"There is no faith left in the earth!..." she said. In such a perilous plight did I behold the fairest and the greatest, the truest and most life-giving of all Powers. "Wake up, sir, the doors are just about to be shut," said a hoarse voice. I turned and beheld the beadle's ugly countenance; the man was shaking me by the arm, and the cathedral lay wrapped in shadows as a man is wrapped in his cloak. "Belief," I said to myself, "is Life! I have just witnessed the funeral of a monarchy, now we must defend the church." PARIS, February 1831.