ed the
greatest impression on his congregation. The eternal book of the gospel
was then held up to the people. They were summoned to swear to the
observance of the precepts of the Lord, contained in that book.--'We
swear it,' answered the congregation. All their baptismal vows were in
turn repeated, ratified, and confirmed by the congregation, with an
effusion of tears which might have affected the hardest hearts. Their
cries, their tears, and their sobs, were more eloquent than the
addresses of the missionaries. The minister in his chair seemed to
receive the promises and the vows of his parishioners, as Ezra formerly
received those of the people of Israel."

After the consecration of the Avignonese and their children to the
service of the Virgin Mary and the general communion, which followed the
ceremonies last described, the great cross, which now stands near the
cathedral, was carried in procession to the place of its erection, on
the 18th of April. So great a sensation had been excited by the
expectation of this ceremony, and so anxious were all ranks to
participate in it, that "the town," says the narrator, "swarmed like an
ant-hill (fourmilloit) with strangers, the inns and private houses
afforded no more room, and they who could find no quarters, covered the
roads during the whole of the preceding night."

The number of persons employed to assist in the procession amounted to
twenty thousand, including the civil and military authorities, the
monastic establishments, the neighbouring clergy, and a limited number
of inhabitants from each parish. The cross, amounting in weight to three
tons and a half, was supported on a frame constructed so as to admit one
hundred and twenty bearers at once. These were relieved from station to
station by detachments from all ranks and professions, selected from
innumerable claimants, and amounting altogether to two thousand men.
Having thus traversed thirty principal streets, the inhabitants of which
vied with each other in decorating their windows with garlands and
tapestry, the cross was borne to the terrace on the Roche Don, and
erected in sight of more than eighty thousand individuals, who crowded
the hill above, the extensive space of ground adjoining, and the windows
and roofs of the houses. "The whole discourse pronounced on the
occasion," says the narrator, "was as affecting as it was energetic. The
orator at length closed it, by exhorting his audience not to forget the