in the
streets and in his heart too at deliverance from death, he marched
along with the arquebusiers beside him, through a cheering crowd
towards the old Halles. There the authority of the law let go its
grip, and he was handed over to the chaplain and the deputies of the
Confrerie St. Romain, who took him to an inner room. There he was
given refreshment, his chains were struck off and wound round one arm,
and he was dressed in fresh clothes.

Meanwhile, after the Cathedral choir had sung a solemn Te Deum, the
great procession of the church had moved out of the Portail des
Libraires, chanting in mighty unison "Christe quem sedes revocant
paternae," down the Rue St. Romain to the western gate of St. Maclou,
where choir-boys met them bearing lighted candles and swinging
incense. And the chaplain brought the prisoner out into the Place de
la Haute Vieille Tour, and leading him up the right-hand steps of the
Chapelle de la Fierte, presented him to the mass of people in front
just before the procession arrived from the Cathedral. So he knelt
bareheaded and kissed the holy shrine which two priests had borne up
to its place; the Archbishop addressed him in the hearing of his
fellow citizens, and before them all he made confession, receiving his
absolution as he raised the shrine of St. Romain thrice by its bars
upon his shoulders, while all the people cried "Noel! Noel!" Then a
confrere de St. Romain put a garland of white flowers upon the
prisoner's head, and holding one end of the shrine himself he gave the
prisoner the other, and all men put themselves in order for the march
back up the Rue de l'Epicerie to the Place de la Calende and so to the
Parvis and the western gate of the Cathedral.

As the first notes of the "Felix Dies Mortalibus" were chanted by the
priests, a hundred and twenty poor orphans moved forward, each
carrying in one hand a wooden cross all wreathed with flowers and in
the other a great loaf of bread. Behind them came the shrines of all
the saints whose churches guarded Rouen, each with the Confrerie over
whose interests they watched; St. Blaise with his wool-merchants, St.
Jean with the orange-sellers, St. Sebastien with the hatters, and many
more; each marching confrere wreathed in flowers, and every shrine
attended with its special banner and its priests and candles. These
were followed by the archers of the Cinquantaine, and the banner of
their great Dragon, who appeared again upon a lofty pole,