256 THE STORY OF MY LIFE [1851
" July 31. The heat is still terrific, bnt thinking anything better than the streets, I have been to Thaoii — a scorching walk across the shadeless cornfields. The church ' and valley were the same, but seemed to have lost their charm since I last saw them with my mother. I have my French lesson now in the little carnation-garden on the other side of the street."
"August 1. I have been by the diligence to Notre Dame de la Deliverande, a strange place? fnll of legends. In the little square an image of the Virgin is said to have fallen down from heaven: it was hidden for many years in the earth, and was at length discovered by the scratching of a lamb. Placed in the church, the Virgin every night returned to the place where she was disinterred, and at last the people were obliged to build her a shrine upon the spot. It is an old Norman chapel surrounded by booths of relics, and shouts of ' Achetez done une Sainte Vierge ' resound on all sides. Latterly, to please the fishermen, the worship of the Virgin has been combined with that of St. Nicholas, and they appear on the same medal, &c. When a crew is saved from shipwreck on this coast, it instantly starts in procession, barefoot, to ' La Deliverande,' and all the lame who visit the chapel are declared to go away healed. . . . In a blaze of gold and silver tinsel, surrounded by the bouquets of the faithful and the crutches of the healed, is the image which 'fell down from heaven,' — its mouldering form is arrayed in a silver robe, and, though very old, it looks unlikely to last long. I went on with M. Mehm to Bernidres, where there is a grand old church, to visit a poor Protestant family, the only one in this ultra-Catholic neighbourhood. They had begged the minister to come because one of the sisters was dead, and the whole party collected while he prayed with them, and they wept bitterly. Afterwards we asked where we could get some food. c Chez nous, chez nous,' they exclaimed, and light-neck, or to have them under his nose all worktime. ever >iiicc,"«-r »lrii-«* \\itli fl$»fj»i, hut IPT