The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES pupils, Viscount M——. When he left, the rain was falling in such abundance that Eliphas offered his umbrella to the Viscount, who refused it. There followed a contest of politeness, of which the result was that Eliphas went out to see the Viscount home. While they were in the street, the rain stopped, the Viscount found a carriage, and Eliphas, instead of returning to his house, mechanically crossed the Luxembourg, went out by the gate which opens on the Rue d’Enfer, and found himself opposite the Panthéon. A double row of booths, improvised for the Festival of St. Genevieve, indicated to pilgrims the road to St. Etienne- du-Mont. Eliphas, whose heart was sad, and consequently disposed to prayer, followed that way and entered the church. It might have been at that time about four o’clock in the afternoon. The church was full of the faithful, and the office was performed with great concentration, and extraordinary solemnity. The banners of the parishes of the city, and of the suburbs, bore witness to the public veneration for the virgin who saved Paris from famine and invasion. At the bottom of the church, the tomb of St. Geneviéve shone gloriously with light. They were chanting the litanies, and the procession was coming out of the choir. After the cross, accompanied by its acolytes, and followed by the choirboys, came the banner of St. Genevieve; then, walk- ing in double file, came the lady devotees of St. Genevieve, clothed in black, with a white veil on the head, a blue ribbon around the neck, with the medal of the legend, a taper in the hand, surmounted by the little gothic lantern that tradition gives to the images of the saint. For, in the old books, 167