The local clergy speedily endorsed the story of the miracle, and thousands of people still go every year in pilgrimage to a church overlooking the valley, and bathe and drink at a so-called miraculous source.

Two priests of Grenoble, however, Abbe Deleon and Abbe Cartellier, accused a Mlle.

de Lamerliere of having concocted the miracle, and when she took proceedings against them for libel she lost her case .-- Trans.
Thus her childhood ran its course at Bartres.

That which delighted one in this Bernadette, so poor-blooded, so slight of build, was her ecstatic eyes, beautiful visionary eyes, from which dreams soared aloft like birds winging their flight in a pure limpid sky.

Her mouth was large, with lips somewhat thick, expressive of kindliness; her square-shaped head had a straight brow, and was covered with thick black hair, whilst her face would have seemed rather common but for its charming expression of gentle obstinacy.