ey had planted everywhere forests of humanity that
swallowed up all around them. They came up to the church, they shattered
the door with a push, and threatened to block up the very nave with the
invading scions of their race. Behind them came the beasts; the oxen
that tried to batter down the walls with their horns, the flocks of
asses, goats, and sheep, that dashed against the ruined church like
living waves, while swarms of wood-lice and crickets attacked the
foundations and reduced them to dust with their sawlike teeth. Yet
again, on the other side, there was Desiree's poultry-yard, where the
dunghill reeked with suffocating fumes. Here the big cock, Alexander,
sounded the assault, and the hens loosened the stones with their beaks,
and the rabbits burrowed under the very altars; whilst the pig, too
fat to stir, grunted and waited till all the sacred ornaments should be
reduced to warm ashes in which he might wallow at his ease.

A great roar ascended, and a second assault was delivered. The
villagers, the animals, all that overflowing sea of life assailed the
church with such impetuosity that the rafters bent and curved. This
time a part of the walls tottered and fell down, the ceiling shook,
the woodwork of the windows was carried away, and the grey mist of the
evening streamed in through the frightful gaping breaches. The great
Christ now only clung to His cross by the nail that pierced His left
hand.

A mighty shout hailed the downfall of the block of wall. Yet the church
still stood there firmly, in spite of the injuries it had received. It
offered a stern, silent, unflinching resistance, clutching desperately
to the tiniest stones of its foundations. It seemed as though, to keep
itself from falling, it required only the support of its slenderest
pillar, which, by some miracle of equilibration, held up the gaping
roof. Then Abbe Mouret beheld the rude plants of the plateau, the
dreadful-looking growths that had become hard as iron amidst the
arid rocks, that were knotted like snakes and bossy with muscles, set
themselves to work. The rust-hued lichens gnawed away at the rough
plasterwork like fiery leprosy. Then the thyme-plants thrust their roots
between the bricks like so many iron wedges. The lavenders insinuated
hooked fingers into the loosened stonework, and by slow persistent
efforts tore the blocks asunder. The junipers, the rosemaries, the
prickly holly bushes, climbed higher and battered the walls with