ce of
the night. The great doors of the church opened.

Those who, having come too late, were obliged to stay outside, saw in the
distance, through the three open doors, a scene of which the tawdry
decorations of our modern operas can give but a faint idea. Devotees and
sinners, intent upon winning the favor of a new saint, lighted thousands
of candles in his honor inside the vast church, and these scintillating
lights gave a magical aspect to the edifice. The black arcades, the
columns with their capitals, the recessed chapels glittering with gold and
silver, the galleries, the Moorish fretwork, the most delicate features of
this delicate carving, were all revealed in the dazzling brightness like
the fantastic figures which are formed in a glowing fire. It was a sea of
light, surmounted at the end of the church by the gilded choir, where the
high altar rose in glory, which rivaled the rising sun. But the
magnificence of the golden lamps, the silver candlesticks, the banners,
the tassels, the saints and the "ex voto" paled before the reliquary in
which Don Juan lay. The body of the blasphemer was resplendent with gems,
flowers, crystals, diamonds, gold, and plumes as white as the wings of a
seraphim; it replaced a picture of Christ on the altar. Around him burned
wax candles, which threw out waves of light. The good Abbot of San Lucas,
clad in his pontifical robes, with his jeweled mitre, his surplice and his
golden crozier reclined, king of the choir, in a large armchair, amid all
his clergy, who were impassive men with silver hair, and who surrounded
him like the confessing saints whom the painters group round the Lord. The
precentor and the dignitaries of the order, decorated with the glittering
insignia of their ecclesiastical vanities, came and went among the clouds
of incense like planets revolving in the firmament.

When the hour of triumph was come the chimes awoke the echoes of the
countryside, and this immense assembly raised its voice to God in the
first cry of praise which begins the "Te Deum."

Sublime exultation! There were voices pure and high, ecstatic women's
voices, blended with the deep sonorous tones of the men, thousands of
voices so powerful that they drowned the organ in spite of the bellowing
of its pipes. The shrill notes of the choir-boys and the powerful rhythm
of the basses inspired pretty thoughts of the combination of childhood and
strength in this delightful concert of human voices blende