THE VISION
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 Félicité and was peacefully falling asleep.
The ringing of bells woke her; the people were coming out of
church. Félicité'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 Curé, 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 Félicité'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.
Félicité 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 mound 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 Alençon
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 Félicité's room. She
opened her nostrils and inhaled it 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.