Hither had been brought the necessary appurtenances for the performance
of mass. A small, but beautifully white cloth was spread upon a flat
portion of the rock; bread was there, and a small quantum of wine; a
little patina and a humble chalice. M. d'Elbee took his place among the
crowd before the altar, and Father Jerome, having dressed himself in his
robes, performed, with a fine, full, sonorous voice, the morning service
of his church. When so occupied, he had no longer the look of the
banished priest: his sacred vestments had not shared the decay which had
fallen on his ordinary clothes. No bishop rising from his throne to
bless the congregation assembled in his cathedral, could assume more
dignity, or inspire more solemnity than the Cure of St. Laud, as he
performed mass at his sylvan altar in La Vendee.
After mass was finished, the priest gave them an extempore discourse on
the necessity of their absolutely submitting themselves to their
teachers, spiritual masters, and pastors; and before he had finished,
he turned their attention to the especial necessity of their obeying the
leaders, now among them, in carrying on the war against the Republic,
and as he concluded, he said:
"I rejoice at all times, my children, that you are an obedient and a
docile people, content to accept the word of God from those whom he has
sent to teach it to you--that you are not a stiff-necked generation,
prone to follow your own vain conceits, or foolish enough to conceive
that your little earthly knowledge can be superior to the wisdom which
comes from above, as others are.
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