CHAPTER V
The grass exhaled an odour of summer; flies buzzed in the air, the sun
shone on the river and warmed the slated roof. Old Mother Simon had
returned to Felicite and was peacefully falling asleep.
The ringing of bells woke her; the people were coming out of church.
Felicite's delirium subsided. By thinking of the procession, she was
able to see it as if she had taken part in it. All the school-
children, the singers and the firemen walked on the sidewalks, while
in the middle of the street came first the custodian of the church
with his halberd, then the beadle with a large cross, the teacher in
charge of the boys and a sister escorting the little girls; three of
the smallest ones, with curly heads, threw rose leaves into the air;
the deacon with outstretched arms conducted the music; and two
incense-bearers turned with each step they took toward the Holy
Sacrament, which was carried by M. le Cure, attired in his handsome
chasuble and walking under a canopy of red velvet supported by four
men. A crowd of people followed, jammed between the walls of the
houses hung with white sheets; at last the procession arrived at the
foot of the hill.
A cold sweat broke out on Felicite's forehead. Mother Simon wiped it
away with a cloth, saying inwardly that some day she would have to go
through the same thing herself.
The murmur of the crowd grew louder, was very distinct for a moment
and then died away. A volley of musketry shook the window-panes. It
was the postilions saluting the Sacrament. Felicite rolled her eyes,
and said as loudly as she could:
"Is he all right?" meaning the parrot.
Her death agony began. A rattle that grew more and more rapid shook
her body. Froth appeared at the corners of her mouth, and her whole
frame trembled. In a little while could be heard the music of the bass
horns, the clear voices of the children and the men's deeper notes. At
intervals all was still, and their shoes sounded like a herd of cattle
passing over the grass.
The clergy appeared in the yard. Mother Simon climbed on a chair to
reach the bull's-eye, and in this manner could see the altar. It was
covered with a lace cloth and draped with green wreaths. In the middle
stood a little frame containing relics; at the corners were two little
orange-trees, and all along the edge were silver candlesticks,
porcelain vases containing sun-flowers, lilies, peonies, and tufts of
hydrangeas. This mount of bright colours descended diagonally from the
first floor to the carpet that covered the sidewalk. Rare objects
arrested one's eye. A golden sugar-bowl was crowned with violets,
earrings set with Alencon stones were displayed on green moss, and two
Chinese screens with their bright landscapes were near by. Loulou,
hidden beneath roses, showed nothing but his blue head which looked
like a piece of lapis-lazuli.
The singers, the canopy-bearers and the children lined up against the
sides of the yard. Slowly the priest ascended the steps and placed his
shining sun on the lace cloth. Everybody knelt. There was deep
silence; and the censers slipping on their chains were swung high in
the air. A blue vapour rose in Felicite's room. She opened her
nostrils and inhaled with a mystic sensuousness; then she closed her
lids. Her lips smiled. The beats of her heart grew fainter and
fainter, and vaguer, like a fountain giving out, like an echo dying
away;--and when she exhaled her last breath, she thought she saw in
the half-opened heavens a gigantic parrot hovering above her head.
