been equally glad ever since. I am afraid it is of no use as evidence to
say that until I came to Lourdes I was tired out, body and mind; and
that since my return I have been unusually robust. Yet that is a fact,
and I leave it there.

As I sat there a procession went past to the Grotto, and I walked to
the railings to look at it. I do not know at all what it was all about,
but it was as impressive as all things are in Lourdes. The _miraculés_
came first with their banners--file after file of them--then a number of
prelates, then _brancardiers_ with their shoulder-harness, then nuns,
then more _brancardiers_. I think perhaps they may have been taking a
recent _miraculé_ to give thanks; for when I arrived presently at the
Bureau again, I heard that, after all, several appeared to have been
cured at the procession on the previous day.

I was sitting in the hall of the hotel a few minutes later when I heard
the roar of the _Magnificat_ from the street, and ran out to see what
was forward. As I came to the door, the heart of the procession went by.
A group of _brancardiers_ formed an irregular square, holding cords to
keep back the crowd; and in the middle walked a group of three, followed
by an empty litter. The three were a white-haired man on this side, a
stalwart _brancardier_ on the other, and between them a girl with a
radiant face, singing with all her heart. She had been carried down from
her lodging that morning to the _piscines_; she was returning on her own
feet, by the power of Him who said to the lame man, "Take up thy bed and
go into thy house." I followed them a little way, then I went back to
the hotel.