Part 24 (1/2)

The lower part of the altar was hollow, and closed in front by a gla.s.s, behind which appeared a shrine in Gothic style, which reflected in its copper gilt mirror the light of the lamps.

The apse opened into a large porch, with three steps in front, on the arms of the cross, which were prolonged into a kind of vestibule serving at once as nave and side aisles to this stumpy church.

The hollowed arms, at their extremities near the doors, held two very small chapels set back in niches painted blue, like the cupola, containing above two stone altars without ornament, two mediocre statues, one of Saint Joseph, the other of Christ.

Lastly, a fourth altar, dedicated to the Virgin, was situated in this vestibule opposite the steps leading to the apse, opposite therefore to the high altar. It was relieved against a window whose lights represented Saint Bernard in white on one hand, and Saint Benedict in black on the other, and it appeared to recede into the church, because of the two ranges of seats which stood on the left and right before the two other little chapels, leaving only room necessary to pa.s.s along the vestibule, or to go in a straight line from this altar of the Virgin in the apse, to the high altar.

”This sanctuary is alarmingly ugly,” said Durtal, who had sat down on a bench in front of the statue of Saint Joseph. ”To judge by the few subjects carved along the walls, this edifice dates from the time of Louis XVI., an abominable date for a church.”

He was disturbed in these thoughts by the sound of bells, and at the same time all the doors were opened; one situated in the apse itself, on the left of the altar, gave pa.s.sage to about half a score monks, wrapped in great white cowls, who spread out into the choir, and occupied the stalls on either side.

Then, by the two doors of the vestibule, came a crowd of brown monks, who knelt at the benches on the two sides of Our Lady's altar.

Durtal had some of them near him; but they bowed their heads, and joined their hands, he dared not observe them; moreover, the vestibule had become almost dark, the light was concentrated in the choir, where the lamps were kindled.

He could make out the faces of the white monks in their stalls in the part of the apse he could see, and among them he recognized Father Etienne on his knees near a short monk; but another at the end of the stalls near the porch, almost opposite the altar, and in full light, attracted him.

He was tall and strong, and looked like an Arab in his white burnous.

Durtal could only see him in profile, and he distinguished a long grey beard, a shaven skull, surrounded by the monastic crown, a high forehead, and a nose like an eagle's beak. He had a grand appearance, with his imperious features, and his fine figure as it swayed under the cowl.

”That is probably the abbot of La Trappe,” thought Durtal, and he felt certain when this monk struck a little bell hidden under the desk before him, and directed the office.

All the monks bowed to the altar; the abbot recited the opening prayers, then there was a pause, and, from the other side of the apse, which Durtal could not see, rose the frail voice of an old man, a voice which had returned to the clear tones of childhood, but was just a little cracked, growing higher as it declaimed the antiphon,

”Deus in adjutorium meum intende.”

And the other side of the choir, that on which were Father Etienne and the abbot, answered, scanning the syllables very slowly, with voices of ba.s.s pitch,--

”Domine ad adjuvandum me festina.”

And all bowed their heads over the folios placed before them, and took up the words,--

”Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.”

And they lifted their heads while the other part of the Fathers p.r.o.nounced the response, ”Sicut erat in principio, etc.”

The office began.

It was not chanted but declaimed, now rapid and now slow. The side of the choir which Durtal saw made all the vowels sharp and short letters; the other, on the contrary, altered them all into long letters and seemed to cap all the Os with a circ.u.mflex accent. It might be said that one side had the p.r.o.nunciation of the South, the other that of the North; thus chanted, the office became strange, and ended by rocking like an incantation, and soothing the soul which fell asleep in the rolling of the verses, interrupted by the recurrent doxology like a refrain after the last verse of each of the psalms.

”Ah well, I cannot understand it,” thought Durtal, who had his Compline at his fingers' ends, ”they are not singing the Roman office at all.”

The fact is that one of the psalms was wanting. He caught indeed, at one moment, the hymn of Saint Ambrose, the ”Te lucis ante terminum,” sung to a simple and rugged tune of the old plain chant, and yet the last stanza was not the same; but he lost himself afresh, and waited for the ”Short Lessons” and the ”Nunc Dimittis” which never came.

”Yet Compline does not vary like Vespers,” he thought, ”I must ask Father Etienne the meaning of this to-morrow.”

Then his reflections were disturbed by a young white monk, who pa.s.sed him, genuflected to the altar, and lighted two tapers.

Suddenly all rose, and with a great shout, the ”Salve Regina” shook the arches.