There was a huge indistinct clamour, the distracted clamour of a multitude intoxicated by its ardent faith.

And meantime the refrain of "Ave, ave, ave Maria!" was ever returning, rising, with its frantic, importunate rhythm, above everything else.
All at once Pierre and Marie, to their great surprise, saw M.de Guersaint before them again.

"Ah! my children," he said, "I did not want to linger too long up there, I cut through the procession twice in order to get back to you.

But what a sight, what a sight it is! It is certainly the first beautiful thing that I have seen since I have been here!" Thereupon he began to describe the procession as he had beheld it from the Calvary height.

"Imagine," said he, "another heaven, a heaven down below reflecting that above, a heaven entirely filled by a single immense constellation.