After our interesting visit, we stopped for vespers, which, since the beginning of the War, were sung by the entire congregation; during which time we profited to say our own vespers and compline. We then went to visit M. le Curé de Furnes who, we knew, was stopping at St. Omer, Mother Prioress desiring to have news of her cousin the Dean of Furnes who, we heard, was at Boulogne. We also had the pleasure of saluting M. le Vicaire. On our way, we met some soldiers from Morocco--easily distinguished as Arabs, by their bright blue tunics and long scarlet cloaks, with their big turbans, their blankets thrown round them, and their lovely horses. When we returned to the house, we learned that Lieutenant Stuart-Hayes, who had been so kind to us on the previous evening, had called to see Reverend Mother. He had, likewise, left a message to say that he would try to assist at Benediction in the evening; and afterwards he would come round again. He would be also very grateful if, before his visit, Mother Prioress would make out all that was necessary for our passports. All being finished, we set out for the cathedral once again; for although there were still twenty minutes before Benediction, yet at St. Omer, as nearly everywhere else, the churches, since the beginning of hostilities, were crowded, and those who before never put their foot inside a church were now amongst the most fervent; so, to secure our places, we had to be there in time. The rosary was first said aloud, the priest ascending the pulpit, so as to be better heard by everyone. After the ‘O Salutaris,’ repeated alternately by the choir and congregation, the ‘Miserere’ was sung, the people repeating the first lines between each verse of the Psalm. There was something particularly touching in that cry for mercy which arose from every heart at the thought of the dear ones who, perhaps even at that very moment, were being shot down on the battle-field. But what made the most impression was the hymn sung after Benediction, and which still rings in our ears--that ardent supplication to ‘La bonne Mère!’ ‘Vierge d’espérance, Étends sur nous ton voile; Sauve, sauve la France! Ne l’abandonne pas!’ It was truly a prayer in the real sense of the word, beseeching the Mother of Mercy not to forsake the land she had so many times miraculously saved, and where, but a short while before, had been seen such a wonderful outburst of faith at the Eucharistic Congress of Lourdes--the spot chosen by Our Blessed Lady herself, and where the devotion to the Son had ever been united to that of the Mother. The sound of the grand old organ greatly enhanced the beauty of the singing; and our hearts also mounted to the throne of mercy in behalf of our well-beloved Abbey which we were now leaving so far behind.