'
wives from abroad: at the houses people welcomed them and brought
chairs to assist them in getting down. All the world looked as
exultingly quiet and glad as a community preparing to receive a hero
who had gone forth from their midst and was returning after a victory.
From the church to the hill-top the road was strewn with flowers and
grass, which sent forth aromatic odors. The squire was seen coming out
of Christian the tailor's house, and only covered his head when he
found himself in the middle of the street. Soges had a new sword,
brightly japanned and glittering in the sun.

The squire's wife soon followed, leading her daughter Barbara, who was
but six years old, by the hand. Barbara was dressed in bridal array.
She wore the veil and the wreath upon her head, and a beautiful gown.
As an immaculate virgin, she was intended to represent the bride of the
young clergyman, the Church.

At the first sound of the bell the people in shirt-sleeves disappeared
as if by magic. They retired to their houses to finish their toilet:
Ivo went on to the church.

Amid the ringing of all the bells, the procession at last issued from
the church-door. The pennons waved, the band of music brought from Horb
struck up, and the audible prayers of the men and women mingled with
the sound. Ivo, with the schoolmaster at his side, took the lead,
carrying the crucifix. On the hill the altar was finely decorated; the
chalices and the lamps and the spangled dresses of the saints flashed
in the sun, and the throng of worshippers covered the common and the
adjoining fields as far as the eye could reach. Ivo hardly took courage
to look at the "gentleman," meaning the young clergyman, who, in his
gold-laced robe, and bare head crowned with a golden wreath, ascended
the steps of the altar with pale and sober mien, bowing low as the
music swelled, and folding his small white hands upon his breast. The
squire's Barbara, who carried a burning taper wreathed with rosemary,
had gone before him and took her stand at the side of the altar. The
mass began; and at the tinkling of the bell all fell upon their faces,
and not a sound would have been heard, had not a flight of pigeons
passed directly over the altar with that fluttering and chirping noise
which always accompanies their motion through the air. For all the
world Ivo would not have looked up just then; for he knew that the Holy
Ghost was descending, to effect the mysterious transubstantiation of