bows resting on
the edge of the altar, holding the host with the thumbs and forefingers
of both hands, pronounced over it the words of consecration: _Hoc est
enim corpus meum_. Then having bowed the knee before it, he raised it
slowly as high as his hands could reach, following it upwards with
his eyes, while the kneeling server rang the bell thrice. Then he
consecrated the wine--_Hic est enim calix_--leaning once more upon his
elbows, bowing, raising the cup aloft, his right hand round the stem,
his left holding its base, and his eyes following it aloft. Again the
server rang the bell three times. The great mystery of the Redemption
had once more been repeated, once more had the adorable Blood flowed
forth.

'Just you wait a bit,' growled La Teuse, as she tried to scare away the
sparrows with outstretched fist.

But the sparrows were now fearless. They had come back even while the
bell was ringing, and, unabashed, were fluttering about the benches. The
repeated tinklings even roused them into liveliness, and they answered
back with little chirps which crossed amid the Latin words of prayer,
like the rippling laughs of free urchins. The sun warmed their plumage,
the sweet poverty of the church captivated them. They felt at home
there, as in some barn whose shutters had been left open, and screeched,
fought, and squabbled over the crumbs they found upon the floor. One
flew to perch himself on the smiling Virgin's golden veil; another,
whose daring put the old servant in a towering rage, made a hasty
reconnaissance of La Teuse's skirts. And at the altar, the priest, with
every faculty absorbed, his eyes fixed upon the sacred host, his thumbs
and forefingers joined, did not even hear this invasion of the warm
May morning, this rising flood of sunlight, greenery and birds, which
overflowed even to the foot of the Calvary where doomed nature was
wrestling in the death-throes.

'_Per omnia soecula soeculorum_,' he said.

'Amen,' answered Vincent.

The _Pater_ ended, the priest, holding the host over the chalice,
broke it in the centre. Detaching a particle from one of the halves, he
dropped it into the precious blood, to symbolise the intimate union into
which he was about to enter with God. He said the _Agnus Dei_ aloud,
softly recited the three prescribed prayers, and made his act of
unworthiness, and then with his elbows resting on the altar, and with
the paten beneath his chin, he partook of both portions of the hos