Christian life -- Fiction; Dreams -- Fiction; France -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
That day, when she awoke, Angelique, still alone, had in her great bed
a moment of intense exhaustion, and feared that she would not be able to
get up at all. She attempted to do so, but her knees bent under her;
and in contrast to the brave serenity she had shown for weeks past, a
fearful anguish, the last, perhaps, took utter possession of her. Then,
as in a few minutes Hubertine came into the room, looking unusually
happy, she was surprised to find that she could really walk, for she
certainly did not do so from her own strength, but aid came to her
from the Invisible, and friendly hands sustained and carried her. They
dressed her; she no longer seemed to weigh anything, but was so slight
and frail that her mother was astonished, and laughingly begged her not
to move any more if she did not wish to fly quite away. During all the
time of preparing her toilette, the little fresh house of the Huberts,
so close to the side of the Cathedral, trembled under the great
breath of the Giant, of that which already was humming therein, of the
preparations for the ceremony, the nervous activity of the clergy, and
especially the ringing of the bells, a continuous peal of joy, with
which the old stones were vibrating.
In the upper town, for over an hour there had been a glorious chiming
of bells, as on the greatest holy days. The sun had risen in all its
beauty, and on this limpid April morning a flood of spring rays seemed
living with the sonorous peals which had called together all the
inhabitants of the place. The whole of Beaumont was in a state of
rejoicing on account of the marriage of this little embroiderer, to whom
their hearts were so deeply attached, and they were touched by the fact
of her royal good fortune. This bright sunlight, which penetrated all
the streets, was like the golden rain, the gifts of fairy-tales, rolling
out from her delicate hands. Under this joyful light, the multitude
crowded in masses towards the Cathedral, filling the side-aisles of the
church, and coming out on to the Place du Cloître. There the great front
of the building rose up, like a huge bouquet of stone, in full blossom,
of the most ornamental Gothic, above the severe Romanesque of the
foundation. In the tower the bells still rung, and the whole facade
seemed to be like a glorification of these nuptials, expressive of the
flight of this poor girl through all the wonders of the miracle, as
it darted up and flamed, with its open lace-work ornamentations, the
lily-like efflorescence of its little columns, its balustrades, and its
arches, the niches of saints surmounted with canopies, the gable ends
hollowed out in trefoil points, adorned with crossettes and flowers,
immense rose-windows opening out in the mystic radiation of their
mullions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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