he
bears on his shoulders a Child with a round face, as white as the chalk
of a clown, blessing all comers with a smile. The Saint is wading
barefoot through a pool full of little reeds, and imps, and horned
fishes and strange flowers--all represented on a minute scale to
emphasize the mighty stature of the Saint.

"That good friend," thought Durtal, "though venerated by the poor, was
somewhat coldly treated by the Church, for he, with Saint George and
some other martyrs, was among those whose existence remains open to
doubt.

"In Mediaeval times Saint Christopher was invoked for the cure of weakly
children, and also as a protector against blindness and the plague.

"But indeed the Saints were the chief healers of that time. Every
disease which the leeches and apothecaries could not alleviate was
brought to the Saints. Some indeed were reputed specialists, and the
ills they cured were known by their names. The gout was known as Saint
Maurus' evil, leprosy as Job's evil, cancer was Saint Giles', chorea
Saint Guy's, colds were Saint Aventinus' ill, a bloody flux Saint
Fiacre's--and I forget the rest.

"Others again remained noted for delivering sufferers from certain
affections they were reputed to heal: Saint Genevieve for the burning
sickness and ophthalmia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria for headache,
Saint Bartholomew for convulsions, Saint Firmin for cramp, Saint
Benedict for erysipelas and the stone, Saint Lupus for pains in the
stomach, Saint Hubert for madness, Saint Appolina, whose statue,
standing in the chapel of the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges, is
graced by way of _ex votos_ with strings of teeth and wax stumps, for
neuralgia and toothache--and how many more.

"And granting," said Durtal, "that medical science is at this day a
greater delusion than ever, I cannot see why we should not revert to the
specific of prayer and the mystical panaceas of the past. If the
interceding Saints should, in certain cases, refuse to cure us, at any
rate they will make us no worse by a mistaken diagnosis and the
exhibition of dangerous remedies. Though after all, even if our modern
practitioners were not ignoramuses, of what use would that be, since the
medicines they prescribe are adulterated?"

CHAPTER XVI.

The day had come for Durtal to strap his portmanteau and set out with
the Abbe Plomb.

He became fidgety with waiting as the hours went by. At last, unable to
sit still, he went out to kill the tim