The Days of a Man 



charming of Provencal poems, the old man's lament 



that while his children had traveled far and wide, 



"i never even to Narbonne and Perpignan, he himself had 



^area's- never gone to Carcassonne ! But I shall not attempt 



sonne" to describe this marvelous walled town above the 



Aude, with its massive gates and watch towers, really 



a city within a fortress. Leaving it reluctantly, we 



now came to picturesque Lourdes in the foothills of 



the Pyrenees on the banks of the swift Gave de Pau, 



and dominated by an ancient castle perched on an 



abrupt cliff. Under a rock on the river bank flows 



out a clear, cold spring; it was there that Bernadette 



Soubirous, a neurotic girl, had in 1858 a vision of the 



Virgin, who appeared in a niche above, a charming 



figure clothed in white with a blue sash. Thus arose 



Our Lady the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, "Notre Dame de 



of Lourdes ]^ our< j /es ^ an( j w j t h time, by dint of judicious adver- 



tising, the spring became famous among the faithful, 



the world over, for its marvelous cures. From every 



part of France the peasantry began to pour, at last 



by hundreds of thousands; ample hotels were built, 



and a multitude of bazaars for the sale of relics and 



mementos. 



On the day of our visit there were present upward 

 of thirty thousand people, mostly from different 

 parts of France one trainload being from Valen- 

 ciennes in the extreme northeast. Many of these had 

 come just for the outing, but to a large percentage 

 The last Lourdes was the last hope. In the huge open stadium, 

 clarion-voiced priests like "yell leaders" in an 

 American football game or a political convention 

 swayed the throng at will: 



Prosternez-vous! agenouillez-vous! 

 Les bras en croix! baissez a terre! 



n 316 



