an eager expectation to hear what it was. It was
in the room where the old Mere Julie slept that the disturbance was.
Mere Julie was one of the market-women of Semur, the one I have
mentioned who was devout, who never missed the _Salut_ in the afternoon,
besides all masses which are obligatory. But there were other matters
in which she had not satisfied my mind, as I have before said. She was
the mother of Jacques Richard, who was a good-for-nothing, as is well
known. At La Clairiere Mere Julie had enacted a strange part. She had
taken no part in anything that was done, but had established herself in
the chamber allotted to her, and taken the best bed in it, where she
kept her place night and day, making the others wait upon her. She had
always expressed a great devotion for St. Jean; and the Sisters of the
Hospital had been very kind to her, and also to her _vaurien_ of a son,
who was indeed, in some manner, the occasion of all our troubles--being
the first who complained of the opening of the chapel into the chief
ward, which was closed up by the administration, and thus became, as I
and many others think, the cause of all the calamities that have come
upon us. It was her bed that was the centre of the great commotion we
had heard, and a dozen voices immediately began to explain to us as we
entered. 'Mere Julie has had a dream. She has seen a vision,' they said.
It was a vision of angels in the most beautiful robes, all shining with
gold and whiteness.

'The dress of the Holy Mother which she wears on the great _fetes_ was
nothing to th