And the great reflection ascended to the rock, even to the Basilica, whose spire now shone out, quite white, against the black sky; whilst the hillsides across the Gave were likewise brightened, and displayed the pale fronts of their convents amidst their sombre foliage.
There came yet another moment of uncertainty.

The flaming lake, in which each burning wick was like a little wave, rolled its starry sparkling as though it were about to burst from its bed and flow away in a river.

Then the banners began to oscillate, and soon a regular motion set in.
"Oh! so they won't pass this way!" exclaimed M.de Guersaint in a tone of disappointment.
Pierre, who had informed himself on the matter, thereupon explained that the procession would first of all ascend the serpentine road--constructed at great cost up the hillside--and that it would afterwards pass behind the Basilica, descend by the inclined way on the right hand, and then spread out through the gardens.
"Look!" said he; "you can see the foremost tapers ascending amidst the greenery." Then came an enchanting spectacle.

Little flickering lights detached themselves from the great bed of fire, and began gently rising, without it being possible for one to tell at that distance what connected them with the earth.

They moved upward, looking in the darkness like golden particles of the sun.