sieur," he replied.

And again the scene rose up before him. He once more saw the two doctors,
so serious and rational, and he once more saw Beauclair smiling, while
his colleagues drew up their certificates, which were identical. And was
he, Pierre, to reduce these certificates to nothing, reveal the other
diagnosis, the one that allowed of the cure being explained
scientifically? The miracle had been predicted, shattered beforehand.

"You will observe, gentlemen," now resumed Dr. Bonamy, "that the presence
of the Abbe gives these proofs additional weight. However, mademoiselle
will now tell us exactly what she felt."

He had leant over Father Dargeles's shoulder to impress upon him that he
must not forget to make Pierre play the part of a witness in the
narrative.

"_Mon Dieu_! gentlemen, how can I tell you?" exclaimed Marie in a halting
voice, broken by her surging happiness. "Since yesterday I had felt
certain that I should be cured. And yet, a little while ago, when the
pins and needles seized me in the legs again, I was afraid it might only
be another attack. For an instant I doubted. Then the feeling stopped.
But it began again as soon as I recommenced praying. Oh! I prayed, I
prayed with all my soul! I ended by surrendering myself like a child.
'Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Lourdes, do with me as thou wilt,' I said.
But the feeling did not cease, it seemed as if my blood were boiling; a
voice cried to me: 'Rise! Rise!' And I felt the miracle fall on me in a
cracking of all my bones, of all my flesh, as if I had been struck by
lightning."

Pierre, very pale, listened to her. Beauclair had positively told him
that the cure would come like a lightning flash, that under the influence
of extreme excitement a sudden awakening of will so long somnolent would
take place within her.

"It was my legs which the Holy Virgin first of all delivered," she
continued. "I could well feel that the iron bands which bound them were
gliding along my skin like broken chains. Then the weight which still
suffocated me, there, in the left side, began to ascend; and I thought I
was going to die, it hurt me so. But it passed my chest, it passed my
throat, and I felt it there in my mouth, and spat it out violently. It
was all over, I no longer had any pain, it had flown away!"

She had made a gesture expressive of the motion of a night bird beating
its wings, and, lapsing into silence, stood smiling at Pierre, who was
bewildered. Bea