Amidst the tears which their pains drew from them, the exasperated and howling sick began to chant the "Ave maris Stella" with a growing clamour in which lamentation finally turned into cries of hope.
Marie had again taken Pierre's hand between her little feverish fingers.
"Oh, _mon Dieu!_" said she, "to think that poor man is dead, and I feared so much that it was I who would die before arriving.

And we are there--there at last!" The priest was trembling with intense emotion.

"It means that you are to be cured, Marie," he replied, "and that I myself shall be cured if you pray for me--" The engine was now whistling in a yet louder key in the depths of the bluish darkness.

They were nearing their destination.

The lights of Lourdes already shone out on the horizon.