CHAPTER V

The grass exhaled an odour of summer; flies buzzed in the air, the sun

shone on the river and warmed the slated roof. Old Mother Simon had

returned to Felicite and was peacefully falling asleep.

The ringing of bells woke her; the people were coming out of church.

Felicite's delirium subsided. By thinking of the procession, she was

able to see it as if she had taken part in it. All the school-

children, the singers and the firemen walked on the sidewalks, while

in the middle of the street came first the custodian of the church

with his halberd, then the beadle with a large cross, the teacher in

charge of the boys and a sister escorting the little girls; three of

the smallest ones, with curly heads, threw rose leaves into the air;

the deacon with outstretched arms conducted the music; and two

incense-bearers turned with each step they took toward the Holy

Sacrament, which was carried by M. le Cure, attired in his handsome

chasuble and walking under a canopy of red velvet supported by four

men. A crowd of people followed, jammed between the walls of the

houses hung with white sheets; at last the procession arrived at the

foot of the hill.

A cold sweat broke out on Felicite's forehead. Mother Simon wiped it

away with a cloth, saying inwardly that some day she would have to go

through the same thing herself.

The murmur of the crowd grew louder, was very distinct for a moment

and then died away. A volley of musketry shook the window-panes. It

was the postilions saluting the Sacrament. Felicite rolled her eyes,

and said as loudly as she could:

"Is he all right?" meaning the parrot.

Her death agony began. A rattle that grew more and more rapid shook

her body. Froth appeared at the corners of her mouth, and her whole

frame trembled. In a little while could be heard the music of the bass

horns, the clear voices of the children and the men's deeper notes. At

intervals all was still, and their shoes sounded like a herd of cattle

passing over the grass.

The clergy appeared in the yard. Mother Simon climbed on a chair to

reach the bull's-eye, and in this manner could see the altar. It was

covered with a lace cloth and draped with green wreaths. In the middle

stood a little frame containing relics; at the corners were two little

orange-trees, and all along the edge were silver candlesticks,

porcelain vases containing sun-flowers, lilies, peonies, and tufts of

hydrangeas. This mount of bright colours descended diagonally from the

first floor to the carpet that covered the sidewalk. Rare objects

arrested one's eye. A golden sugar-bowl was crowned with violets,

earrings set with Alencon stones were displayed on green moss, and two

Chinese screens with their bright landscapes were near by. Loulou,

hidden beneath roses, showed nothing but his blue head which looked

like a piece of lapis-lazuli.

The singers, the canopy-bearers and the children lined up against the

sides of the yard. Slowly the priest ascended the steps and placed his

shining sun on the lace cloth. Everybody knelt. There was deep

silence; and the censers slipping on their chains were swung high in

the air. A blue vapour rose in Felicite's room. She opened her

nostrils and inhaled with a mystic sensuousness; then she closed her

lids. Her lips smiled. The beats of her heart grew fainter and

fainter, and vaguer, like a fountain giving out, like an echo dying

away;--and when she exhaled her last breath, she thought she saw in

the half-opened heavens a gigantic parrot hovering above her head.