_Interior of the Church of Ste Frédigonde_]
THOU Who hast made this world so wondrous fair;-- The pomp of clouds; the glory of the sea; Music of water; songbirds' melody; The organ of Thy thunder in the air; Breath of the rose; and beauty everywhere-- Lord, take this stately service done to Thee, The grave enactment of Thy Calvary In jewelled pomp and splendor pictured there!
Lord, take the sounds and sights; the silk and gold; The white and scarlet; take the reverent grace Of ordered step; window and glowing wall-- Prophet and Prelate, holy men of old; And teach us children of the Holy Place Who love Thy Courts, to love Thee best of all. ROBERT HUGH BENSON.
ALL else for which the builders sacrificed, has passed away--all their living interests, and aims, and achievements. We know not for what they labored, and we see no evidence of their reward. Victory, wealth, authority, happiness--all have departed, though bought by many a bitter sacrifice. But of them, and their life and their toil upon the earth, one reward, one evidence, is left to us in those gray heaps of deep-wrought stone. They have taken with them to the grave their powers, their honors, and their errors; but they have left us their adoration.
_Sacristy Steps in the Church of Ste Frédigonde_]
WE spent yesterday in the Forêt de C----. As the Emperor had guests we were not admitted at the Château, but we tramped for long through the woods. The grassy roads run beneath the embowering beeches straight from carrefour to carrefour. The gnarled and twisted trunks give to each tree a personal character and make it a master-piece of Nature. Of a sudden we came on the Imperial hunt winding in gay procession through the forest to its rendezvous. Hunting horns in triple rings of brass encircled the leading horsemen. From time to time we heard from them the familiar strains which echo through the Latin Quarter at Mi-Carême. Then followed in brilliant liveries a troop of lackeys, grooms, and other servants, and the pack of staghounds held in leash but sniffing and yelping. Next came the hunters themselves on high-bred mounts and in court costumes of ancient design. Lastly there were barouches and landaus carrying the ladies of the Court "en grande tenue." The sunlight flickering through the beech branches enlivened this brilliant train as it wound through the forest glades and disappeared down a green allée.