So he sent a telegram, a curt order to remove the palisade, so as to allow everybody free access to the Grotto.
* I think this view of the matter the right one, for, as all who know the history of the Second Empire are aware, it was about this time that the Emperor began taking great interest in the erection of model dwellings for the working classes, and the plantation and transformation of the sandy wastes of the Landes .-- Trans.
Then came a shout of joy and triumph.

The decree annulling the previous one was read at Lourdes to the sound of drum and trumpet.

The Commissary of Police had to come in person to superintend the removal of the palisade.

He was afterwards transferred elsewhere like the Prefect.* People flocked to Lourdes from all parts, the new _cultus_ was organised at the Grotto, and a cry of joy ascended: God had won the victory! God ?--alas, no! It was human wretchedness which had won the battle, human wretchedness with its eternal need of falsehood, its hunger for the marvellous, its everlasting hope akin to that of some condemned man who, for salvation's sake, surrenders himself into the hands of an invisible Omnipotence, mightier than nature, and alone capable, should it be willing, of annulling nature's laws.

And that which had also conquered was the sovereign compassion of those pastors, the merciful Bishop and merciful Emperor who allowed those big sick children to retain the fetich which consoled some of them and at times even cured others.
* The Prefect was transferred to Grenoble, and curiously enough his new jurisdiction extended over the hills and valleys of La Salette, whither pilgrims likewise flocked to drink, pray, and wash themselves at a miraculous fountain.