And seated there, in the pale light of the lantern hanging from the wall above him, Pierre little by little raised his voice, so that he might be heard by the whole ward.
"The persecutions began with the very first miracles.

Called a liar and a lunatic, Bernadette was threatened with imprisonment.

Abbe Peyramale, the parish priest of Lourdes, and Monseigneur Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes, like the rest of the clergy, refrained from all intervention, waiting the course of events with the greatest prudence; whilst the civil authorities, the Prefect, the Public Prosecutor, the Mayor, and the Commissary of Police, indulged in excessive anti-religious zeal." Continuing his perusal in this fashion, Pierre saw the real story rise up before him with invincible force.

His mind travelled a short distance backward and he beheld Bernadette at the time of the first apparitions, so candid, so charming in her ignorance and good faith, amidst all her sufferings.

And she was truly the visionary, the saint, her face assuming an expression of superhuman beauty during her crises of ecstasy.